Permionics UF Membrane Water Purifiers
Permionics Water Purifiers use Ultrafiltration membrane Technology to purify water. Ultrafiltration membranes have pores so small that it blocks the passage of even the smallest of microbes and parasites. What this means is that ultrafiltration filters out all germs and viruses and only allows pure water to flow through.
Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis RO water filtration purifying process removes or filter out even the smallest of viruses, germs and other microbes. Ultrafiltration Purifier advantages over Reverse Osmosis RO water purifier is that, it is cheaper and requires no electricity, because it can work on normal tap water pressure. Reverse Osmosis RO purifiers require much higher pressure and thus cannot work without electricity. Reverse Osmosis RO's advantage over Ultrafiltration is that RO can remove dissolved salts in the water.
Permionics UF membrane water purifiers comes in 3 models:
Permionics Pureflo: Designed for homes with an inbuilt 4 litre pure water storage tank. Maximum Retail Price MRP is Rs.5850-
Permionics Ultraflo: Purifies 40 litres per hour, Ideal for small offices, factories, etc. Maximum Retail Price MRP is Rs.6500-
Permionics Hiflo: Purifies 80 litres per hour Ideal for bigger offices, factories, etc. Maximum Retail Price MRP is Rs.7500-
The advantages of the PERMIONICS water purifiers are
- Works without electricity: Requires just normal pipe water pressure.
- Better than boiled water: In boiled water the dirt, boiled germs and their eggs remain in the water, while Permionics UF Membranes filter out all dirt, germs and their eggs.
- No annual maintenance contract: A unique online flushing system drains out daily all blocked germs and dirt which keeps the Permionics purifier in top condition for many years.
- Long lasting: With proper care can work upto 10 years before major cleaning is required.
- Fail Safe: will never give impure water. Ultraviolet UV water purifiers cannot claim this, because with time, the UV light gets blocked and becomes ineffective and the water flowing through the UV purifier may not be safe.
- Filters out even eggs of Germs: Removes from water the highly Chlorine resistant eggs (cysts) of Amoebic dysentery and Gastroenteritis germs - Giardiasis and Cryptosporidiosis. Some water purifiers use very strong, harmful to human consumption chlorine chemicals, to kill the germs, but their eggs (cysts) are not destroyed. The eggs (cysts) have very hard protective shells which cannot be penetrated by chlorine chemicals. Also the dead germs and their active eggs are not filtered out of the water in these purifiers.
- As good as RO purifier: Ultrafiltration membrane water purifiers are as good as Reverse Osmosis water purifiers when used with public or Muncipal supplied pipe or tap water. Piped tap water will not have problems with dissolved salts of toxic chemicals like Arsenic or Heavy Metals. RO is only required when the water has too much dissolved salts.
- Works even during electric power cuts
- The only Indian manufacturer of Membranes: Permionics is the first (since 1980s) and so far, the only manufacturer of membranes in India
How are Permionics Water Purifiers different from other Water Purifiers
Membrane based water purifiers purify water by filtering out all dirt, viruses, germs and their eggs. This is because membranes are such fine filters with pore size (filtering hole size) less than 0.01 micron. A micron is one millionth of a meter (0.000001 meter or 1/1000 of a milli-meter). The size of the smallest virus, the very smallest of germs, is more than 0.02micron in size and they are blocked by membranes whose pore size is less than 0.01 micron.
Other water purifiers try to kill the germs in water by using Chlorine Chemicals - like 'Pureit' (not the Pureit Marvella RO), or by using Ultraviolet light - like 'Aquaguard Classic'. They do not publish the micron rating of their filters - but it is believed to be in the range of 5 microns. Thus they can give clear looking water by filtering out the larger dirt particles in the water, but are unable to filter out viruses, germs and their eggs. So they depend on their germ killing mechanisms to purify drinking water. The supposedly dead germs and their eggs are not removed and remain in your drinking water.
The germ killing ability of these water purifiers have been in question for some time. For example, cysts of Giardia and Cryptosporidium are not killed by chlorine. Click here for details. There are several other instances where Government research institutions have tested the germ killing efficiency of water purifiers and found most of them could not be sure of killing all the germs in drinking water. It has also been reported that purifiers which try to kill germs with chemicals, do so by using chemicals which are harmful for human consumption. Here are the links to these reports.
Membrane Purifier passes Govt. of India Institute's Virus test
The 'Times of India' newspaper report dated 17 Sep. 2010 says that a Government of India Institute tested 8 leading Indian brands of water purifiers and found only 2 that worked to remove Hepatitis Virus. Of the 2 that passed, a Membrane Based Water Purifier is mentioned first as having passed all the tests.
Link to full report in 'Times of India'
Harmful Chemical in Water Purifiers
Another Times of India report dated 24 Dec. 2010 reads as follows: "Most of the storage water purifiers sold in the country use a chemical usually used to sanitise swimming pools,............. Trichloro-iso-Cyanuric acid. It poses severe health hazards. Health and safety is compromised for commercial gains".
Click this link to read the full article
Ultra Violet or UV Water Purifier Problems:
UV light inside these purifiers gets blocked when scale forms on the UV bulb, due to heat from the bulb. The scaling problem is intensified when UV unit is 'on' and there is no flow of water through it. If the UV bulb is kept 'off ' then chances of bio-growth like algae or slime, forming on the glass around UV bulb exists, and this could block the UV rays. Therefore either 'on' or 'off ', UV can become ineffective after some time.
Nature uses Membranes
The coconut tree uses membranes in its roots to purify dirty ground water surrounding its roots, and sends up the purified water to fill its tender coconuts. Membranes are such good water purifiers, that tender coconut water can be injected directly into people as an Intravenous Transfusion fluid in emergencies. (The intravenous use of coconut water: The American Journal of Emergency Medicine). During World War 2, many wounded American soldiers were saved in the Pacific War Zone battlefields, using raw tender coconut water as the drip plasma, the Intravenous Transfusion fluid.
About Permionics
The Permionics membrane base water purifiers have been in the market for about 20 years, but they were never aggressively advertised. Permionics has the distinction of being the first and only manufacturer of membranes in India (since early 1980s). It should be noted that an Indian Scientist, Dr. Srinivasa Sourirajan, while doing research at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) co-invented Water Purification Membranes in the early 1960s. Dr. Sourirajan visited the Permionics factory in its early days.
Permionics has successfully used membrane technology in several applications such as milk concentration, whey fractionation, waste water recycling of dye industry, etc. Permionics pioneered the use of Membrane technology in the Pharmaceutical industry by installing Asia's first membrane based system for concentration and purification of Streptomycin in 1981.
