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A whole different way of looking at water purification
04:02 a.m. EST Jan 12, 2004
Hydration during trips and expeditions is a must. It’s been forever engrained in our heads to drink, drink, drink, because after all, “a happy mountaineer will always pee clear!” The Russians don’t believe in this one that much though, they just drink when they get thirsty, and take an occasional swig of vodka to help with acclimatization. That’s another story for another time though.
A pain in the neck
The problem is, water is a pain in the neck to make, and furthermore, it often tastes horrible. In places like the Himalayas, everything has to be treated - either with a pump, or some tablets.
Proven, yet not perfect
The pump takes forever, can get clogged, and is tedious. Iodine tablets are light, but it’s over an hour before you can drink the treated water and it tastes so bad that after the trip you never want to drink water again. Granted, both systems are proven effective and reliable. There are some other tablet systems out there that don’t have the bad taste, but they’re not as easy to come by, at least here in the states.
Something new
At the Banff Mountain Film festival a couple months ago, an ExplorersWeb correspondent came across a brand new device that looked at first like a flashlight. At second glance, there was no bulb or lens. Turned out this baton-shaped device was a brand new water purifier from the crew over at MSR – the Miox purifier. In the package came some test strips, rock salt, and batteries? Sounds crazy, huh?
Batteries in a water purifier?
In essence, you insert the batteries in the baton, as you would a flashlight, and then fill the cap of the device with rock salt. Next you take your bottle of water that needs to be treated, pour a bit of it into the baton, close the cap, and shake the whole thing so the water mixes with the salt. It gets stranger – then you open the cap and press this button on the side of the baton. This sends a charge (remember the batteries) into the brine solution (salt water), and you see some bubbles emerge from the top. Then you pour the solution back into your water bottle, shake, and wait 15 min. (more time for sketchy water) The cool thing is that you can treat 4 liters of water at a time and taste is supposed to be great.
We wanted to find out more about this new product, so ExplorersWeb managed to get a hold of Lisa Lange, a ‘Clean Water Product Specialist’ at MSR/Cascade Designs.
ExWeb: Hi Lisa, can you tell us a little about your background?
Lisa L: I have a BS in Zoology form Louisiana State University. I have been working as a microbiologist for 10 years. For five of those years I worked at Alpharma, a pharmaceutical company, in their aquatic health division, which produced fish vaccines. The other five I spent setting up and running the microbiology lab here at Cascade Designs where we have bacterial and viral testing capabilities. This March I accepted a promotion from Microbiologist to Clean Water Product Specialist.
ExWeb: How did the MSR Miox purifier come about - it's a complete deviation from the traditional drops or pumps that are out there?
Lisa L: The MSR MIOX purifier was modeled after a high-tech municipal water treatment system. Most new technology comes from miniaturizing components of municipal treatment systems.
ExWeb: Does the purifier have a broader application than outdoor recreation - like home use, industrial, etc. . .?
Lisa L: The MSR MIOX purifier was developed for the military who are our number one customers for this product right now. I believe that the MIOX purifier is an essential product to have in a survival kit. It has a 10-year shelf life due to the lithium batteries.
When or if a disaster hits and your water is compromised, fill up your bath tub with the water and or collect it from a nearby lake, river or stream and dose it with the MIOX purifier. Since it has a 4-liter dose option, it is much easier to treat large volumes of water than by pumping through a filter or boiling.
ExWeb: Creating that dose is a process where the water is mixed with salt, a brine solution is created, and then receives an electrical charge from those lithium batteries. What happens when the brine solution gets that charge?
Lisa L: Electrolysis breaks the chemical bonds and stimulates chemical reactions creating primarily chlorine. The bubbles you see while the purifier is operating are hydrogen ions being freed. Based on microbiological testing, it is likely that other chloroxygen compounds more potent than chlorine are also being created.
With current technology, we have been unable to identify these other compounds therefore; we can only claim that we make a strong chlorine/hypochlorous acid solution. We know however, that it is more than that because the MIOX solution does effectively inactivate Cryptosporidium and chlorine does not, even after days of exposure
ExWeb: You were saying the system was developed for the military, how have they liked it?
Lisa L: The military has been pleased with MSR MIOX purifier. In fact, by the end of the year we will have shipped over 7000 MSR MIOX purifiers to the Marine Corps and Special Forces.
ExWeb: What's the reception been thus far towards the product on the civilian level – sometimes products that are new and so different like this can be viewed with some initial skepticism?
Lisa L: The reception has been amazing. Once you explain the technology and that it comes from municipal treatment systems used to treat tap water any skepticism disappears. People seem to be very excited about the innovation and compact size.
The only hurtle we are still working on it the usage. It is not intuitive and the best way to instruct is to show a person how to use it. After seeing it there is no problem. However, trying to depict this in written instructions has been challenging. Currently we are working on a revision to the written instructions and a video to put on our web site to help users more easily learn how to operation the MSR MIOX purifier.
ExWeb: So Lisa, if you were to go out into the wilderness, is this only system that you'd take?
Lisa L: That depends on the situation. If I were trying to minimize weight, treat large quantities of water without pumping my arm off, or wanted to show my friends technological innovation in the works, the MSR MIOX purifier would be my first choice.
If I wasn't as concerned with weight, were treating smaller volumes of water, and I was in the deep backcountry where viruses are not a concern, I might bring a MiniWorks or SweetWater water filter instead for instant gratification.
Finally, if I were in a developing country with a very contaminated source I would probably have both so that I could treat first with the MIOX wait 15 minutes and then do a secondary clean up with a filter. This double whammy approach is excellent for challenging water sources and reduces the wait time of chemical only treatment.
ExWeb: Would there be any reason to use a pump or drops over the MSR/Miox system, is there ever a situation that you'd not want to use the MSR/Miox system?
Lisa L: There are few reasons some would choose to use a filter over chemical only treatments. A filter will give almost instant gratification assuming you are using a source that is not contaminated with viruses. Chemical only treatments require a dwell time to inactivate the pathogens.
A filter strains out organics, algae and particulate matter and reducing tastes and odors (if it has a carbon stage) as well as taking out the protozoan parasites and bacteria. Chemical only treatments will not remove anything from the water. Also, some people are sensitive to chemical treatments and choose to use a filter alone or after chemical treatment dwell times to remove any residual that may remain.
The main reason why someone would choose disinfectant drops or tablets over the MSR MIOX purifier is cost. A couple of things to keep in mind, the MSR MIOX purifier has a longer shelf life than disinfectant drops or tablets because you are making a fresh solution each dose. Also, if you are an active user after 200 Liters of operation or one set of lithium batteries you will break even with the use of tablets and then MSR MIOX purifier will start paying for itself. Finally, not all disinfectant drops or tablets will inactivate Cryptosporidium, a chemically resistant protozoan parasite.
ExWeb: The package includes test strips, to check if the water is ok to drink afterwards. Never seen those included with other purification products - are those really necessary?
Lisa L: Each water source has a different background demand. Most sources require only one dose of the MIOX juice, but some highly contaminated sources will require two doses. We recommend using the strips to do an initial check on a water source.
This will tell you if you need one of two doses. After that only a bad weather event would initiate further test striping, for example a heavy rainstorm or a stampede of water buffalos running through the water source. There is also an overkill option that can be used if the user does not want to use the strips or is out of them. However, to minimize chemical consumption and optimize the taste of the water we recommend using the test strips to tailor the dosage to your water source.
ExWeb: Now that the MIOX purifier is out on the market, what type of stuff are you working on right now?
Lisa L: Mostly right now I am continuing to work supporting the MSR MIOX purifier. Some future projects are focused on innovations in filtration and desalinization, but are some time out.
ExWeb: When might we be able to see that on the shelf?
Lisa L: Unfortunately, there are too many variables to predict introduction at this time.
ExWeb: Well, thanks a lot for your time Lisa!
Image of a Miox purifier courtesy of MSRcorp.com.
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