Purer water made possible by Sandia (Labs) advance—A single atom makes a big difference

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2009/waterpurity.html

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July 21, 2009

Purer water made possible by Sandia advance

A single atom makes a big difference

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — By substituting a single atom in a molecule widely used to purify water, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created a far more effective decontaminant with a shelf life superior to products currently on the market.

Sandia has applied for a patent on the material, which removes bacterial, viral and other organic and inorganic contaminants from river water destined for human consumption, and from wastewater treatment plants prior to returning water to the environment.

“Human consumption of ‘challenged’ water is increasing worldwide as preferred supplies become more scarce,” said Sandia principal investigator May Nyman. “Technological advances like this may help solve problems faced by water treatment facilities in both developed and developing countries.”

The study was published in June 2009 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology (a publication of the American Chemical Society) and highlighted in the June 22 edition of Chemical & Engineering News. Sandia is working with a major producer of water treatment chemicals to explore the commercial potential of the compound.

The water-treatment reagent, known as a coagulant, is made by substituting an atom of gallium in the center of an aluminum oxide cluster — itself a commonly used coagulant in water purification, says Nyman.

The substitution isn’t performed atom by atom using nanoscopic tweezers but rather uses a simple chemical process of dissolving aluminum salts in water, gallium salts into a sodium hydroxide solution and then slowly adding the sodium hydroxide solution to the aluminum solution while heating.

“The substitution of a single gallium atom in that compound makes a big difference,” said Nyman. “It greatly improves the stability and effectiveness of the reagent. We’ve done side-by-side tests with a variety of commercially available products. For almost every case, ours performs best under a wide range of conditions.”

Wide-ranging conditions are inevitable, she said, when dealing with a natural water source such as a river. “You get seasonal and even daily fluctuations in pH, temperature, turbidity and water chemistry. And a river in central New Mexico has very different conditions than say, a river in Ohio.”

The Sandia coagulant attracts and binds contaminants so well because it maintains its electrostatic charge more reliably than conventional coagulants made without gallium, itself a harmless addition.

The new material also resists converting to larger, less-reactive aggregates before it is used. This means it maintains a longer shelf life, avoiding the problem faced by related commercially available products that aggregate over time.

“The chemical substitution has been studied by Sandia’s collaborators at the University of California at Davis, but nobody has ever put this knowledge to use in an application such as removing water contaminants like microorganisms,” said Nyman.

The project was conceived and all water treatment studies were performed at Sandia, said Nyman, who worked with Sandia microbiologist Tom Stewart. Transmission electron microscope images of bacteriophages binding to the altered material were achieved at the University of New Mexico. Mass spectroscopy of the alumina clusters in solution was performed at UC Davis.

The work was sponsored by Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research Development office.

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Sandia news media contact: Neal Singer, [e-mail] [phone]

[Mythsaje]

1. This is really good news.

We're really going to need it.

[DJ13]

2. How is that different from this?

Simple elixir called a 'miracle liquid'
Electrolyzed water cleans, degreases -- and treats athlete's foot. The solution is replacing toxic chemicals.

By Marla Dickerson
February 23, 2009

It's a kitchen degreaser. It's a window cleaner. It kills athlete's foot. Oh, and you can drink it.

Sounds like the old "Saturday Night Live" gag for Shimmer, the faux floor polish plugged by Gilda Radner. But the elixir is real. It has been approved by U.S regulators. And it's starting to replace the toxic chemicals Americans use at home and on the job.

The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water -- hardly as catchy as Mr. Clean. But at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, some hotel workers are calling it el liquido milagroso -- the miracle liquid.

That's as good a name as any for a substance that scientists say is powerful enough to kill anthrax spores without harming people or the environment.

Used as a sanitizer for decades in Russia and Japan, it's slowly winning acceptance in the United States. A New York poultry processor uses it to kill salmonella on chicken carcasses. Minnesota grocery clerks spray sticky conveyors in the checkout lanes. Michigan jailers mop with electrolyzed water to keep potentially lethal cleaners out of the hands of inmates.


http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/23/business/fi-magicwater23
Simple elixir called a 'miracle liquid' - Los Angeles Times

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Um because your post is nonsense, while the Sandia Labs people have made a scientific advance

Water purification is important, and a more effective way to do it is big news.

This bar graph shows the efficacy of removing wild-type bacteriophage from Rio Grande water using the all-aluminum coagulant (yellow), the gallium-aluminum coagulant (pink) and a germanium-aluminum coagulant (green). While the gallium-aluminum coagulant is most effective, the germanium-aluminum coagulant is less effective than the all-aluminum coagulant. The gallium makes the active ingredient for binding contaminants more stable and effective, while the germanium, introduced as another variable, was found to make the active ingredient less stable and less effective.

[DJ13]

4. Um because your post is bullshit

Dont tell me, tell the LA Times.

Oh, and its used throughout the world, so tell the rest of the world its bullshit too.:eyes:

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. I simply don't see how your post is relevant

(Although it may not be bullshit.)
http://www.electrolyzercorp.com/company/FAQ.html
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0021979708012915

Sorry, on first blush, it looked like a "dihydrous-oxide" posting. Or perhaps one of the many car gizmos, which promise to use water to boost your gas mileage, by electrolyzing it into hydrogen and oxygen first. (Or, God save us all… "Brown's Gas.")

[DJ13]

6. My post was relevant due to the similarities between the two

Both are water, both sanitize, and both can be drunk because they are essentially purified water.

I was really asking what the difference was between the two processes since they seem to result in the same thing.

(And the one from the Times predates the Sandia version by several years in actual use.)

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. No, they're completely different

The Times article is talking about making a substance using water.
http://www.electrolyzercorp.com/company/FAQ.html

Electrolyzed water is the result of a process known as electrolyzation. Although it seems remarkable, it is fairly simple chemistry. Tap water is passed into two chambers, one with a positive electrical charge, the other with a negative charge. The total charge is between 5 and 10 volts. Saline ions are then introduced into both chambers. In the positively charged chamber, chloride ions are attracted to the positive charge and are converted to HOCL or hypochlorous acid at a Ph of about 2.5. In the negatively charged chamber, sodium ions are attracted to the negative charge and are converted into sodium hydroxide at a Ph of 11.5. The hypochlorous acid is a powerful sanitizer; the sodium hydroxide is a grease cutter and mild detergent.

With Ph's like that, you don't want to drink this stuff.

The Sandia advance is about purifying drinking water.
http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2009/waterpurity.html

…

“Human consumption of ‘challenged’ water is increasing worldwide as preferred supplies become more scarce,” said Sandia principal investigator May Nyman. “Technological advances like this may help solve problems faced by water treatment facilities in both developed and developing countries.”

…

[eppur_se_muova]

9. In other words, it's diluted bleach -- Chlorox.

This process of saline electrolysis -- not "electrolyzation" -- has been in use for a long, long, time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloralkali_process . The only 'discovery' of late is that highly dilute bleach is effective as a mild disinfectant. Of couse, it still suffers the drawback of producing environmentally harmful (some carcinogenic) organochlorine compounds when it reacts with oils, etc.

[bertman]

8. NEWSFLASH!!! Mama Nature made an excellent, proven water purifier millions of years ago.

It's called filtration through the soils. And, not only that, Mama Gaia made huge containers for all of that pure water to be stored in--called aquifers.

But, we human beans started pumping waste and pollutants back into the natural containers because it cost less than cleaning it up topside. Plus, we started sucking those big containers dry, like the short-sighted idjits we are.

Yeah, I know, this is gonna save us all from dehydration and disease. But, the question is: how much will this cost us to use after GE buys it? Or maybe MonSatan?

Please pardon my skepticism, but this sounds too good to be true.

[Wednesdays]

10. K&R

:kick: