Who are these guys?
Does any of this sound familiar from 2009?
Chemviron Midwest produces solar-powered water purification system
Published: October 9, 2009
By BRYAN SCHAAF
Staff Writer
WOOSTER -- Tucked away in a large warehouse off Old Airport Road, many Wooster residents have probably never heard of Chemviron Midwest.
But a revolutionary apparatus produced by the company could have a major impact in providing clean drinking water to Third World countries.
Working in conjunction with Pittsburgh-based environmental consultant company Cardinal Resources, Chemviron produced what company officials believe is the world's first solar-powered water purification system.
Standing 15 feet high, 25 feet long and completely enclosed in a shipping container, the system, known as "Redbird," will leave Wooster today to board a boat to China to be put in operation.
"This type of system was right in our wheelhouse," said Chemviron President Mark Steiner, whose company specializes in soil and groundwater remediation. "The solar part was new to us, but the rest of it was real familiar. This really puts us in a whole new market. That's the business end of it, but we can also provide a product that meets some significant humanitarian need."
Ron Cross, project engineer for Cardinal, said his company has done volunteer work in Third World countries, and realized a lot of illness, disease and even death could be prevented simply by having clean drinking water.
"So they decided it would be a good idea to try and develop a system that purifies water and runs off solar power," Cross said. "All that's really necessary is sun, salt and sand."
According to Jeff Mills, operations manager for Chemviron, the unit is equipped with a pump that's placed in a river or a well. From there, water is pumped through gravel and carbon filters to remove sediment and odor before being pumped into a hypochlorite generator. There, an electrical current is run through the water for four hours, essentially converting sodium in the water into a bleach concentrate, similar to household bleach.
From there, water and the bleach concentrate is run through a chemical metering pump, which adds doses of the bleach into the contaminated water to create clean drinking water.
Cross said the system can create 14,400 gallons of clean water in 24 hours.
"It's a modular system," Mills said. "If you have a larger population, you could take 20 of these, set them up side by side and pretty much get as much water as you need. ... A few years back, this could've been used down in Louisiana following the hurricane. That's a U.S.-based need this would've immediately helped out."
Steiner said in addition to the Redbird being shipped out today, the company designed a trailer-based unit earlier this year that's received a lot of interest.
"It has a more flexible use," Steiner said. "The cargo container is fixed. It'll be set up and used in the same location for years. The trailer mounted unit is more mobile. We actually have a lady from Africa who is interested in purchasing one to take it from village to village. That's an exciting aspect. ... The driving force behind this is humanitarian -- providing people with safe, clean drinking water in a volume they can utilize for almost all their daily requirements."
After the Redbird ships out, it's expected to take 36 days before arriving in China. Once there, Mills and Cross will travel to the country to make sure it's set up properly.
"It really makes you feel better knowing you're working with something like this, that gives people a better quality of life," Mills said. "We're not out here just trying to get our CEOs as big a bonus as we can. We're actually helping people live a better life."
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