News
2010-04-21
New water treatment technology to be tested for removal of pharmaceuticals
The Swedish Environmental Research Institute and the Royal Institute of Technology, both in Stockholm will test a new type of water treatment technology called membrane distillation at the experimental Water Treatment plant Sjöstadsverket in Stockholm.
The technology will be tested for removal of a large range of contaminants, notably pharmaceuticals, in an ongoing research effort.
A full size industrial demo will be delivered by Xzero AB (publ). Xzero, meaning everything to zero, has specialized in developing Ultra Pure Water technology for industry and especially for semiconductor industry which presently has the highest demands on water purity. Pharmaceutical industry and feed water for power plants are second and third in quality standards.
In the future it is believed that also drinking water must be treated to similar high Ultra Pure standards. Reports on Mixture Toxicity in the US and EU has increased awareness that negative synergies of the more than 80 000 man made chemicals that may find their way into drinking water may pose a stealth effect on human health.
US research has found more than 300 man made chemicals in the blood of the umbilical cord of babies and EU research has identified more than 200 chemical compounds in new born babies. More will of course be added as the babies grow.
There is certainly a need to reduce this toxic body burden by removing chemicals from air, food and water. The best way to mitigate is obviously to prevent these chemicals to get into the air, food and water.
However, among them are thousands of pharmaceutical chemicals that – in small quantities – find their way through the human body and the toilet to the sources of drinking water. These substances are difficult to stop from getting into the water. They are, by the nature of their use, designed to be potent in small quantities. And they are not removed by state-of-art water plants. A large amount of pharmaceutical chemicals are also added from gels and ointments in the shower and laundry.
Read more:
The Stockholm research water utility
The Swedish Environmental Research Institute
The Energy Department at the Royal Institute of Technology
More information: Miriam Åslin + 46 8 660 39 64
2009-08-10
Xzero has during the spring and summer changed manufacturer from UFAB to Makoro AB. The crossing went smoothly and Makoro has already build modules that were delivered to Spain ordered by Scarab. Scarab is there involved in the Medesol project (for more information www.scarab.se).
Xzero has now three test unit that are running one in Saudi Arabia for RO brine, in Spain desalination with solar power and one at The Royal Institute in Stockholm for energy consumption.
We have after the summer got several inquiries on our technology and two interesting reports have been released. See ERPI and WQRA reports under articles and reports).