Low Power Water Purification System

Triton Systems has developed a high-output, manually operated, low-power reverse osmosis (RO) water purification system to provide potable water from brackish water for far-forward deployed Marines.  The Triton Team developed key innovations that overcome the limitations of existing portable RO systems. Specifically, an advanced membrane surface coating reduces fouling while increasing water permeability, and an energy recovery pump reduces the required energy input. Membrane based RO systems only recover a portion of the processed saline feed water as potable water and exhaust a waste stream more highly concentrated with salts and other contaminants than the feed. High pressure is required to force water across the RO membrane, and the energy used to pressurize the concentrated waste stream is “wasted” in conventional RO systems. Triton’s Low Power Water Purification System uses an energy recovery feature that recycles the energy of the waste stream to assist in pressurization of the feed. As a result, the energy input is only what is required to pressurize the purified water and to overcome internal mechanical friction and minor pressure losses. Triton has designed a new energy recovery pump sized to produce 24 oz/min from brackish water sources containing up to 5000 mg/L Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). Work remains to improve the prototype and create a system to meet the requirements of the Squad Water Purification System (SWPS). An SWPS unit is required to produce 40 oz/min of potable water from brackish water sources and may break down into no more than four separate components that meet size and weight requirements. Additional development will be needed to add the ability to filter freshwater at 80 oz/min, either by toggling the recovery ratio of the energy recovery pump or by using a separate freshwater pumping mechanism.