The figures are unequivocal. If just 20% of Spain will have some water filtration system for home consumption, more than 130 million plastic bottles in the environment would be avoided. In fact, only 9% of the plastic we use is recycled and that must be added a determining factor: produce 1 kilo of plastic requires more than 2,000 liters of water. Therefore, it is a virtuous circle: saving water (bottled) also saves water.
“Did you know that In Spain, 30 million plastic bottles are thrown every day? -Alexander Provins, General Manager of Tapwater, the leading water filtering company at home -explains. These may take up to 500 years to decompose, damaging more than 700 marine species. ”
He bottled water consumption in a 3 -people home can generate 274 kg of CO₂ per year. According to Provins, using a water filtering system causes the figure to fall to only 3 kg. But that is not the only problem, we must also mention the availability of drinking water. Given that more than one million people in the world have water problems, is it possible to use this system adapted to give these people water?
“Yes, for this we have developed several alternatives for those who inhabit regions with poor infrastructure or based on contaminated sources.For example, our ultra Fauce Filter, It is certified to remove more than 100 pollutantsincluding viruses, bacteria, heavy metals. I currently live In Sweden and we thought we had very good water to drink, but it has been shown that more than 30% of our supplies had contamination of PFAS (sneaked and polyfluoroalized substances) in the water that is drunk. We believe we have good water quality to drink, but there are things that we don’t see. “
Is it possible to include in the filtering system a reagent that tells us if water contains heavy metals or other pollutants?
“We are working a little on that.We have a project funded by the European Union, we call it Tap-X. Is A prototype with a microchip in a filter to see what water has. This, by Bluetooth connection, allows us to see the consumption of water, the quality, the life time of the filter. The plan is that it is available in one or two years “.
Virus, bacteria, microplastics, are all of different sizes and behave in a different way.So how does the filter work in this regard? Do you have different materials?
“Yeah, Some of our products have eight filter steps and each identifies specific pollutants. For example, we use what we call mechanical filter, where you put different densities in a filter medium that cannot actually go through certain particle sizes. That is the basic filter. We also use processes capable of identifying heavy metals, and some organic compounds, and we remove them by applying a low intensity electrical voltage. Then, of course, we use the combination of organic activated carbon. Finally, we also have in some of our products The technology developed by NASA for water filtering used in space tripsnanofibers that are built in a certain way to attract, especially bacteria and viruses. And eliminates 99.99%”.
The only thing to consider is the temperature: Not all filters are able to operate correctly with a temperature above 30 degrees. At this temperature the filter and its functions are committed.
“That’s right. For these cases we have developed a technology that uses reverse osmosis, which It allows us to use purified hot water at 95º direct from the water purification system. With this, not only water is saved, but also the energy needed to heat it. “