New chemical treatment methods make water safer to drink

Scientists in Lithuania have invented a new, highly effective method for purifying water. It is capable of killing microorganisms and preventing secondary contamination for weeks.

Scientists from Lithuania's Kaunas University of Technology have invented a new way to purify water and keep clean water for months.

Recently, water purification is quite easy. Most tourists who come to strange locations will bring water purifiers with bags and common items like gauze or malaria medicine. What we have not yet achieved is a way to ensure that the water we filtered today will still be available tomorrow, or next week. That's because new bacteria can come into contact with filtered water and re-contaminate the water, as scientists call 'secondary contamination'.

This new method can purify water and keep clean water for months.

Lithuania's research team sought to solve the problem, and early tests showed that their method was so effective that it could kill bacteria for more than three months. They did not disclose details of the study method but explained the results, and the researchers observed that the bacteria did not produce in the drinking water left open after applying water purification techniques, and released shows that filtered water has no odor or taste different from standard tap water.

Their measures are not only successful but also operate using a very small amount of active ingredients, in this case silver.

Silver was used to purify water from Ancient Rome. However, there are long-term concerns about its potential toxicity when consumed in large quantities, as outlined in a 2014 document review published by the World Health Organization (WHO). In particular, silver is also known to be very dangerous to the liver.

Some domestic water purification systems use silver, but the research team wants to make their technology available in tablets and liquids, so that it can be used in difficult situations like military operations. the. Because these methods are designed to mix with water, the level of active ingredients is extremely important.

This technique has now been patented, with an industrially used prototype ready to be applied. Although the treatment method is still in its infancy, researchers believe their method has the potential to be so profitable that it could soon be expanded and applied in the bottled water industry.