TECHNICAL FIELD
The present subject matter described herein, in general, relates to a portable drinking
water container with a filtration and purification member, and more particularly to 5 a
simple bottle, with disposable filtration and purification unit for emergency and
prolonged use.
BACKGROUND
10 Clean water is a requirement for human health. This means, one should ensure that the
drinking water is free from any toxic materials and pathogens. However, surface water
from natural sources is likely to be contaminated with suspended impurities (physical),
turbidity (chemical) and micro-organism during natural calamities like flood and due to
industrialization and expanding population. Also, there is decrease in the number of
15 natural sources for potable water. Therefore, various treatment technologies are being
developed to convert the available water to consumable drinking water. These
technologies include various types of chemical treatments which possess their own
shortcomings like the amount of water recovered is very low. Moreover, treatments like
distillation of water not only results in loss of naturally occurring minerals, but also
20 requires large amounts of energy and time, which makes it costly and lengthy operating
process.
Many large scale purifying systems have also been developed which perform the task
adequately. However, one does not always have access to water filtered and purified by
25 large scale purifiers. Therefore, portable water purifiers are required and have been
developed to allow a user to obtain clean water wherever the person may go. These
portable purifiers allow oral operation and have lightweight designs, for convenient
storage along with clothing.
3
Portable purifiers or water containers with filters are known in the prior art. Various
materials are used as absorbent candle for water treatment e.g. carbon, zeolite and
different disinfectants.
US1000332 A discloses straws having multiple parts co-operable with one another t5 o
allow disassembly and assembly of the device. US1333011 discloses a straw having two
parts which are releasably engaged to each other by means of co-operable screw threads
placed on each part of the straw. Both the patent documents disclose the use of straw
which allows replacement of the filing material, such as activated charcoal and bacterial
10 removal materials.
US5126044 discloses a portable water treatment apparatus including an iodine resin
purification bed supported in a walled structure and mounted upstream of an active
carbon filtration bed.
15
US7810651 discloses a flexible water bottle that includes a filter assembly located
within the cap of the bottle and includes paper filters covering the upper and lower ends
and activated charcoal filter in between the paper filters.
20 US8845895 discloses a bottled water filtration system for use with a water bottle, the
system having a bottle cap, a nozzle formed in a first side of the bottle cap, a porous
filter housing formed on a second side of the bottle cap, and a filter material located
inside the porous filter housing, wherein the cap, nozzle and filter housing are formed as
an integrated unit, which can be attached and removed from a water bottle as a unit.
25
Therefore, the existing portable bottles with filter member can either filter or purify the
water. Moreover, the purification member used is a micro-porous membrane filter,
which after being once used, and then left unused for a long period of time, results in
microorganisms propagating on the surfaces of the filtering portion of the device,
30 causing clogging and an offensive odor or smell due to accumulation of suspended
4
particles and microbes. This makes it very difficult to use the device in a field by
soldiers or troops during operational movement or people on the go.
Thus, it is required that portable purifier be designed that is not only easy to carry,
handy, compact, operated without electricity, without use of any hazardous chemicals5 ,
but also allows quick removal of color, odor, turbidity and microbes from surface
contaminated water while disallowing the mixing of filtered and contaminated water. It
is also required that the portable purifier is capable of prolonged use without clogging
the membrane.
10
The above-described drawbacks of existing portable water containers with purification
members are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of
conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with
conventional systems and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting
15 embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the
following description.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a
20 basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive
overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements
of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present
some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed
description of the invention presented later.
25
An object of the invention is to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above and to
provide a portable water container with a filtration and purification system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable water filtering and
30 purifying bottle which is easy to carry, handle, simple in construction with reduced
number of components, and therefore easily manufactured at a reduced cost.
5
Another object of the present invention is to provide a flexi life saver water bottle which
can remove colour, odour, turbidity and microbial contamination from contaminated
surface water.
5
Another object of the present invention is to avoid the contamination of filtered water
by the escaped of impurities by use of hollow fiber membrane.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a bottle that works on sipping
10 and/or squeezing mechanism.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a water container which has
replaceable filtration member.
15 Still another object of the present invention is to provide a portable, flexible water bottle
which can be cleaned to enhance the life of the filtering member.
Accordingly, in an implementation, a portable bottle having a flexible, hollow body
with an opening and a lid for inserting water into an inner chamber and allowing water
20 to be filtered and purified as it is squeezed and/or sipped out of the inner chamber is
disclosed. The said bottle comprising:
the flexible, squeezable hollow body having a threaded opening;
lid having threads to attach to the threaded opening of the said body;
a mouth tube formed in first side of said lid, adapted for sipping the
25 purified water; and
at least a filtering member engaged to the second side of lid and hanging
through the inner chamber, said filtering member comprises:
at least a first section containing activated carbon; and
at least a second section containing a ultrafiltration (UF) filter
30 comprising hollow fibers, said first and second sections being disposed
6
in series so that the water dispensed from said inner chamber passes
through said second and first sections in this order;
wherein the said filtering member and lid with mouth tube form an integrated unit,
which is attached and removed from the said bottle body; and said filtering member is
backwashed through the said mouth tube to remove turbidity and microbes and increas5 e
the life of the member.
Currently used or existing portable bottles have complicated structure which use carbon
filter, micro-porous membrane filter and ion exchange resins. However, they do not
10 have provisions: to prevent the contamination of purified water from the escaped
impurities; backwashing to remove the impurities; and thus have short life span. Also
the bottles have no provision for direct sipping of water from the bottle on the move or
go.
15 In contrast with the existing prior-art, the present invention portable bottle is flexible for
squeezing, so as to push the water in the inner chamber through the membrane filter and
carbon filter as it is sipped through the mouth tube, which is also used for backwashing
the surface of the filtering unit and thus removing impurities resulting in prolonged use
of the filtration unit. Also, the use of hollow fiber UF membrane prevents the
20 contamination of purified water by the escaping impurities.
Thus, according to the present invention, by removing the colour, odour, turbidity,
microbial contamination from contaminated surface water and also preventing the
contamination of purified water, while also having provision for backwashing the
25 filtered impurities, this bottle stands out in relation to the various other bottles used to
provide portable filtered and purified water.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to
those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in
30 conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the
invention.
7
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary
embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following
description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which5 :
Figure 1 illustrates in a schematic diagram the flexi life saver bottle, in accordance with
an embodiment of the present subject matter.
10 Figure 2 illustrates in a pictorial representation the various parts of the flexi life saver
bottle, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
Figure 3 illustrates the flow of water through the filtering unit of the flexi life saver
bottle, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
15
Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for
simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the
dimensions of some of the elements in the fig. may be exaggerated relative to other
elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the
20 present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference
numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to
25 assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention. It
includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be
regarded as merely exemplary.
Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and
30 modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from
8
the scope of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and
constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the
bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear an5 d
consistent understanding of the invention.
Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following
description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for
10 illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by
the appended claims and their equivalents.
It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural
referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
15
By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value
need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example,
tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors
known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect
20 the characteristic was intended to provide.
Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be
used in the same way or in a similar way in one or more other embodiments and/or in
combination with or instead of the features of the other embodiments.
25
It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this
specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or
components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other
features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.
30
9
The present invention relates to filtration and purification system for removal of color,
odor, turbidity and microbes from surface contaminated water with increased period of
use i.e life span, and preventing contamination of purified water by the escaped
impurities.
5
The present invention provides a portable flexible bottle having a flexible hollow body,
a lid, a sipping mouth tube with locking system and push fit lid, carbon filter and hollow
fiber ultra-filtration (UF) membrane candle. The lid with mouth tube and filters may be
attached and detached as a unit to the said hollow body of the bottle. This unit is
10 disposable.
The bottle or container of the present invention provides purified water from surface
contaminated water to soldier and civilian during operational movements and disaster
scenarios, while preventing contamination of purified water by the escaped impurities
15 and also having arrangement for backwash to increase the life span of the filtering unit.
The container is compact, handy and easy to handle. It eliminates the need for halogen
tablets, boiling of water, use of hazardous chemicals, shaking, scrubbing, waiting and
efforts required in conventional water purification processes. The container is operated
20 without electricity and without use of hazardous chemicals for purification process.
Turbidity is a measure of the degree to which the water losses its transparency due to
the presence of suspended particulates, precipitate ions, colloidal particles, organic
contaminants and bio-organism. The more total suspended solids in the water make it to
25 appear higher in turbidity. Turbidity is considered as an indication of the quality of
water. There are various parameters influencing the turbidity of water. Some of these
are phytoplankton; sediments form erosion, suspended sediments from the bottom,
waste discharge, algal growth and urban run-off etc. Maximum allowed turbidity in
drinking water as specified by world health organization (WHO) is below 1NTU.
30
10
The consequences that arise due to the presence of high turbidity in water are: the
absorption of heat from sun light makes the water warmer thus reducing the
concentration level of oxygen in water, which effects the survival or existence of some
beneficial organism; the suspended particles can also scatter the light, which decreases
the photosynthetic activity in plants which again contributes to lowering the release o5 f
oxygen in the atmosphere. Beside this, the main impact of turbidity is on the aesthetic of
the water as nobody likes to drink dirty water as it is presumed to be contaminated and
hence harmful for the health. Therefore it is essential to eliminate the turbidity from
water effectively and make it fit for drinking purposes.
10
There are various methods to remove turbidity namely chemical coagulation, slow sand
filtration, diatomaceous earth filtration, membrane filtration etc. Chemical coagulation
is a simple, effective means for removal of particulates, colloids and high molecular
weight organic materials from contaminated water. There are two approaches for
15 coagulation. One approach is to directly membrane filter the waste water with the
coagulated material to form a porous, low density cake layer on the membrane surface
that is easily removed by hydraulic cleaning (e.g backwash). The other approach is to
allow the coagulated material to settle down and decant the pure water. Further,
synthetic coagulants are used that cause certain secondary problems such as coagulants
20 escape in to the filtered water, dissolved metal oxidize pipes leads to corrosion, bacterial
and other micro flora growth. These drawbacks are addressed by the use of hollow fiber
UF membrane, which if even escapes to the filtered water also do not contaminate the
purified water.
25 In an implementation, the filtering unit includes activated carbon is charcoal. The said
carbon material is maintained in uniform structure state to ensure proper adsorption of
taste and odor.
In an implementation, the filtering unit includes hollow fiber UF Membrane filter to
30 remove turbidity and microbes from surface contaminated water.
11
In an implementation, the UF membrane of the filtering unit is prepared with polyether
sulphone. The bottle uses the hollow fiber UF membrane.
In an implementation, the membrane has a pore size in the range of 0.01 to 0.1μ.
In an implementation, the UF membrane of the filtering unit is made of hollow fibers o5 f
polyether sulfone.
In an implementation, the membrane has a pore size in the range of 0.01 to 0.1μ.
10 In an implementation, the water passes in sequence from membrane filter to carbon
filter.
In an implementation, the filtering member may preferably be in the shape of a cylinder.
15 In an implementation, the container is designed such that the filtration unit is
replaceable when it is occluded. Further, the unit is capable of removing turbidity and
microbes.
In an implementation, the mouth tube is used to sip the water and has a push fit lid to
20 secure the water in the container (figure 2).
In an implementation, the filtering unit is coupled to the second side of the lid by
number of O-rings to secure the connection (figure 2). The filtering unit is cylindrical
and hangs in the hollow body of the flexible container.
25
In an implementation, the filtering unit has provision for backwashing the membrane
surface to enhance the life of filtering unit. Backwash is carried out by syringe method
(figure 2). In this method, water is injected in mouth tube through 10 ml injection. This
process repeated for 5 times. The turbidity and microbes which are held on membrane
30 surface are removed through backwash.
12
In an implementation, the container is made of soft material is LDPE (Low density
polypropylene). This material is BPA free.
In an implementation, the container works on sipping and/or squeezing mechanism.
Therefore pump is not required5 .
Referring now to figure 1, which illustrates a preferred implementation of the present
invention. A portable bottle having a flexible, hollow body 5 with an opening and a lid 2
for inserting water into an inner chamber and allowing water to be filtered and purified
10 as it is squeezed and/or sipped out of the inner chamber. The said bottle comprising: the
flexible, squeezable hollow body 5 having a threaded opening; lid 2 having threads to
attach to the threaded opening of the said body; a mouth tube 1 formed in first side of
said lid, adapted for sipping the purified water; and at least a filtering member engaged
to the second side of lid and hanging through the inner chamber, said filtering member
15 comprises: at least a first section containing activated carbon 3; and at least a second
section containing a ultrafiltration (UF) filter 4 comprising hollow fibers.
Referring now to figure 3 which illustrates the movement of water in and out of the
bottle. The water is filed in the inner chamber of the hollow body. The filtering member
20 hanging along the hollow body has a first and second section with activated charcoal
and UF filter respectively. The said first and second sections are disposed in series so
that the water dispensed out from said inner chamber by sipping or squeezing passes
through said second and first sections in this order.
25 In a preferred implementation, the various components are detailed below. The values
provided in the table are approximate and may change during practical applications:
S. No. Description
1. Water Bottle
i. Capacity Approx. 650 ml
ii. Material LDPE (BPA free)
13
iii. Diameter of bottle Approx. 60-65mm (outer
diameter)
iv. Length of bottle Approx. 170-185mm
2. Bottle mouth with lid
i. Length of lid Approx. 20-60 mm
ii. Diameter of mouth Approx. 60-65 mm
iii. Material LDPE
iv. Sipping nozzle with locking
system with push fit lid
Incorporated
3. Water filtration Unit
i. Membrane Hollow fiber polyether
sulfone based UF membrane
ii. Porosity of membrane Approx. 0.01 – 0.1μ
iii. Length of membrane filter unit Approx. 100-110 mm
iv. Diameter of filter unit Approx. 20-25 mm
v. Charcoal Length of block approx. 30-
40 mm
vi. Backwash arrangement block 1 unit
vii. Additional O rings Approx. 4 Nos.
EXAMPLES:
Example 1: The turbidity removal efficiency of flexi life saver water was carried out at
standard test conditions.
10 NTU water was prepared using clay and shaken well. Prepared turbid water was filed
in the bottle and then passed through the filtration unit. The turbidity of the output wate5 r
was obtained less than 1NTU (as per IS 10500) which is measured with turbidity meter.
Filtration unit capacity depends on the water quality.
Example 2: The turbidity removal efficiency of flexi life saver water was carried out at
10 standard test conditions.
20 NTU water was prepared using clay and shaken well. Prepared turbid water was filed
in the bottle and then passed through the filtration unit. The turbidity of the output water
14
was obtained less than 1NTU (as per IS 10500) which is measured with turbidity meter.
Filtration unit capacity depends on the water quality.
Example 3: The turbidity removal efficiency of flexi life saver water was carried out at
standard test conditions5 .
50 NTU water was prepared using clay and shaken well. Prepared turbid water was filed
in the bottle and then passed through the filtration unit. The turbidity of the output water
was obtained less than 1NTU (as per IS 10500) which is measured with turbidity meter.
Filtration unit capacity depends on the water quality.
10
Example 4: The color removal efficiency of flexi life saver water was carried out at
standard test conditions.
Color removal studies were carried out at 1ppm, 2ppm, and 3ppm concentration of
methylene blue in feed water. The output water was obtained as colorless. 1000ml of the
15 colored solution is filtered through the water bottle and UV-vis spectra of the purified
water is measured using UV-vis spectrophotometer at lambda max of 660nm, where
methylene blue shows maximum absorbance. The dye removal efficiency of the water
bottle was also calculated and tabulated in table 2.
20
It is observed that maximum removal efficiency is observed at lower concentration of
approximately 2ppm.
Example 5: The microbial decontamination studies were carried out in membrane
25 experimentation mode. In typical microbial decontamination experiments, E coli
contaminated samples having initial counts of 3 x 105 colony forming units (cfu)/100ml
were prepared. 1000ml of contaminated solution was filtered through water bottle. The
microbial decontamination efficiency of the water bottle was carried out by counting the
15
colony forming units of the purified water. This is done by filtering the bacteria, if
present in the purified water through 0.45 micron Millipore filters and placed on m-
Endo plates for incubation at 37˚C overnight. Colonies formed on filter paper were
counted by colony counter. Control experiments were also carried out without material
for comparative studies. The purified water was tested for the microbes as afor5 e
mentioned and found to contain practically nil amount of bacteria.
Apart from what is disclosed above, the present invention also include some addition
benefits and advantages. Few of the additional benefits are mentioned below:
10 • Flexi life saver water bottle with upper side carbon filters and lower side hollow
fiber polyether sulfone based UF membrane filter.
• Filtration system in water bottle is replaceable/ disposable.
• The bottle removes turbidity of 10 to 50NTU with sipping/gravity to less than
1NTU.
15 • The bottle removes color of the order of 1-3ppm form the water.
• The bottle removes microbial contaminants of order log 5 from 1000ml of
contaminated water.
Thus by filtering and purifying the contaminated water from color, odor, turbidity and
20 microbes to potable water as per WHO limit, while preventing cross contamination and
having provision for backwash the bottle stands out in relation to the various other
techniques, devices and systems used to provide portable drinking water assembly.
Although a portable water filtering and purifying container have been described in
25 language specific to structural features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the
embodiments disclosed in the above section are not necessarily limited to the specific
features or methods or devices described. Rather, the specific features are disclosed as
examples of implementations of the container.
16

WE CLAIM:
1. A portable bottle having a flexible, hollow body with an opening and a lid for
inserting water into an inner chamber and allowing water to be filtered and
purified as it is squeezed and/or sipped out of the inner chamber, said bottl5 e
comprising:
the flexible, squeezable hollow body 5 having a threaded opening;
lid 2 having threads to attach to the threaded opening of the said body;
a mouth tube 1 formed in first side of said lid, adapted for sipping the
10 purified water; and
at least a filtering member engaged to the second side of lid and hanging
through the inner chamber, said filtering member comprises:
at least a first section containing activated carbon 3; and
at least a second section containing a ultrafiltration (UF) filter 4
15 comprising hollow fibers, said first and second sections being disposed
in series so that the water dispensed from said inner chamber passes
through said second and first sections in this order;
wherein the said filtering member and lid with mouth tube form an integrated
unit, which is attached and removed from the said bottle body; and said filtering
20 member is backwashed through the said mouth tube to remove turbidity and
microbes and increase the life of the member.
2. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mouth tube comprising a push fit
locking arrangement.
25
3. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the filtering member is a cylinder.
4. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the filtering unit member is adapted to
be coupled to the second side of the bottle lid by O-rings.
30
17
5. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the activated carbon is charcoal.
6. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, the hollow fibers are made of polyether
sulfone.
5
7. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the UF membrane has a pore size in
the range of 0.01 to 0.1μ.
8. The bottle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hollow body is made of LDPE.
10
9. The bottle as claimed in claim 8, wherein LDPE is BPA free. .
10. The bottle as claimed in claim 1 removes turbidity up to 50NTU, color up to
3ppm and microbes up to log 5 in 1000ml water.