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Toner Tech Cleans Water
Jennifer Kho, May 2, 2008, Greentech Media
Excerpts from the article:
Toner might not sound like something that could help clean water, but the Palo Alto Research Center hopes to use Xerox toner technology to do just that.
Using an electrostatic technology used to move toner powder along a surface – and that took a detour to help the Army move particles of biological weapons, such as anthrax spores, together in one place so they would be easier to detect – PARC has invented a water-treatment device that could cut costs for municipal water districts.
The technology uses centrifugal force in spiral-shaped channels to separate particles out of water. It uses no chemicals, filters or membranes, uses less energy than membrane-based particle-removal technologies and also is smaller than the systems used by municipal water districts today...
...PARC hopes to partner with a large integrated company, such as Siemens or General Electric, that already supplies water-purification equipment to municipalities and bring the technology to market, PARC President Mark Bernstein said.
The technology wouldn’t remove everything from the water and would have to be paired with purification technologies...
Another limitation is that the technology requires a constant flow rate, such as in a municipal water district or industrial application...
Other challenges include a complex value chain and a market highly dependent on regulation, which is why PARC thinks partnering with an established player is the way to go...
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