3 Cool Water Technologies

3 cool technologies that could save the world's water

Moss

On a return flight from Europe several years back, David Knighton, a retired Minneapolis-area surgeon, was reading an article on how injured WWI soldiers who had their wounds staunched with sphagnum moss had a higher survival rate than those that used cotton.

Being a doctor, he figured the moss must have had anti-bacterial property. Research in old medical journals confirmed his theory.

Knighton is now CEO of Creative Water Solutions, which uses a variety of the moss to purify water. In residential swimming pools and spas, the moss is packaged into a sleeve near the filter. It's cleaning properties reduces the need for chemicals, takes the chlorine smell out of the water and extends the life of filtration equipment.

In larger industrial applications, crates of the moss are lowered into the water, where properties from the moss diffuse into the pool. Cleaner water means industries can reuse it several times before having to dump it, reducing water usage by 40%.

Sales at the company are growing 30-40% per year, said Knighton, and the technology is now employed in hundreds of industrial facilities and thousands of residential pools around the country.

"As with any disruptive technology, sales take a while because people just don't believe you," he said.

Chemicals

It may seem counterintuitive to clean water with chemicals.

But Advanced Water Recovery uses chemicals to turn salt water into drinking water, then uses a proprietary process to filer the chemicals back out.

Stone

It seems improbable, but water does pass through stone. And when it does, it's often cleaned of salt or other pollutants.

Nanostone, located outside Minneapolis, uses ceramics -- basically manufactured stone -- to purify water. The ceramics take the place of plastic membranes in traditional water purification technologies, but are much more durable. Here again, the idea is that if water is cleaned, it can be used over and over again in industrial processes.

Using ceramic is not new, but it's traditionally been four or five times more expensive than plastic. Nanostone uses a new honeycomb-like design and materials to make it durable like ceramic but cheap like plastic.

The company was originally based in Germany but relocated to the United States last year after it was acquired by a Chicago private equity firm. Proximity to talented employees was one reason why the Twin Cities region was chosen, said Steve Poirier, Nanostone's chief marketing officer.

No one really knows how the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area became a hotbed of water technology -- perhaps it's all the lakes and rivers to begin with, or the fact that the area's traditional industry -- agriculture -- uses a lot of water.

But there are hundreds of water-based businesses in the state, exporting over $700 million in water technology and employing nearly 16,000 people, according to the state department of economic development.

Source: CNN Money

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