Over the last eight years, HANS Premium Water has been working on developing many different variations of water filtration systems with the goal of helping developing countries solve their clean water problems.
We started with a full, municipal-size vacuum vapor distillation system for desalination that’s capable of producing millions of gallons of clean water a day. Although functionally these large, high efficiency systems performed to specifications, they proved to be the wrong answer for getting clean water to the communities that needed it. Government regulations and “red-tape,” the need for municipality infrastructure, and a general slow reaction and mindset to change were all barriers to acceptance and implementation. That, coupled with the fact that desalinization only helped areas located near oceans.
We realized that we needed to rethink our strategy and a new direction was formulated. We proceeded to develop modular systems that could be designed as “micro grids” — a potable water treatment plant that could be sized to provide enough clean water for an entire village, or a single unit for a full household. The system would be a small, self-contained, true point of entry (POE) unit that could provide clean water for a full household at every tap, making our POE reverse osmosis (RO) system more like an appliance.
Why the need for a POE system? A full POE system — not just a point of use (POU) unit — was required to ensure we cleaned contaminates from all water used. Indeed, a POU unit is great for drinking at a single tap; however, it does nothing for the water you wash your dishes with, the water you bathe in, the water you cook with, etc. For example, many contaminates can be absorbed by the skin and inhaled when atomized in a shower, or can coat your dishware when washing them. The system needed to be able to treat brackish water and reduce substantial amounts of contaminates found worldwide, including many of the forever chemicals (PFAS).
Some of the drawbacks of conventional RO systems have been the high amount of wastewater (water that goes to drain) and low pH in the permeate. With most conventional RO systems running under 50% recovery, wastewater has always been a problem. To address this issue, the HANS system automates and monitors levels of internal recirculation of concentrate and permeate injection where needed, allowing for single units to see up to 90% recovery. Moreover, the larger HANS multiple systems see recovery rates as high as 95% (an 85% savings in wastewater), keeping wastewater down to unseen levels in RO systems. In addition, low pH levels caused by the reduction of contaminants and minerals has also been an issue with conventional RO systems. The HANS system has a built-in post treat calcite filter to cut CO2 and add back a minor amount of minerals. This helps with pH and makes for great tasting water!
Being designed as a full modular system allows it to be run as a standalone for a large household, or the addition of multiple units for full large volume needs to more than 1,000,000 gallons per day.
The HANS Model 2 is a fully self-contained and “smart” modular POE system that contains all items needed to run an RO plant, including sediment and carbon prefiltration, a variable speed DC drive pump, large active area high efficiency RO elements, and calcite post treatment — all in a single compact package. This revolutionary design is a true tankless on demand system that can produce RO water at normal line pressures. This removes the need for any collection tanks and secondary pumps (tankless high-capacity RO). The system is a fully automated “smart” system doing all the adjustments for output, rejection rates per TDS, flushes, etc. It takes the complexity of running an advanced water system out of the equation. All this while running on a standard 120v wall outlet. The system has a built-in monitor for live streaming, including total dissolved solids performance. The monitor compares the level of the TDS in the supply (feed) water versus the product water and calculates the percent rejection. In the case of a deprived rejection level, the system will send warning alerts to the built-in touch screen and to the customer’s smart phone via the HANS app.
As we were developing the system, we wanted to have a full third-party certified package, especially related to health claims. Unfortunately, as we tried to accomplish this goal, we found no actual standard to test to for a true POE RO system (NSF 58 is specifically written for POU systems). That means there has never been a POE RO system tested or certified for health claims. Without this testing and certification, we could not make health claims for the system or register the system with the states that required registration. We felt that having this certification was essential and we wanted to make sure our end users would have confirmed, third-party certified confidence that the system would perform.
This led us to work with ASSE International in the development of ASSE LEC 2006, Listing Evaluation Criteria for Point of Entry Reverse Osmosis Systems, which contains certification requirements that cover contaminant reduction claims for POE systems used to treat drinking water. RO water treatment equipment reduces total dissolved solids, heavy metals, microbes, inorganics, and organic water contaminants. POE RO systems are typically installed after the water meter in residences or businesses. The LEC document is not limited to, but includes, Arsenic III, Arsenic V, Barium, Chloroform, Chromium VI, Fluoride, hardness, Iron, Lead, Nitrate, Nitrite, Radium 226/228, PFOA/PFOS, and TDS — reducing these influences down to a concentration less than, or equal to, EPA permissible limits.
Water contamination has taken a worldwide spotlight in recent years, regardless of the water source – ground water, wells, municipalities (including delivery infrastructure issues), etc. New testing is showing the weakness in a commodity we take for granted but count on every day. A micro-POE water treatment system is an immediate fix for many of these issues. For example, instead of waiting years or decades to get expensive infrastructure issues fixed (or built where there is no infrastructure), a small micro grid system can easily be installed to give clean water right at the POE of a household. Recently, we have even seen large areas in the U.S., including Flint, Mich., Hawaii, and others being affected by poor, outdated infrastructures contaminating municipal water streams.
The same water issues are also seen in small communities and private wells. Placing water filtration systems downstream of the issue is an attempt to eliminate the problem. However, how do we know they work? Will they fix the issue? Downstream water filtration systems need to be trusted — users need to know they will perform. The fear is that POE systems promising results without proper testing and certification will flood the market but will not deliver. With the HANS system, along with certification to ASSE LEC 2006, consumers and agencies can have confidence that the product will deliver on its promises of clean potable water.
