Posted on 03/03/2008 6:31:53 PM PST by blam
Hand operated reverse osmosis purifiers are available.
Navy tested some in 1979.
You are correct:
On June 15, 1989, William and Simonne Butler of Florida (USA) were sailing in the Pacific Ocean 1200 miles off Costa Rica on a round-the-world cruise. Suddenly, whales attacked their boat and it began sinking. They quickly made their way to a life raft, throwing whatever they could into it, pushed off and watched their boat sink.
The had nine cans of food, two cans of crackers, a half jar of peanut butter and about 45 liters of fresh water. They also had their Survivor-35, a hand-operated reverse osmosis pump.
Through some very clever design, the pump requires about the same effort as a bicycle pump. It produced enough pure water for the Butlers' daily drinking needs with about one hour of pumping each day.
With their water needs taken care of, they concentrated on catching fish to supplement their food supplies. When they were rescued 66 days later, they had both lost weight, but were in reasonably good health.
The ChemTeam is quite sure the Butlers would agree that reverse osmosis is a good thing!
bflr
$500, now I know why I don’t have one.
Of course I could save up so I can have one of everything before I die.
When I was in water treatment about 20 years ago the cost of the membrane would have made this prohibitive. Has that changed?
Yes, it will need skilled maintenance and upkeep. Hopefully, if there are a bunch of them in nearby localities, they could have a skilled technician doing a circuit of villages
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.