Dow Water & Process Solutions (DW&PS) has entered into a collaboration agreement with Ahlstrom Corporation to use the Finnish company’s Disruptor® technology for drinking water applications.
The agreement combines Dow’s marketing, research and manufacturing expertise with Ahlstrom’s innovative nonwoven fiber technology to produce a new set of drinking water purification products that offer excellent pathogen rejection while operating at high flow and low pressure.
The development of Ahlstrom’s electroadsorptive technology started nearly 10 years ago with fundamental research by Fred Tepper of the Argonide Corporation. His early work was partially funded by a grant from NASA for the development of water filters to be used on space exploration vehicles.
In 2006, Ahlstrom became the exclusive licensee of the electroadsorptive technology now known as Disruptor. It is not a mechanical filter medium; instead, it removes many submicron pathogens and inorganic contaminants through electroadhesion and ion exchange (IX).
Dow says that the main benefits are:
· Health and safety: Virtually removes microorganisms that can cause sickness by removing 99.9999% of all bacteria, 99.99% of all viruses and 99.9% of all cysts in a water stream.
· High performance: Operation at a high flow-rate even at low pressure for drinking water applications.
· Sustainable: Suitable for use in areas with no electricity, requires zero chemicals and does not generate waste water.
“This technology can be applied to a number of drinking water applications including under-the-sink purification, post filtration for reverse osmosis (RO), a counter-top or pitcher unit or a unit internal to a refrigerator,” said Snehal Desai, global business director for DW&PS. “The combination of DW&PS capabilities, scale and expertise with Ahlstrom’s Disruptor technology is the right one to expand our product portfolio, which includes RO, IX, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and fine particle filtration.”