Posted on 01/05/2014 1:35:42 PM PST by Carriage Hill
Who needs fancy water purifiers? Try this easy water treatment technique instead, using nothing more than fruit peels and rubbing alcohol.
With more and more eco-conscious people replacing their bottled water intake (and for good reason) with tap water, there is a growing demand for water filtration devices. But you don't need to go out and buy a fancy device to ensure that your tap water is free from pollutants. Researchers with the National University of Singapore have recently discovered a simple do-it-yourself method for filtering water using nothing more than fruit peels and rubbing alcohol, reports Wired.
Researcher Ramakrishna Mallampati originally thought up the method as an easy, cheap way for rural communities in the developing world to purify their water. He found that apple and tomato peels -- two of the most widely consumed fruits in the world -- were remarkably efficient at absorbing a wide variety of harmful pollutants, and that they could be transformed into effective water filters with only minor preparation.
(Excerpt) Read more at mnn.com ...
Ping to fruit peels for water filtration.
If ya will freep mail me yer blog link Bill.... I’d like to read it if ya will allow.
Thanks !
Alas, I don’t have a blog. I’m deprived... heh.
“Note that the method does not remove pathogens from the water”
That’s the important part!
Not sure about this. What about the rubbing alcohol?
I read in the comments that denatured alcohol would be better than rubbing alcohol; I’m not a chemist so I can’t be sure.
I’m not too impressed with the rubbing alcohol, either. That stuff is bad for you. Idiots have died trying to drink it. Most people don’t peel their apples or tomatoes. However, that does lend a bit of credence to an article I linked a few months ago about using cilantro to remove heavy metals. Still, none of these remove the bacterias.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/12/cilantro-more-than-an-herb-it-can-purify-water-too/
An easier way to do this is to take a ladies silk scarf and fold it twice (4 layers thick) and pour the water through that. The silk is fine enough to filter even some single celled organisms. After that you can either boil the water or chemically treat it to remove the other things. This will not remove things dissolved in the water but will remove most dangerous particulates
It only removes pollutants, but I guess it’s better than nothing at all. Pathogens are going to be very small and more complex to remove than pollutants, and require specialized filter systems. I use Berkey and LifeStraw.
Good info; thanks. So my Fruit-of-The-Loom BVDs won’t work all that well, even folded? LOL.
Rubbing alcohol is poisonous. You will go blind.
Denatured alcohol is tainted with methanol (extremely poisonous) or gasoline. I wouldn’t take a chance.
Chemically the isopropanol would form a particular ester with natural acid in the fruit peel. Maybe that is a key to the absorbent property.
This system doesn’t make a filter but rather a sorbent.
Unless you are using unprocessed night soil fertilizer you are better off eating the tomato peels and if your apples require anything beyond washing to make them safe they are too polluted to eat.
Denatured means alcohol which has been rendered unfit for humans consumption but useful for other purposes.
Won’t a drop or two of bleach or boiling do that?
Okay; that makes sense. Thanks.
I want my water direct from the tap. bottled water is crap!
I would think so.
Still wouldn’t take a chance.
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