High-Concentration Bleach Generator
Portable bleach generator for purifying and disinfecting drinking water in remote locations
This technology is a high-concentration, portable bleach generator—vital for disinfecting water when treatment facilities are off-line and during floods and other natural disasters. This highly efficient technology uses electro-chlorination to generate high-concentration bleach from saltwater brine and adds the solution to water treatment systems as it is being produced, enabling faster access to clean water.
Existing processes produce low-concentration (~1%) bleach solutions that are insufficient for disinfecting drinking water. ERDC’s bleach generator has the capability to generate 7% concentration bleach on-site, while using less power than existing processes. Additionally, it safely vents flammable hydrogen gas byproducts to eliminate build-up. The bleach generator works with any water-purification system and can be combined with Water Diagnostics Operations Gear (WaterDOG) within the breakthrough Water Assessment and Purification Toolkit (WAsP), providing portable, reverse osmosis water purification with electro-chlorination, UV sanitation, and water-monitoring capability.
Benefits:
- Robust: Generates higher concentrations of bleach (7%) than competing systems (1%)
- Portable: Features small form factor, can be transported to remote locations
- Safe: Provides cleaner and safer water (killing harmful biologicals) while safely venting hydrogen gas
- Efficient: Uses less power than existing technologies
- Flexible: Offers the ability to select bleach concentration levels using computer controls
Applications:
- Remediation (e.g., water purification, filtration, testing, recycling)
- Wastewater treatment
- Disinfecting (e.g., water, surfaces, hospitals)
- Municipalities (e.g., public works)
- Manufacturing (e.g., textiles, recycling, food processing)
- Disaster relief
- Military (e.g., bases, command centers, expeditionary forces)
