Drinkable book filters water supply for 4 years

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A new, groundbreaking invention presented at the American Chemical Society’s 250th national meeting in Boston promises to convert tap water to potable water for those in need, BBC reports.

The "drinkable book" was developed and tested by Dr. Teri Dankovich, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. As much as 663 million individuals around the world do not have access to clean, drinkable water. Dankovich said that the "drinkable book" is for "communities in developing countries."

She said: "All you need to do is tear out a paper, put it in a simple filter holder and pour water into it from rivers, streams, wells, etc and out comes clean water—and dead bacteria as well."

TIME reports that tests revealed that one page in the book can filter 100 liters, and the whole book can filter a person's water supply for about four years.

Dr. Dankovich explained: "Ions come off the surface of the nanoparticles, and those are absorbed by the microbes. Greater than 90% of the samples had basically no viable bacteria in them, after we filtered the water through the paper."

Additionally, RT News reports that the water filtered from the book "meets EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) standards and is comparable to North American tap water." However, the book has to be further tested for filtering other types of microorganisms, such as viruses.

Water filtering tests have been done in South Africa, Ghana, and Bangladesh. Dr. Dankovich said: "We were really impressed with the performance of the paper; it was able to kill the bacteria almost completely in those samples. And they were pretty gross to start with, so we thought—if it can do this, it can probably do a lot."

The "drinkable book" is handmade and is currently under the brand of Dr. Dankovich's nonprofit pAge Drinking Paper, in collaboration with the organization WATERisLIFE. Dr. Dankovich and her team are hoping to mass produce the book in the near future. Instructions on how to use the book are printed on its pages.

BBC reports that Dr. Kyle Doudrick, who studies sustainable water treatment at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, commented that this innovation would even be better if it could address non-bacterial infections. He said: "Overall, out of all the technologies that are available—ceramic filters, UV sterilisation and so on—this is a promising one, because it's cheap, and it's a catchy idea that people can get hold of and understand."