How the Aquafilters Work
The filtration in both the Aquafilter Community and Aquafilter Family is performed by hollow fibre membranes. These are small tubes in which water flows both through their centres and through their porous walls. The porous walls have very small holes, 0.00002 millimetres in diameter, which allow water to pass, but hold back bacteria and viruses. Aquafilters have mesh pre-filters to hold back larger particles of dirt and a main filter of hollow fibre membranes.
When the integrated hand pump is operated, dirty water is drawn up through the centres of the fibre membranes and back down again, continually washing out the fibres, while clean water comes through the walls to the outlets. In addition, the filters have systems to flush clean water in reverse, back through the walls to clean them out. This takes away the accumulated substances removed from the water. It is also possible that biological growth can block the tube walls, and as a precaution, cleaning tablets are supplied with each unit.
Aquafilters are unique in being portable self-contained units with a high flow rate and built-in cleaning functions. They are tailored to the needs of people who lack clean water and they have from the start been tested in Africa, India, and South America.
The first filter deployed has been in operation for four years with no significant deterioration in performance. It is not yet known for how many years a filter will last, as the trials demonstrate that filters continue to operate successfully.
Water Quality Testing
All Aquafilters are 100% functionally tested before being ready for despatch. Newcastle University and Northumbrian Water Scientific Services test our Aquafilters for bacteriological safety. For testing purposes, a water sample is heavily contaminated with e-coli and used to test the Aquafilters.
Whilst there is no international standard for water quality from non-piped supplies, test results show that the quality of water exceeds Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards
Aquafilter filtered water: 99.9999999% free from bacteria
The EPA requirement: 99.9999% free from bacteria
This means that Aquafilters supply water that exceeds the EPA Standard by a factor of 1000
To read test results from Newcastle University please click here (PDF)
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