1. Background.
When natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and debris flow occur, the water source is easy to be polluted and the water supply system will be seriously damaged. Moreover, after the disaster, the personnel will be evacuated and resettled in a centralized manner, and the water supply and water quality of the resettlement site are difficult to be guaranteed, which will seriously affect people’s life and post-disaster recovery. Therefore, the treatment and supply of emergency water under the condition of sudden natural disasters are very important.
Emergency water treatment methods mainly include activated carbon adsorption, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, etc. Compared with traditional water treatment processes, reverse osmosis treatment technology can convert polluted water, river water, and seawater into drinking water. At the same time, it has the advantages of high efficiency, good safety, easy control, and good water quality.
The water purification system developed by the NEWater can provide a guarantee for disaster reconstruction and people’s post-disaster life.
2. Advantages of Portable Water Reverse Osmosis System for Emergency.
Traditional treatment methods such as ultrafiltration mainly remove harmful substances such as turbidity, bacteria, and viruses in water, but can not remove heavy metal ions and organics, while reverse osmosis can remove most heavy metals and toxic and harmful organics.
In addition, the RO system can use almost any water source, including rivers, lakes, floods, oceans, or wells. The reverse osmosis equipment is completely packaged to minimize the installation workload on site. At the same time, the spare parts of reverse osmosis are ready-made, allowing rapid maintenance and preparation for the period of high demand. Most importantly, the reverse osmosis system can be customized, and the most suitable system can be selected according to emergency filing in different regions and places. In this way, we can prepare in advance so that we can respond in time and respond professionally and quickly to disasters.
The following will describe the application of reverse osmosis in disaster relief from three portable reverse osmosis emergency water purification system devices.
3. Types of Water Treatment Equipment Used By NEWater for Disaster Relief.
3.1 NEWater Portable RO Drinking Water Machine for Emergency.
At present, drinking water treatment systems can be basically divided into two categories according to the scope of use. One type is a large size and weight of the vehicle-type medium and large capacity purification device for drinking water that can meet the needs of dozens of people, hundreds of people, thousands of people, or even tens of thousands of drinking water. One type is for one person or a few people to use portable drinking water systems.
In the event of a major natural disaster, the site road is often interrupted, water and electricity are cut off, and a large vehicle-mounted emergency drinking water filtration system cannot be quickly transported to the disaster relief site. Small portable water purification devices produce low water, and can not meet the living and drinking water needs of the affected people, and the affected people’s life and drinking water safety problems can not be solved in a timely manner.
In order to provide safe drinking water normally in the case of road obstruction, water, and electricity cuts, this modular portable high-flow emergency drinking water purification device is particularly important.
The specific process is as follows:
- Water Intake Module composed of Water Intake Pump with Water Intake Head → Water Inlet Of Pretreatment Module composed of Composite Filter → Water Inlet of Intermediate Water Storage Module composed of Intermediate Water Tank and First Ultraviolet Sterilizer → Booster Pump Water Inlet of Advanced Treatment Module composed of Booster Pump and Double Filter → Water Production Module composed of Reverse Osmosis Water Production Tank and Second Ultraviolet Sterilization Lamp → Water Inlet of Reverse Osmosis Production Tank of Water Storage Module.
- The second water outlet of the pretreatment module provides washing water, the second water outlet of the intermediate water tank of the intermediate water storage module provides sterilized edible water, and the reverse osmosis water production tank of the produced water storage module provides sterilized direct drinking water.
- The composite filter is composed of a laminated filter, ceramic filter, activated carbon fiber filter, and ultrafiltration filter in series.
- The double filter in the advanced treatment module is composed of a security filter and a reverse osmosis filter connected in series.
- The reverse osmosis filter is a reverse osmosis membrane filter.
- The concentrated water outlet arranged on the reverse osmosis filter is connected with the concentrated water inlet arranged on the intermediate water tank of the intermediate water storage module through a connecting pipe.
- A reverse osmosis membrane device is arranged in the reverse osmosis production water tank.
The portable reverse osmosis drinking water machine adopts a central counterweight and symmetrical placement. The equipment can be assembled at will without external energy, which enhances the portability of the emergency drinking water system, so as to be suitable for vehicle-mounted and submerged drinking water emergency support equipment in various disaster areas.
3.2 NEWater Portable RO High Desalination Rate Emergency Water Purification Device.
The reverse osmosis membrane uses hollow fiber polypropylene membrane material and ultra-low pressure composite reverse osmosis membrane elements for reverse osmosis, it can achieve the same high water flux and high desalination rate as conventional low-pressure membranes under ultra-low working pressure conditions, which is about 61% of the working pressure of conventional low-pressure composite membranes. It provides an emergency drinking water resource for the disaster relief field.
In the chemical cleaning stage, chemical cleaning agents are added to the produced water to soak and rinse the membranes according to the influent water quality of each treatment unit. Since the unit is mainly for emergency water treatment and the influent water quality is characterized by complex and variable contaminant types, the service life of the membranes is 2-3 years, which is lower than 4-5 years in common applications.
The process flow is as follows: Raw Water → Ultrafiltration → Reverse Osmosis → Concentrated Water / Produced Water Tank → Drinking Water. Cleaning: Produced Water Tank → Reverse Osmosis Effluent Tank → Ultrafiltration.
After the influent is pretreated by ultrafiltration, the large particulate matter and high molecular weight organic matter have been basically removed, while the ultra-fine pore diameter of reverse osmosis membrane (less than 0.1nm) can effectively reduce the content of organic matter in the influent, intercept salt substances and have better desalination effect. Reverse osmosis is the most effective method to separate dissolved solids. It can also ensure that the heavy metal ions in the wastewater are basically removed, which greatly ensures the drinking water safety of the affected people.
3.3 NEWater Portable Antibacterial Reverse Osmosis System.
In order to improve the water flux and pollution resistance of portable drinking water systems, NEWater developed and adopted a new high-performance reverse osmosis membrane with good hydrophilicity and antibacterial properties to prepare portable antibacterial RO equipment:
The process flow is as follows: Inlet Pipe → Inlet → Ph Regulating Tank → Outlet → Disinfection Tank → Filtering Device (Coarse Filtering Mechanism → Ultrafiltration Filter → Activated Carbon Filter → Reverse Osmosis Filtering Mechanism).
The reverse osmosis filtration unit is provided with a rotatable casing and a spiral deflector on the outer wall of the casing, which not only intercepts the treated water and increases the contact time between the treated water and the reverse osmosis membrane. Moreover, when the water from the flushing nozzle touches the spiral deflector, the spiral deflector will drive the casing to rotate, which is conducive to the flushing of the reverse osmosis filter membrane.
The membrane surface of the reverse osmosis cartridge combines a hydrophilic coating and an antibacterial layer, which improves the hydrophilicity of the reverse osmosis membrane surface, reduces the charge on the membrane surface, and improves surface smoothness. Therefore, it has a strong resistance to contamination, while improving the long-term stability of the reverse osmosis filter membrane and extending its service life.
NEWater offers three portable drinking water filtration systems: squeeze type, foot pressure type, and manual pumping type. The equipment is designed to meet water quality standards, improve equipment structure, further enhance portability, and reduce production costs.
4. Application Fields of NEWater Portable RO Water Treatment Equipment.
4.1 Flood.
Flood is one of the most common natural disasters in the world. It often occurs in summer. Rainstorms, sudden melting of ice and snow, storm surge, and other conditions can cause a flood, and the degree of disaster is unpredictable. Although there is obvious excess water after a flood, its biggest threat is the impact on public facilities. Most importantly, floods will destroy the normal operation of the water supply system and affect the water quality of the water source.
This will seriously affect people’s water demand and lead to dehydration in severe cases. Therefore, the water must be treated to ensure safe drinking after the flood. NEWater reverse osmosis equipment can effectively remove impurities and bacteria in water. Also, it has high portability and integration, and it can be put into use immediately, which is very important for reducing casualties and post-disaster recovery.
4.2 Earthquake.
More than 5 million earthquakes occur in the world every year, of which about 10 or 20 have caused harm to mankind. There are many reasons for earthquakes, including rock fractures, volcanic eruptions, stratum collapse, underground nuclear explosions, and so on. Earthquakes can cause strong ground vibration and deformation, damage buildings and public facilities, and cause serious casualties and property losses.
The post-earthquake work is very important. If the necessary living support facilities are not restored in time, the progress of disaster relief will be seriously affected and casualties will be increased. Among them, the restoration of drinking water is very important. After the disaster, NEWater reverse osmosis unit uses any river, lake, and groundwater to produce clean and drinkable drinking water. At the same time, NEWater reverse osmosis equipment can be completely packaged, which minimizes the installation workload on-site and it can respond to the disaster in a timely, professional, and rapid manner.
4.3 Typhoons and Tornadoes.
The warm seawater in the area of low sea pressure is the key factor for the formation of typhoons. Tornadoes are caused by wind shear near the ground and significant vertical movement. Both are common natural disasters with strong destructive power, which can destroy public facilities and pollute water sources.
After a disaster, water supply systems are often not restored to operation in a timely manner. It is necessary to invest in an emergency water supply system to ensure that water is available as soon as possible. NEWater reverse osmosis systems have a high degree of flexibility, can use water sources nearby, are small in size, and are highly modular, allowing them to be put into immediate relief and provide security for post-disaster reconstruction.
NEWater has broken through the technical barriers of high-performance membrane product development technology and modular design of emergency safeguard devices and developed water purification products such as portable RO modular emergency drinking water purification devices with low energy consumption and large treatment capacity, portable RO high desalination rate emergency water purification device, portable antibacterial RO membrane system equipment and three-pressure portable reverse osmosis equipment.
On the premise of ensuring the treatment effect and low energy consumption, the portability and stability of the device are enhanced, and the equipment investment and operation cost are low. Under the harsh conditions of no power supply, the daily water treatment scale can reach more than 300 tons, which can be applied to the centralized water supply for emergency rescue.
If you have any needs in disaster relief, just contact NEWater. We will provide professional portable reverse osmosis water purification solutions to work with you to create new water sources and work together for major disaster relief to ensure life safety.