While around 70% of the earth consists of water, only about 2.5% of that is available as drinking water. Water is the most valuable commodity to human life, because without water we cannot survive. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately one billion individuals do not have access to potable water, causing many to get ill and hundreds of thousands to die annually.
The problem is that many communities all over the world lack clean drinking water and although there are many diverse methods of purifying water for drinking water and other uses such as personal hygiene, food preparation, laundry, etc. they are generally too expensive for poorer communities. Another problem is that most of these water-purification tools are also not portable. Many of them also only remove some impurities, leaving many toxins that could still make people ill.
Slingshot Water Purification a Winner
Sometimes the answers to huge problems do not come from intensive research into the problem, but other inventions that innovative people turn into a working solution. This is basically how Dean Kamen came to invent the Slingshot water purification system, a winner for poorer communities.
Dean is an inventor extraordinaire, mostly of medical innovations to solve lifestyle problems. It was his invention of a mini water-distillation unit to provide purified water for home- dialysis units that he had also invented that led to the Slingshot water purification system.
This system, which could have a bigger impact than all of his other inventions combined, can purify water from any water source, including sewage, seawater or chemical waste by means of vapour compression distillation. A single Slingshot can purify in excess of 250,000 litres of water annually.
How the Slingshot Water Purifier Works
The Slingshot water purification system is a simple 1, 2, 3 system that anyone can use, and requires minimal energy to start the first boil, and another bit to power the compressor and pump, which can be supplied by a solar panel:
1. A hose is place in any water source, such as a river, dam, or well. The fluid is drawn into the boiling chamber via a small pump. When the water reaches boiling point it turns to steam and leave behind all pollutants which flow out of the chamber via a separate hose.
2. The steam rises into the compressor, where it is squeezed, which raises the pressure and temperature b another 10 degrees. This high-pressure vapour has a higher boiling point, which allows it to condense back into water.
3. A counter-flow heat exchanger is used to run this superheated water past the incoming flow of water from the source; this process cools the hot water to room temperature and heats the incoming water at the same time. The cooled distilled water is now pure drinking water.
Drinking water is important to all living beings so this system can mean the difference between life and death to millions. A field test was done in Ghana in 2011, where 15 Slingshots provided clean drinking water to five rural schools. There is currently a commitment to place 2,000 Slingshot units around Africa, Asia, and Latin America by the end of this year. This would translate into improving the lives of in excess of 500,000 people annually.
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