Water – it’s essential for life, without which we cannot survive on land or in space. When astronauts or space explorers venture out of earth orbit, their only water supply will board their on the spacecraft. Somehow researchers have made it possible to recycle waste waters into drinkable one for astronauts. NASA astronauts have found new ways for recycling used water into a fortified drink with the use of forward osmosis and microgravity. It takes six to eight hours for recycling impure water into purified one. Another better method to make water drinkable in space is nano water treatment.

Nano water treatment is the simplest and fastest method of purfying waste water on the space station and turns that into something useful. Nano-water treatment for water recycling on spacecrafts has created a new scope for astronauts and scientists. Now, they can utilize the sun’s energy and nano particles to remove impurities from the water. Let us help you understand how nano water treatment works and how it helps in disinfecting and cleaning impure water.

Ultimate water purification solution

When we talk about nano-water purification method, there are two things that add life to the entire process. First is nano particles and other is a photocatalytic reaction. The nanoparticles are expected to deal more confidently with contaminants, which conventional water treatment struggles to treat, including bacteria, viruses, high-toxic organic matter, and heavy metals. This efficiency generally stems from the very high specific surface area of nanomaterials which increases dissolution, reactivity, and sorption of contaminants.

The nano particles act as a catalyst in a photocatalytic oxidation reaction between the water molecules and the microorganism in the water. Organic and harmful contaminants will be destroyed and converted to harmless inorganic end products, e.g., water, carbon dioxide, inorganic ions. This eventually leads to cleaning as well as disinfecting of water without the use of an artificial source of energy like electricity or chemicals.

The combination of nano technology and photocatalytic oxidation reaction is fast, cost-savvy, and ongoing. Some other applications are also there for disinfection and purification such as it has antimicrobial action, air purification, self cleaning and many more. Know more about it, here

Benefits of nano water treatment

A nano-technology treated water has several benefits; it can easily rule over any other water cleaning methodology.

It can

• Purify various contaminants from human activities like urine and feces.
• Mineralize harmful organics to inorganic end products.
• Protect the environment from pollutants.
• Speed-up the natural decomposing process of organic components in water.
• Last for longer duration; the catalytic reaction keeps the process going with natural light at source.
• Save energy on the space. There is no energy consumption.
• Eliminate the microorganism in water for drinking purpose.

The primary objective of this method

Nano-water treatment aims at disinfection and infection of impure water. Its main objective is the treatment of waste and used water without any power supplement. Many water cleaning procedure in spacecrafts needs electrical or mechanical energy to cleanse impurities; nano water treatment is not like any of them. Solar energy is required to purify the various contaminants in water and make it drinkable.

Bottom line

Nano particles and photocatalytic oxidation reaction are evolving; it has already transformed the way we use to think. Water purification and disinfection are important on spacecrafts, and we need a technology that can clean used water in the shortest time. You can consider this method to save more time and money. But, taking any decision, read about all other aspects of it from the website, visit the site!

Read more – Why Application of Antimicrobial Coating is a Must Thing for Livestock?