Record oil prices are making headlines for weeks. But water is even more precious, because it is essential for our lives -- at least when it's drinkable. This means it has to be disinfected and purified. And traditional methods, such as the use of chlorine, are showing up their limits. But, according to IsraCast, an Israeli start-up company, Atlantium, has developed a new laser-based water disinfecting system. Unlike chlorine, which can kill bacteria but can produce carcinogenic by-products, this technology "uses ultra violet (UV) light to disinfect water and is 10,000 more effective then existing techniques." In fact, this system doesn't kill bacteria and viruses, but invalidates their DNA, preventing them to reproduce. This has another beneficial effect because the presence of these infertile bacteria can boost the human immune system. Read more...
Here is how Iddo Genuth, from IsraCast, introduces this revolutionary UV device.
An Israeli company developed a new technology for water disinfection. It uses ultra violet (UV) light to disinfect water and is 10,000 more effective then existing techniques. With impending regulatory changes in the U.S. and other countries, the move from chemical disinfectants to green non-toxic advanced disinfection solutions can improve the safety of the water while reducing its cost. The new system is also strong enough to kill the kind of biological agents bio-terrorists might use inside water reservoirs.
Please read his whole article for a full background, but here is another excerpt describing how the technology works.
Atlantium developed an entirely new UV system that puts an advanced UV source outside the flow of the water. In order to achieve effective inactivation the Atlantium system uses a quartz tube as its reactor and bombards the flowing water with homogeneous dosages of UV radiation. Using the same principle as fiber optic technology, quartz walls of the tube reflect the UV light so it reaches every drop of water effectively. This method actively eliminates all of the drawbacks of existing UV technology.
By taking the UV source out of the water and projecting it into the quartz chamber, Atlantium's engineers are able to supply homogeneous distribution of the UV rays, eliminate the local heating and thus the scale and fouling, as well as the need for brushes to clean the chamber. Controlling the temperature of the external UV lamp (not possible when the lamp is in the water) helps control the power needed by the light source and reduce operating and maintenance costs.
Atlantium has already several customers and below is a photo of one of its industrial installation, which can disinfect 5 to 200 cubic meters per hour, such as the one at Tnuva, Israel's biggest food company (Credit: Atlantium).
In a previous article, Reuters wrote that the global disinfectant market for water is about $5 billion per year and that Atlantium intends to grab some of this money.
Three Atlantium units have been installed at Tnuva, Israel's biggest food company, and the system is in various stages of testing at Nestle, Danone and Coca-Cola. [And the company] expects sales of $1 million in 2005, $7 million in 2006 and $20 million in 2007, when it expects to become profitable.
But Atlantium could be purchased by one of the major players in the water treatment sector before becoming profitable. According to Reuters, Siemens might be interested.
[Last year, Siemens] bought USFilter for $993 million. USFilter became part of Siemens's $4 billion Industrial Solutions and Services group as a "water technologies" division.
"Water is definitely a very interesting segment," said Oren Ahronson, the head of Siemens in Israel. "I don't think we've made our last move," he said.
My personal conclusion is that this new technology looks very promising: it is apparently environmental-friendly and not too expensive to deploy and maintain. We all need clean water, and this company can bring this to the whole world.
Sources: Iddo Genuth, IsraCast, August 24, 2005; and various web sites
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
And remember that comments are no longer accepted here because of a vandal. If you want to tell me something about this post, please go to the bottom right of this page and send me an e-mail.
6:58:34 PM
Permalink
|
|
