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Posted: 3/15/2017 4:15:45 PM EDT
I cant seem to find a system that says they can make water may contain hydrocarbons(has or oil) or chemicals /fertilizer  drinkable.

Anyone know a system that does?
Link Posted: 3/15/2017 4:30:36 PM EDT
[#1]
Hydrocarbons & inorganics? Activated carbon + reverse osmosis could work but I would be looking for a better source of water before I tried to clean that up.
Link Posted: 3/15/2017 4:36:51 PM EDT
[#2]
That's tough.  I don't know of any other means other than distilling; and even that may not remove some contaminates depending on the type of chemical contamination.  There may be a multi-filtration and treatment process, but I can't think of anything portable or for personal use.

ROCK6
Link Posted: 3/15/2017 5:31:33 PM EDT
[#3]
In FL you have to assume every body of water has those containments. Lakes/ponds/rivers are next to homes, golf courses or farms which all use lawn chemicals, fertilizer or pesticides. Add to that what runs next to roadways or has boat traffic in them and thats where the hydrocarbons come into play.

Just like the whole plan for the worst hope for the best. I plan that every source has it cause unless its a deep well , even those can be radioactive. Thanks alot mosaic! (Local story)

And it doesn't have to be portable.
Link Posted: 3/15/2017 6:35:14 PM EDT
[#4]
Separate with electrolysis into oxygen and hydrogen, then burn the hydrogen and collect the water produced?
Link Posted: 3/15/2017 8:34:38 PM EDT
[#5]
I think distilling would be the only option, and even that is going to have to be done carefully
since the initial output could easily have petroleum distillates in it (yuk!)

I'd probably boil 10% of it off, then distill it, possibly even multiple times.

Purifying water contaminated like that is going to be very expensive
in terms of energy, or if you use filtration, supplies of activated carbon.
Link Posted: 3/16/2017 7:54:41 AM EDT
[#6]
This for on site or a bag?
Plus events come to play..bio..chem..nuke..zeds....etc.
I've drank water from all over fl. In the filters
...  

I'm perfectly normal

Long turn solutions are gonna be multistage high energy processes. 
Link Posted: 3/16/2017 5:54:02 PM EDT
[#7]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
I think distilling would be the only option, and even that is going to have to be done carefully
since the initial output could easily have petroleum distillates in it (yuk!)

I'd probably boil 10% of it off, then distill it, possibly even multiple times.

Purifying water contaminated like that is going to be very expensive
in terms of energy, or if you use filtration, supplies of activated carbon.
View Quote
Exactly.   Boiling off some amount would be critical....in the OP petroleum and ag chemicals are mentioned.   One might condense some petroleum compounds and even pesticides right back into your "clean" water if you didn't boil them off first.
Link Posted: 3/16/2017 6:32:32 PM EDT
[#8]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:


Exactly.   Boiling off some amount would be critical....in the OP petroleum and ag chemicals are mentioned.   One might condense some petroleum compounds and even pesticides right back into your "clean" water if you didn't boil them off first.
View Quote
You are assuming that the hydrocarbons are more volatile than water. The reality is purification by distillation will be  difficult at best. Even if the organics are less volatile than water some will likely codistill as the water comes over do to steam distillation .

For water lightly contaminated with organics activated carbon works well.
Given the OP's intended source, ground water in FL, the amount of organics & inorganics (fertilizer) should not be very high. A good activated carbon filter plus boiling or filtration should work.
Link Posted: 3/18/2017 2:21:11 AM EDT
[#9]
Sediment filtration and pH correction, followed by chlorination in a large tank, where the water stays exposed to chlorine and is allowed to settle, then run it through an RO (reverse osmosis) system to remove contaminants and hardness. Finally run it through a charcoal filter to remove any remaining chemical contaminants. The final stage may include adding some minerals to make the water less aggressive and potable.
Link Posted: 3/18/2017 3:27:28 PM EDT
[#10]
The way I always think about something is in the terms of the smallest particle that by it self is still the contaminate. For example bacterial contamination smallest measurable unit is one bacteria. A viral contamination is one virus cell. A chemicals smallest unit is a molecule of the contaminant. A single molecule is a tiny tiny thing and often not much larger than a water molecule. Its a very tall order to remove one molecule and leave another of similar size. I think the closest thing would be a reverse osmosis system. Now that said hydrocarbons are proportionally larger than a water molecule but still they are very small.

Here is a chart I like to reference for water filtration requirements for a given radius of contaminant.

Link Posted: 3/18/2017 5:17:20 PM EDT
[#11]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Sediment filtration and pH correction, followed by chlorination in a large tank, where the water stays exposed to chlorine and is allowed to settle, then run it through an RO (reverse osmosis) system to remove contaminants and hardness. Finally run it through a charcoal filter to remove any remaining chemical contaminants. The final stage may include adding some minerals to make the water less aggressive and potable.
View Quote
this is the answer. If you have petrol filter you wont need RO
Link Posted: 3/18/2017 7:33:17 PM EDT
[#12]
I am studying water contamination for a college English paper right now.  Most of the major contaminants are removed through common filtration techniques, at least to levels allowed by the EPA.

The topics of my paper is medication levels in our water supply.  They are currently trace amounts, so the EPA doesn't monitor for them.  They are also lower than the therapeutic dose, so no one is studying the effects of chronic exposure.

One of the studies I read mentioned that RO filtration gets 99% of the contaminants, including meds.

If I were you, I would look at a carbon filtration system for the big stuff, followed by a reverse osmosis system for full purification.
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