Case Study: Tactical Water Purification Systems

The U.S. Congress initiated the Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier (EUWP) program in 2003 to stimulate discovery and invention in water reclamation, purification, energy and distribution technologies and to validate emerging science in this arena.

The first measurable objective of the program was to develop a transportable water treatment system that could be airlifted in a single C-130 transport plane and be quickly assembled to produce 100,000 gal/day of purified water from seawater.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), acting on the EUWP initiaitive, developed a new tactical water purification system that employs state-of-the-art, commercially-available ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technology, sometimes in conjunction with reverse osmosis (RO).

The new system can be easily transported to remote locations and quickly set up to produce safe drinking water from almost any available raw water source, including highly-turbid water, seawater, and water with nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) contamination. The system is designed to provide potable water for missions ranging from the battle-field to humanitarian relief efforts around the world.