This UV-Tube has been getting some press in the wake of hurricane Katrina. It is a low-cost water disinfecting system, which basically consists of a plastic tube and an ultraviolet light bulb, which can be run on solar power. It processes about five liters of water per minute. Ultraviolet light has been used to disinfect water for quite a while now. The inventors say the UV-Tube differs from other systems because it is inexpensive and less energy intensive.
"If you run the system throughout the day, you can get drinking water for hundreds of people," said graduate student Micah Lang at the University of California, Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. The team recently conducted a round of field tests with a solar-powered version of the tube in a tsunami-ravaged village in Sri Lanka and in rural villages in Baja California. The tests have gone quite well, Lang and Kammen said. "It is a great way to kill most of the pathogens in decaying fecal matter," said Kammen.
Via Treehugger...
An aside. There are thousands of uses for Ultraviolet light to be used as a water disinfector. Two common uses which immediantly come to mind are swimming pools and inside and outside aquariums. The new trick here is a direct connection with solar power. g
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