Saturday, July 15, 2017

The ROWPU 3000 Water Treatment System

By Timothy Cox


Perhaps you or people you care about have no access to clean water. Many regions of the world have polluted groundwater, lakes, and rivers; drilling wells may be too hard or expensive for the local peoples. Deserts have few sources, and arctic regions have lots but it's all frozen. Bringing water in from the outside is often the only option, but it is laborious, insufficient, and costly. However, owning a ROWPU 3000 water unit can solve the problem.

The initials stand for 'Reverse Osmosis 3000 (gallons per hour) Water Purification Unit. Reverse osmosis refers to the method of passing liquid through a porous membrane. The membrane allows the liquid to pass through, but its openings are too small for microorganisms, ions and molecules above a certain size, and particles.

The process has been understood since the mid-1700s. However, it was more than 200 years later when universities in California and Florida made desalination using reverse osmosis practical. It took a few more years before the process became commercially viable. In 1977, Cape Coral, Fl, became the first municipality to construct and use a reverse-osmosis treatment plant for its supply. The process is also widely used in industry and in reclaiming rainwater for municipal landscaping in arid regions.

US Army research teams came up with the ROWPU 3000 to sustain troops in the field. The self-contained units are run on power from diesel generators and are mounted on thirty-foot trailers so they can be transported. The output is 60,000 gallons a day from fresh or brackish sources, and 40,000 gallons if they're using saltwater.

Today the various branches of the military have smaller units, capable of an output of from 125 to 1,200 gallons per hour. Some of them are self-propelled. For this reason, some ROWPU 3000 units mounted on thirty-foot trailers are available as army surplus. You can actually buy them online and have them shipped anywhere in the world - according to the internet.

Eskimos have lots of seawater; as long as the air temperature is no lower than -25F and they can cut a hole in the ice, the ROWPU 3000 will work. People on a desert island surrounded by seawater could use one to desalinate what they need. People who struggle on Indian reservations, forced to haul their drinking and household supply in in tank trucks at great trouble and expense, could have a dependable supply for themselves and their livestock.

This purification unit is one of a long list of things we routinely use that were originally developed for military use. Duct tape, the GPS in cars and phones, the Epipen, computers, and microwaves are other examples. There are now over 15,000 major desalination plants in use around the world.

It just goes to show that you can buy almost anything on the Internet. A self-contained purification device operated by a diesel generator and carried on a 30-foot trailer isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you need one, it's nice to know you can get it.




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