Treatment of drinking water at the point of use (POU) has demonstrated health benefits for people who have access only to microbially contaminated drinking water. In this work, the ceramic siphon POU water filter was evaluated for its ability to reduce indicator microorganisms in test waters. During batch challenge tests, the filter reduced Escherichia coli in filtered water by 7 log10 (99.999987%) and bacteriophage MS2 by 0.12 log10 (24.0%). Next, a novel continuous flow dosing system allowing sewage-amended feed water to constantly pass through the filters allowed for determination of changes in microbial reductions over time and total volume of water filtered. E. coli B, MS2 and fluorescent microspheres (as a surrogate for Cryptosporidium oocysts) were seeded into test water and dosed to filters at 10, 25 and 50% of the filter's volume lifespan. Microbial removal efficacy decreased as the volume of water filtered increased and test filters did not achieve their volume lifespan before physically failing. The ceramic siphon household water filter is effective in reducing E. coli and surrogates for Cryptosporidium in water, but filter modifications may be needed to achieve acceptable levels of virus removal and to reach the target 7,000 L volume lifespan of the filter.
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Research Article|
June 01 2011
Efficacy of a ceramic siphon household water filter for removal of pathogenic microorganisms: lifespan volume test
Amanda R. Kaufman;
1Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering CB#7431, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
E-mail: Amanda.Kaufman@unc.edu
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Lisa M. Casanova;
Lisa M. Casanova
2Institute of Public Health, Georgia State University, PO Box 3995 Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
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Mark D. Sobsey
Mark D. Sobsey
1Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering CB#7431, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
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Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development (2011) 1 (2): 102–111.
Article history
Received:
November 08 2010
Accepted:
March 26 2011
Citation
Amanda R. Kaufman, Lisa M. Casanova, Mark D. Sobsey; Efficacy of a ceramic siphon household water filter for removal of pathogenic microorganisms: lifespan volume test. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development 1 June 2011; 1 (2): 102–111. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2011.037
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