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Dean Kamen's Water Purifier

Olowkow

Philosopher
Olowkow
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
8,230
Just saw Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) on the Colbert Report demonstrating his water purifier. He claims that it will remove "any impurities" from water and produce 1000 liters per day of "distilled" water.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/dean_kamen_sequ.php

There are many references to this on the web, incuding apparently a claim that he can use a stirling engine, using cow dung as fuel, that would generate power for the device. He has a patent according to wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen

The patent mentions a "vapor compression distillation unit". I am wondering how one patents a distillation device, and how it could be powered efficiently with a stirling engine. The demo unit was running producing cold water in quite copius amounts, no steam was visible. Colbert dumped a whole bag of his favorite corn chips into the supply tank.

Anyone have the low down on this device?
 
Olowkow said:
Just saw Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) on the Colbert Report demonstrating his water purifier. He claims that it will remove "any impurities" from water and produce 1000 liters per day of "distilled" water.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/dean_kamen_sequ.php

There are many references to this on the web, incuding apparently a claim that he can use a stirling engine, using cow dung as fuel, that would generate power for the device. He has a patent according to wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen

The patent mentions a "vapor compression distillation unit". I am wondering how one patents a distillation device, and how it could be powered efficiently with a stirling engine. The demo unit was running producing cold water in quite copius amounts, no steam was visible. Colbert dumped a whole bag of his favorite corn chips into the supply tank.

Anyone have the low down on this device?
Click to expand...

I would have thought that any device that uses a form of distillation, is up against the latent heat of vaporisation of water. Certainly, a typical still working at atmospheric pressure would require kilowatts to produce 100 l/day. There would also be the problem of removing suspended solids, which would eventually clog the device. It would seem more sensible to have a simple filter followed by UV irradiation to destroy organic contaminants. if inorganic contaminants are a problem then maybe include an ion-exchange unit.
 
Graham Jackman said:
I would have thought that any device that uses a form of distillation, is up against the latent heat of vaporisation of water. Certainly, a typical still working at atmospheric pressure would require kilowatts to produce 100 l/day.
Click to expand...

I would certainly think so, but there was no mention of how much power it required, or any detail on its workings, just claims of saving the world and almost a "magical" process of water purification. That's why my radar went up. Of course, Colbert didn't ask the right questions.
 
I saw the story on the Colbert Report also.

I thought there would be technical details on the web about it, but I didn't find anything except for some short summaries of what is claimed.
 
Kamen does have a background as an inventor. He has pushed out usable product before. His claims were wildly exaggerated, but only socially, not technologically. (Eg, the Segway does what it does, just not world transformingly)
The Stirling engine could be used to purify water as it produces energy: eg, the steam produced would be purified. It's real efficient, and very reliable. Kamen has experience in compressed air devices, which are related, as well as a history of messing with steam.

Probably, it'll work. I can imagine, given the named parts, it will be cheap. (There is a patent) I dunno how effective or useful it'll be.
 
e-sabbath said:
Kamen does have a background as an inventor. He has pushed out usable product before. His claims were wildly exaggerated, but only socially, not technologically. (Eg, the Segway does what it does, just not world transformingly)
The Stirling engine could be used to purify water as it produces energy: eg, the steam produced would be purified. It's real efficient, and very reliable. Kamen has experience in compressed air devices, which are related, as well as a history of messing with steam.

Probably, it'll work. I can imagine, given the named parts, it will be cheap. (There is a patent) I dunno how effective or useful it'll be.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Kamen seems to be dead-on when he says what his machines CAN do...but not so much with what they WILL do for society.
 
e-sabbath said:
Kamen does have a background as an inventor. He has pushed out usable product before. His claims were wildly exaggerated, but only socially, not technologically. (Eg, the Segway does what it does, just not world transformingly)
The Stirling engine could be used to purify water as it produces energy: eg, the steam produced would be purified. It's real efficient, and very reliable. Kamen has experience in compressed air devices, which are related, as well as a history of messing with steam.

Probably, it'll work. I can imagine, given the named parts, it will be cheap. (There is a patent) I dunno how effective or useful it'll be.
Click to expand...

You still need to find energy to produce steam. of course you can usefully recover some of that by a final stage condensation cycle, which is what made steam engines practical. I just suspect that in that case, the production of water is a minor aspect of the energy production.
 
Vacuum distillation perhaps? And/or freeze drying.

Results would be instant crystals of crud.

Stirlings made mechanical energy, good for making vacuum. Not heat energy for making steam.
 
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Ah yes, the Segway. An amazing amount of engineering to produce a scooter that you can stand up on and only has two wheels. Both of these had been possible before, but never at the same time. Now we have a scooter that is both stand-up and two-wheeled.

And the world is basically the same. Who woulda thunk?
 
I was recently impressed by this.

A bottle, a pump, and a really really fine filter. What could be simpler.

Unfortunately, the filter eventually needs replacing, so you can't just give one to everyone in the Third World and say "there, problem solved". However, it should work as intended in disaster areas, and the military interest should bring about a gratifying reduction in the price.
 
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casebro said:
Vacuum distillation perhaps? And/or freeze drying.

Results would be instant crystals of crud.

Stirlings made mechanical energy, good for making vacuum. Not heat energy for making steam.
Click to expand...

Unless you provide the heat of vaporisation, both vacuum distillation and freeze drying only benefit from a reduction in atmospheric pressure - for which you have to provide the energy. One reason freeze drying works is that the heat of vaporisation comes from the sample being dried, which keeps it frozen (if you maintain a good enough vacuum!). Without heat, both processes tend to be slow.
 
I saw the Colbert report last night that had him as a guest. This thing is pretty amazing. On house current it can make a thousand liters a day of pure distilled water. From almost any source.

I don't know what the amperage is, but that is damn impressive. His statistics about water and health worldwide were sobering. If true, and they probably are, using these devices would be the most efficient way to improve the health of people on the planet.

Us being rich spoiled people, with fresh water always there, it is hard to imagine 1.2 billion people sick and thirsty, every day. Because they have dirty water. And not much of it.
 
He also made the point about how much energy it takes to bottle and transport all those 5 gallon jugs of water to offices and homes every day. One of these nifty distillers would be far cheaper to have onsight, and you have guaranteed quality. Of course he didn't say how much it will cost, but considering how much people spend on bottled water, unless the thing was over the top expensive, it would be a bargain.
 
I met Dean a couple of weekends ago at the FIRST Robotics competition in Hartford, CT. My daughters team made it to the finals and finished second, not too shabby. Dean is the real deal and made his fortune in medical autosyringe and insulin pumps. You should find and watch a video of his iBOT wheelchair going up flights of stairs, it's really incredible.

Don't know much about this water thingy but if Dean says it works, it works. He's not a flimflam scammer.
 
robinson said:
I saw the Colbert report last night that had him as a guest. This thing is pretty amazing. On house current it can make a thousand liters a day of pure distilled water. From almost any source.

I don't know what the amperage is, but that is damn impressive. His statistics about water and health worldwide were sobering. If true, and they probably are, using these devices would be the most efficient way to improve the health of people on the planet.

Us being rich spoiled people, with fresh water always there, it is hard to imagine 1.2 billion people sick and thirsty, every day. Because they have dirty water. And not much of it.
Click to expand...

Sadly, those people with no water tend not to have electric power either. How about a pedal powered version? Similarly, those people who can afford bottled water usually have a ready mains water supply that is as good, if not better, than bottled water.
 
I imagine it can be run in solar power. A device like this would be a life saver in disaster/crisis situations, (thinking Katrina type), Especially if it could use a solar panel to work, or bicycle power, something.

Not having fresh water can kill you in a matter of days, depending on the temperature.

The bottled water thing is so bizarre. This huge infrastructure to get drinkable water to people, and they reject it as drinking water because it has fluoride and chlorine in it. (and other stuff). Because it taste bad.

Or something. Now I understand that, because I drink distilled water if I can. But buying water in little bottles is insane. Even 5 gallon bottles is a pain. Running your own distiller costs less, but it takes forever. Like 8 hours for a gallon.

Anything that uses house current and can make a 1000 liters a day of distilled water has my vote. I wonder how much it costs.
 
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This device was covered in more detail in a broadcast of the show Iconoclasts, which airs on the sundance channel. I wasn't paying strict attention to the science-y parts, though.
 
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