Purification

Scientists have created a portable water purifier that works simply by shaking it for three seconds and setting it to float in water. It could be a breakthrough device for emergency situations, and it’s estimated to cost less than $25 to produce.

Like me, you probably drank out of the hose when you were a kid, maybe even straight from the river ... then you learned about bacteria, viruses, got Montezuma's Revenge – or worse – from contaminated water and prefer it to be filtered now.

Katadyn has launched a state-of-the-art modular outdoor water filter system that uses a combination of three sophisticated filtration processes. The Explorer Water Filter and Purifier Series is serious professional expedition-quality gear.

Looking to best other squeezable filter bottles, the Oassay FlexFlow uses a compact filter to remove tiny viruses, bacteria, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and even fluoride. The bottle passes water at drinkable flow rates for seamless hydration.

While we've seen quite a few filtration systems for making polluted water drinkable, many are quite complex, or utilize costly materials. By contrast, an experimental new setup simply requires users to inject dirty water through a layer of cellulose.

Loading your bike with heavy bottles of water is a drag, but what else can you do on long rides? Especially if you don't use a hydration pack? Well, the Extract Water Filter lets you fill your bottle with water that you find along the way.

The new Vitaloop Defender bottle uses an all-in-one design to collect, purify and deliver water. Its five-part filtration system and battery-powered pump turn water from a lake or river into potable drinking water at the push of a button.

In a highly unexpected approach to renewable energy, researchers in Korea have developed a low-cost, easily-manufactured advanced membrane that actually generates electricity as it turns wastewater, seawater or groundwater into drinking water.

Solar stills provide a clever and simple means of purifying dirty or salty water, but they work at a rather slow rate. A new material has been shown to boost their performance, and it's made from fruit waste which would otherwise be discarded.

Although we've seen a number of systems that use sunlight to purify tainted water, their output is often quite limited. A new loofah-inspired hydrogel, however, uses sunlight to treat much more water in one go … enough to meet a person's daily needs.

In wastewater produced by the textile industry and others, dye is one of the primary pollutants. A newly developed synthetic polymer is capable of removing that dye from the water, plus it can be cleaned up and reused to treat more wastewater.

Although there are already portable systems that create drinking water by desalinating and purifying seawater, they typically utilize filters that have to be replaced. A new MIT setup, however, just requires a small amount of electricity.