4 ms·

Is there a way to break them down? Let's say I have X liters of contaminated water I want to drink, how can I clean it, preferably without expensive or difficul

Is there a way to break them down? Let's say I have X liters of contaminated water I want to drink, how can I clean it, preferably without expensive or difficult to obtain equipment?

voisin 6y ago
Distillation?
- dennis_jeeves 6y ago
  Yep, that is the right answer. Some volatile compounds may get through though.
hammock 6y ago
RO removes most of it. Cannot really be broken down easily, that's part of the problem.
mrfusion 6y ago
I think Brita and such can filter it out. Seemed like it last time I researched?
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  Not sure if studies have been done on Brita itself, but yes, granulated/powdered activated charcoal is very effective at adsorbing it.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  there are a lot of frustrating tradeoffs with these kinds of filter pitchers. they can remove a lot of nasty solutes, but they can also introduce bacteria. here's a study that found that brita-filtered water contained more bacteria than the tap water only a week into the filter's service life: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8740859/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8740859/ I used to be a religious brita user, but now I just stick to tap. hard to assess the relative risk, but it's cheaper than buying filters.
  - nerdponx 6y ago
    Does this change if the pitcher is stored in the refrigerator versus on a countertop?
    - leetcrew 6y ago
      I didn't read past the abstract, but yes, they found that the bacteria count was also higher when stored in the fridge. presumably by less than the room temperature pitcher.
  - hammock 6y ago
    Undersink RO is not that difficult these days, and might be a good solution for you. I use Zerowater and I can tell when it gets a slight smell (bacteria I assume) , I just change the filter at that point even if it hasn't been ~3 months.
  - indecisive_user 6y ago
    Eh, drinking water with bacteria is plenty natural. Water with synthetic PFAS or lead, not so much. Unless the bacteria is actively causing harm or a variety known to be harmful to humans I'd still rather take my chances with the filters.
    - leetcrew 6y ago
      > In some cases colony counts in the filtered water were 10,000 times those in tap water. like I said, hard for me to do a good comparison of the relative risk, but that sounds pretty bad too. some bacteria is normal, but this is like drinking from a stream vs drinking from standing water.
  - trophycase 6y ago
    I always noticed that when I used the brita filters I would get stomach aches. This explains why perhaps
yabones 6y ago
It's not extremely clear, but it seems like the most effective way to remove PFAS from water is to essentially electrolyze it. > The electrochemical oxidation system used boron-doped diamond electrodes, in a process breaking down the contaminants’ formidable molecular bonds and cleaning the water while systematically destroying the hazardous compounds It's possible filtration may remove some of it, but this appears to be the only way to completely break it down at commercial scale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances#Remediation_solutions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_subst...
Scoundreller 6y ago
Breaking them down doesn't work that great. It might even oxidize precursors into the bad stuff Here's what works: > The following processes were found to be effective for the removal of PFOS: GAC (up to > 99 percent removal), membrane separation - high pressure membranes such as nanofiltration and reverse osmosis (up to > 99 percent removal), anion exchange (up to > 99 percent removal), and powdered activated carbon (up to 99 percent removal). https://tdb.epa.gov/tdb/contaminant?id=10940 https://tdb.epa.gov/tdb/contaminant?id=10940 Distillation is also said to work since these nasties have very high boilings points. Just don't run out of water in your distiller and let the temps get really high.
- sizzle 6y ago
  Also add back in electrolytes
sizzle 6y ago
Will water distillation work to remove contaminants and impurities?

Is there a way to break them down? Let's say I have X liters of contaminated water I want to drink, how can I clean it, preferably without expensive or difficult to obtain equipment?

voisin 6y ago

Distillation?

dennis_jeeves 6y ago
Yep, that is the right answer. Some volatile compounds may get through though.

hammock 6y ago

RO removes most of it. Cannot really be broken down easily, that's part of the problem.

mrfusion 6y ago

I think Brita and such can filter it out. Seemed like it last time I researched?

Scoundreller 6y ago
Not sure if studies have been done on Brita itself, but yes, granulated/powdered activated charcoal is very effective at adsorbing it.
leetcrew 6y ago
there are a lot of frustrating tradeoffs with these kinds of filter pitchers. they can remove a lot of nasty solutes, but they can also introduce bacteria. here's a study that found that brita-filtered water contained more bacteria than the tap water only a week into the filter's service life: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8740859/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8740859/ I used to be a religious brita user, but now I just stick to tap. hard to assess the relative risk, but it's cheaper than buying filters.
- nerdponx 6y ago
  Does this change if the pitcher is stored in the refrigerator versus on a countertop?
  - leetcrew 6y ago
    I didn't read past the abstract, but yes, they found that the bacteria count was also higher when stored in the fridge. presumably by less than the room temperature pitcher.
- hammock 6y ago
  Undersink RO is not that difficult these days, and might be a good solution for you. I use Zerowater and I can tell when it gets a slight smell (bacteria I assume) , I just change the filter at that point even if it hasn't been ~3 months.
- indecisive_user 6y ago
  Eh, drinking water with bacteria is plenty natural. Water with synthetic PFAS or lead, not so much. Unless the bacteria is actively causing harm or a variety known to be harmful to humans I'd still rather take my chances with the filters.
  - leetcrew 6y ago
    > In some cases colony counts in the filtered water were 10,000 times those in tap water. like I said, hard for me to do a good comparison of the relative risk, but that sounds pretty bad too. some bacteria is normal, but this is like drinking from a stream vs drinking from standing water.
- trophycase 6y ago
  I always noticed that when I used the brita filters I would get stomach aches. This explains why perhaps

yabones 6y ago

It's not extremely clear, but it seems like the most effective way to remove PFAS from water is to essentially electrolyze it. > The electrochemical oxidation system used boron-doped diamond electrodes, in a process breaking down the contaminants’ formidable molecular bonds and cleaning the water while systematically destroying the hazardous compounds It's possible filtration may remove some of it, but this appears to be the only way to completely break it down at commercial scale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances#Remediation_solutions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_subst...

Scoundreller 6y ago

Breaking them down doesn't work that great. It might even oxidize precursors into the bad stuff Here's what works: > The following processes were found to be effective for the removal of PFOS: GAC (up to > 99 percent removal), membrane separation - high pressure membranes such as nanofiltration and reverse osmosis (up to > 99 percent removal), anion exchange (up to > 99 percent removal), and powdered activated carbon (up to 99 percent removal). https://tdb.epa.gov/tdb/contaminant?id=10940 https://tdb.epa.gov/tdb/contaminant?id=10940 Distillation is also said to work since these nasties have very high boilings points. Just don't run out of water in your distiller and let the temps get really high.

sizzle 6y ago
Also add back in electrolytes

sizzle 6y ago

Will water distillation work to remove contaminants and impurities?