Zeta Rod Blog

US Marine Corps and US ARMY Engineers Deliver Potable Water to Flash Flood Victims in the Philippines.

After the flash floods of December 16th destroyed water pipelines, the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in the Philippines, have had limited access to potable water. The US Marine Corps loaned the portable Reverse Osmosis Machines and the US ARMY with the Armed Forces of the Philippines installed the machines and begun to deliver potable water immediately.  Download Aspen Water Systems Assist Philippine Typhoon Victims Dec 2011 2

The portable RO machines are manufactured by Aspen Water Inc (www.aspenwater.com). These units are designed to withstand the most rugged environments found in the field and can be easily deployed and adapted to any type of conditions found in disaster areas or the battlefield.

Zeta Rod Systems are one of the components built into these rugged units as part of the pretreatment process to prevent membrane fouling. As described in the Aspen Water website, the Electronic Pre-treatment Module "aids in keeping the impurities from attaching to the membrane surface, greatly reducing biological growth and mineral scale."

Zeta Rod® fouling prevention technology integral to ASPEN mobile reverse osmosis water purification systems

ZAMBOTIMES

Sunday, July 17. 2011

WESCOM fights cholera with newest water purification machine
by 6CRGAFP/RVC-PIA9 BaSulTa

ISABELA CITY, Basilan (Philippines)— The Western Command (WESCOM), has deployed its newest water purification machine to barangay Culandanum in the municipality of Bataraza in Palawan to help its residents recover from the tragic cholera outbreak that struck the village, last March that left at least 27 persons dead.

The 6th Civil Relations Group of the AFP said in a statement the project was implemented in partnership with the National Development Support Command (NADESCOM) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Marine Forces in the Pacific (MARFORPAC) of the United States of America to prevent another occurrence of the calamitous incident.

The water purification system brought by the WESCOM and NADESCOM personnel headed by 1Lt Dennis S. Martinez is being used to decontaminate water from the sources found in Bgy Culandanum so that its residents may have safe drinking water.

With the assistance of elements of the 12th Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT-12), WESCOM and NADESCOM have been distributing purified drinking water to the residents of the cholera-afflicted village for two weeks already.

They are using the machine to decontaminate water from the water cistern located at the Barangay Hall of Culandanum. Commercial jerry cans are used to distribute the purified water to approximately 1,200 households living in the barangay.

Barangay chairman Joel Pundales said the water purification system was a big help to the crisis they are facing. According to him, tests conducted revealed that almost all of the water from the sources found in their village is contaminated.

On April 1 this year, barangay Culandanum has declared a state of calamity after 27 persons were reported to have died from cholera in under a month. Seven of the victims, according to the barangay chairman, have succumbed to the disease a few minutes after each other.

This month, the barangay health office of Culandanum has received four cholera-related cases. On July 6, another patient from Sitio Linao of Bgy Culandanum was reported to have died from the illness.

Pundales lamented the absence of a safe source, potable water in their barangay. To counter the problem, the barangay has distributed water purification tablet to the households, but this, according to the barangay chairman, is temporary and limited.

In response to the situation, WESCOM, in coordination with the NADESCOM, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) and the local government of Bataraza and its Rural Health Unit (RHU), sent trained operators of the water purification machine, known as ASPEN 2000DM, to Bgy Culandanum to provide safe drinking water to its populace.

The machine, which utilizes reverse osmosis technology, boasts of being the most compact, versatile, full-featured, computer-controlled, energy efficient, mobile reverse osmosis system available today.

It is capable of freshwater and seawater purification and can produce 2000 gallons per day of clean, potable water when using freshwater sources and 1800 gallons of the same when using salt water.

It was donated to the AFP by the United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) at the conclusion of the most recent Balikatan Exercises between the US and the Philippine armed forces.

The machine was initially deployed to Culandanum for 30 days and or until it is needed.

Selected personnel of the MBLT-12 are also undergoing training on operating the machine so that they may be able to operate the equipment by themselves when NADESCOM personnel go back to Manila.

 

Reverse Osmosis: "Will the Zeta Rod Replace my RO?"

This is a question that we get quite often, especially from home owners who are considering the use of a Zeta Rod to treat the water in their home.

The short answer is: "depends".

Before we go into more detail to the answer, we should look at how an RO system is and how it works.

First the definition of osmosis: movement of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane into a solution of higher solute concentration that tends to equalize the concentration of solute on both sides of the membrane.

Basically what this means is that nature will find a way to move systems that are out of equilibrium, into equilibrium. Osmosis is one of such ways. In nature the wall of a cell can act as a semi-permeable membrane (a semi permeable membrane is one that will allow the passage of water only). When the concentration of salts (the solute) is higher inside the cell than in the environment surrounding the cell, the difference in concentration (osmotic pressure) will cause solvent (water) to pass through the cell's wall and in this way balance the amount of salts within the cell to its environment.

Osmosis is a little counterintuitive. Another example would be this: consider that you have two columns of water separated by a semipermeable membrane (fig 1). Column A has water with a low salt concentration and column B has water in it with a high salt concentration. At the initial time both columns have the same amount of water. 

 

After a period of time, water from column A will permeate through the membrane to column B in order to try to balance the concentration of solute in the water. Once the solutions have reached equilibrium, the difference in height will determine the osmotic pressure.

If at this time you're thinking: "hold on a minute, this seems to be backwards fro what my RO unit does!". You are correct, this is osmosis, what your RO unit does is reverse osmosis.

If we go back to the initial drawing, but this time we apply pressure, through a piston for example, to column B. We would have to apply a pressure equal or larger to the osmotic pressure of the solution to force water from Column B to Column A. And what we would have in Column A is known as the permeate, which is very high purity water. The left over in Column B is referred to as  concentrate.

So a reverse osmosis system forces the water that has a high concentration of salts across a semi-permeable membrane by applying enough force to overcome the osmotic pressure of the water. Every RO unit will have a permeate, in your home application this will be the drinking water, and a concentrate, in your home this will be the water that goes to the drain.

RO units produce very high quality water, it removes practically all salts and any pollutant that may be in the water.

The primary problem with RO units is membrane fouling. The membranes are prone to mineral scaling and biofouling (bacteria). As the membrane fouls the efficiency of the RO diminishes until it gets to the point where replacing the membrane, or cleaning it is necessary.

The Zeta Rod is an excellent pretreatment option for RO units, for it will prevent the membranes from fouling, thus extending the life of your RO membranes, and reducing the cost of maintaining and operating the RO unit.

SO, going back to the original question of the post, It depends on what function is the RO unit performing.

If you have an RO unit because you have a private well and there may be some contaminants in the water, then the RO should stay and the Zeta Rod will be of great help to the unit by keeping the membranes from fouling.

However, if you have an RO unit just to prevent scaling in your dishes, sink, faucets, etc. Then the Zeta Rod can be a suitable replacement for the system.

Zeta Corporation has treated RO units ranging in size from small under the sink units to large municipal plants. This Case Study shows the benefits that the Zeta Rod provided to a Pepsi Cola bottling plant's RO unit. 

So if you have an RO unit at home, installing a Zeta Rod system will greatly benefit your RO operation and help you with scaling issues in the rest of your home.

For any questions or comments, please contact Zeta Corporation at 888-785-9660, or by email to info@zetacorp.com.