Mesofilter Inc. announced early in March Mesopaper^TM, the first paper filter able to rapidly immobilize harmful pollutants such as arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, bacteria, viruses and radioactive elements in water and air. With more than an 80 percent cost savings, its effectiveness and ease of use are superior to reverse osmosis, chemical treatment, and UV exposure – the common processes used for filtering air and water today.

No additional equipment required

Unlike other filtration processes, Mesopaper does not require pressure, chemicals, electrical potential, plastic or any additional equipment. A family cut off from clean water can filter water from nearly any source, regaining access to drinkable water in minutes. Or, an industrial manager can add Mesopaper to an existing system to quickly and cost effectively remove contaminants.
By 2025, it is estimated that more than one-third of the world’s population will not have access to clean drinking water. Arsenic poisoning alone affects 200 million people worldwide, and in the United States 170 million people drink water containing cancer-causing, radioactive elements. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), arsenic, lead, and mercury are the three most hazardous threats to human health, and the consumption of these materials often comes from contaminated water.

Characteristics

Mesopaper can be molded into various shapes such as pour-through filters, straw filters and industrial filtration cartridges. It is biodegradable and can be disposed like any piece of trash since all contaminants become immobile and inert. One square foot can purify ten gallons of water with absolutely no wastewater or hazardous byproducts. It reduces the number of filtration steps down to one, compared to the three to five steps common in reverse osmosis treatment, and only needs 0.15 seconds to achieve 99 percent arsenic and 99.9999 percent virus removal.
“Everyone deserves access to clean, safe water, but current methods of filtration are expensive, often produce toxic sludge and wastewater, and/or require large amounts of electricity – making it impossible to provide clean water to a large portion the world’s population,” said Liangjie Dong, Mesofilter’s co-founder, CEO and chief scientist. “Our goal with Mesopaper is to bring clean air and water to anyone, anywhere.”

Technological aspects

Mesopaper uses Mesofilter’s patented MesoNose^TM technology, which mimics the human nose. MesoNose is composed of ceramic granules made from natural clay containing millions of tiny, 40-50 nanometer (nm) size “noses” with billions of nano zero-valent iron needles. The needles function like hooks to capture bacteria, inactivate viruses, and adsorb heavy metals and radioactive elements. The paper is made of three layers of bamboo fibers sandwiched with MesoNose granules.
“Radioactive contaminants in water threaten hundreds of millions of lives every day, especially in developing countries,” said Boris Faybishenko, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. “There is a huge need for simple solutions to treat uranium-and-radium contaminated water. Whether it’s for a rural home’s drinking water, or for a community water treatment plant, Mesopaper makes clean and safe drinking water accessible to everyone.”

Applications

In addition to personal or household filtration, Mesopaper can be used to increase efficiency and reduce costs for large-scale industries: 

• Disaster Relief: Organizations like FEMA can distribute filters to disaster victims, who would regain access to safe water in minutes.
• Industrial: Industries that produce large amounts of wastewater, such as mining, can filter to a cleanliness level that safely allows water to be reintroduced to local waterways or the water table.    
• Nuclear: Nuclear plants can stop radioactive water from entering the ecosystem and purify existing toxic groundwater contaminated by radioactive elements.
• Agriculture: Farmers can remove contaminants from irrigation runoff and other forms of wastewater, so it can be reused or returned to waterways or the water table. 

Certification

Mesopaper has been certified to NSF/ANSI 53: Drinking Water Treatment Units – Health Effects, the American National Standard for drinking water treatment units.
“When consumers see the NSF mark on a product, they can have confidence that the product has been independently tested and certified to do what the manufacturer says it will do,” said David Purkiss, vice president of the global water division at NSF International. “NSF International’s independent certification of this new material to NSF/ANSI 53 means the drinking water filtration industry now has a new filtration medium that is verified to reduce both lead and pentavalent arsenic (or arsenic V) to levels set by the EPA and WHO.”
For more information visit: www.mesofilter.com.