Portable rainwater purification - Filtration Insights

Rainwater harvesting is fast becoming a suitable alternative, led by efforts of EPA and individual
states to address water scarcity, mitigate drought effects, desertification and erosion from
runoffs. While the common use of harvested rainwater is irrigation for lawns and gardens, there
is also an interest in making this water potable for human consumption to help save the expense
associated with treating and transporting water to homes.
This article focus is on how to make rainwater safe for human consumption by filtering.
Common contaminants:
 Algae

 Air Pollution

 Bird Excrement

 Sand/Dust

Suitable filtration and purification (disinfectant) equipment can help remove these contaminants

Filtration Measures:
A. Screening:
Step 1 is to make sure we keep foreign matter out of rainwater before it goes to storage. Gutter
screens and first flush devices help keep rainwater clean before it enters the conveyance
system. Some particulates will enter the storage cistern. The use of a floating filter allows water
to be extracted from middle without disturbing the sediment.
B. Filtration:
Step 2 addresses filtration to remove debris from water and to disinfect/purify to kill
contaminants / any harmful substances.
Testing rainwater in a reliable lab gives an accurate gauge of contaminants.. You can only solve
the problem if you are knowledgeable about the issue/problem and a test lab will tell you exactly
what contaminants are there in your rainwater to dictate the right choice of filtration equipment.
Filtration system can come in many flavors, ranging from a simple screen, paper, carbon or
charcoal filters. Almost all systems use multiple filters. After rainwater goes through gutter
screens and first flush device, a typical filtration system consists of two in-line filters of
increasing fineness, a standard carbon based filter and UV light. When evaluating filter
options, National Sanitation Foundation/American National Standards Institutions (NSF/ANSI)
standard 42 and standard 53 are the key standards for removing health related contaminants and
your filtration equipment choice should reflect these standards. Consult NSF website to search
for manufacturers and filtration equipment which removes specific contaminants after you get
your lab test results.
C. Types of Filters and how to address Disinfection:
The unit of Filters is measured in microns size which is about 1/25,000th of an inch. To
illustrate the fineness in size, the size of human hair is approximately 100 microns, a grain of
sand or dust is 1 micron and a virus is smaller than .01 micron. So smaller the filter size, better
the results for addressing key contaminants having a small size but such filters will also be slow
and more expensive. Please note that filters have to be changed regularly as they become good
hosts for microorganisms and harmful pathogens with time.
Rainwater systems use a typical 50 micron filter or screen size of 300 mesh to remove sand and
large particles. Recommended cleaning time for screen is every 4 months. A 10-20 micron filter
followed by 5-10 micron filter is cleaned mostly once annually.
While filters are effective in eliminating a host of contaminants, for drinking water or to make
water potable you also have to disinfect the water as required by EPA. This is the reason why
public water systems add disinfectants to surface water to eliminate pathogens and/or disease
carrying micro organisms. The same is true for rainwater as today's natural environment carries
many toxic microorganisms with deteriorating air quality and these need to be eliminated.
Typical disinfectants are adding chlorine to water (called chlorination), Ultraviolet light and/or
membrane filtration (very small micron size) to eliminate contaminants. Again, based on your
test lab results, certain disinfectants need to be moderated or avoided as their addition can create
a chemical reaction with certain contaminants and create unhealthy chemical compounds which
may be toxic to human body. Look for key organisms in your lab test results to drive your
disinfectant choices, especially organic matter as chlorine forms
harmful trihalomethanes (THMs) which are cancerous to human body or forms chloroform when
it reacts with humic or fulvic acids in water.
The use of chlorine as a disinfectant in public water systems has virtually eliminated waterborne
diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery and hepatitis. There are certain side effects of excessive
chlorination or when chlorine reacts with certain chemical compounds to form unhealthy by
products. A typical chlorine disinfection is 2.3 ounces to 1000 gallons of water and the dosage
rate caries with quantity, pH and temperature. The dosage rate of chlorine is key to successful
disinfection and and should be handled by experts looking at lab test results, pH, temperature
etc. To reduce unhealthy by products of chlorine, one can do the following:
1. Use of reverse osmosis filtration after chlorination.
2. Remove key organics prior to chlorination
The chlorine smell and taste can be removed with an active carbon filter.

C1. The use of Ultraviolet Light as disinfectant:

UV lights are used as major source for disinfecting water (removing pathogens) in
Europe. Before UV treatment, the water passes through a filtration system. How it works is that
UV light disrupts a microorganisms genetic make up and makes it unable to reproduce, it does
not kill a microorganism as widely believed and does not change the chemical composition of
water. Dosage of UV is a key consideration and the water must be clear of any suspended
particles via filtration before deploying UV light.
Some key tactical things to consider with UV lights are:

 Replace bulb at regular intervals as specified by manufacturer’s – usual life is 9,000

hours, or replace them annually.
 Keep the glass enclosure clean ( clean every 3 months) to increase UV light efficacy.
 Home units should have in built alarms to notify when bulb needs to be serviced / or unit
is not working.
 Have back up units (so 2 units), to avoid service disruptions.
 Manufacturers rating indicates a certain UV dosage at a given flow rate of water (e.g., 15
gallons per minute). make sure your water flow rate matches with the manufacturer
ratings and/or modulate water flow with pressure regulator or water flow restrictors.
 Test your water to make sure that there are no particulates larger than 50 microns, no
tannins, sulfur or sulfur-related bacteria, iron quantities which are less than 0.3 parts per
million, manganese quantities which are less than 0.005 parts per million. your lab test
results and filtration choices should address these water conditions before installing and
passing the water through a UV system. rainwater will typically not have these
contaminants but sometimes air pollution affects rainwater. Knowing whether these are in
the water and need to be treated is a great reason to test your water before installing a
system. Have your rainwater lab tested to be sure.

C2. Membrane Filtration

Membranes are layer of material and water is pushed through these layers under pressure to
address contamination. Common examples of pressure driven membranes include
microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. This technique is one of the
few clean technologies than can remove pharmaceutical contaminants and create no
byproduct. However, these are costly and expensive but are becoming more affordable with time
and is expected to me a mainstream technology for water purification in near future. Again. test
your water before evaluating options.
- Microfiltration (MF) key characteristics :

 pore size - .03 to 10 microns.

 Great for removing sand, silt, clay, algae, cysts and some bacteria.

- Ultrafiltration (UF) key characteristics :

 pore size - ~ .002 to .1 microns.
 Will remove everything an MF system removes, plus some viruses.
 - Nanofiltration membranes (NF) key characteristics :

 pore size - .001 microns.

 Need more pressure to push water through the membrane with its small pore size,
 Generates more waste than MF or UF filtration systems.
 Eliminates all cysts, bacteria, viruses, and other materials, including minerals.
 Lowers water pH and water needs to be remineralized using limestone, to increase pH to
normal levels.
 Larger power requirements precludes it to become a mainstream technology

- Reverse Osmosis (RO) key characteristics :

 Most widely used membrane technology with pore size : .001 microns
 Removes radium, natural organics, pesticides, cysts, bacteria and viruses.
 Look for waste and efficiency when shopping an RO system.
 Options for dealing with waste water from RO system include connecting to a greywater
system to the irrigation or septic system
 RO systems can be under-the-counter units or whole-house systems. Prices vary greatly
from $1000 for under the counter to $8000 for whole house filtration system.
 C3. Distillation
 Distillation separates water from its impurities through heating/boiling and collecting the condensation
making it very energy intensive. There is some water loss (5-10%) due to evaporation and will
remove all substances except volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that evaporate easily and so if using
this system, it is in conjunction with some carbon filtration system to remove VOCs. A 5 - 15 gallon
distillation system costs about $1500 - $2000, new solar heaters help reduce energy footprint.

Industry Standard Practice for Household Use of rainwater:

Filter all rainwater and then store it in a small pressure tank. Water is split into two separate
ways from pressure tank - one or potable and the other for greywater use. Add a purification
process to make rainwater potable. This dual plumbing system adds complexity but reduces cost
and requires a smaller unit for the whole house.
Invest in removing particulates before they enter into any rainwater collection system with gutter
screens, leaf screens and roof washers to reduce downstream costs.

Source: www.rainwaterharvesting.com
Co, R. (2016). Potable rainwater purification - Filtration Insights