Water in the Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, world leaders agreed to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in order to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. These goals apply to all countries and cover several sectors, such as climate change or gender inequalities. The number 6 is dedicated to water: Clean water and sanitation for all.Because of its cross-sectional dimension, water is essential for achieving other goals, such as Zero Hunger, Health and Wellness. Unfortunately, at the current rate of progress. it seems that many countries will not be able to reach the sixth goal by 2030.

Greater efforts and greater investments are necessary to achieve all the objectives, in particular with regard to health and hygiene: national policy adjustments, resource mobilization, national statistical systems are needed to monitor the new SDG indicators, among other things. But the important thing is to provide clean water to everyone on this earth through advanced solutions. This is possible due to the use of Graphene filters because of their high capability.

Lack of access to water

Nearly 700 million people in the world do not have access to drinking water. Drinking dirty water has disastrous consequences on the health and nutrition of people, greatly weakening the body. People who drink contaminated water can quickly become malnourished. In fact, 50 percent of cases of child malnutrition is caused by repeated diarrhea and intestinal infections due to dirty water and/or inadequate hygiene.

Despite undeniable progress since 1990, made by governments, NGOs with the support of the United Nations, more than 2 billion people currently do not have access to drinking water. Ninety percent of these people live mainly in rural or remote areas, but the problem would soon be unprecedented, according to climate experts.

Use of Graphene in Water Filtration

Water is an invaluable resource and the intelligent use and maintenance of water supplies is one of the most important and crucial challenges that stand before mankind. New technologies are constantly being sought to lower the cost and footprint of processes that make use of water resources, as potable water (as well as water for agriculture and industry) are always in desperate demand. Much research is focused on graphene for different water treatment uses, and nanotechnology also has great potential for elimination of bacteria and other contaminants.

Among graphene’s host of remarkable traits, its hydrophobia is probably one of the traits most useful for water treatment. Graphene naturally repels water, but when narrow pores are made in it, rapid water permeation is allowed. This sparked ideas regarding the use of graphene for water filtration and desalination, especially once the technology for making these micro-pores has been achieved. Graphene sheets (perforated with miniature holes) are studied as a method of water filtration, because they are able to let water molecules pass but block the passage of contaminants and substances. Graphene’s small weight and size can contribute to making a lightweight, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly generation of water filters and desalinators.

It has been discovered that thin membranes made from graphene oxide are impermeable to all gases and vapors, besides water, and further research revealed that an accurate mesh can be made to allow ultrafast separation of atomic species that are very similar in size – enabling super-efficient filtering. This opens the door to the possibility of using seawater as a drinking water resource, in a fast and relatively simple way. When the membrane is prepared using these methods, the energy consumed is lower, the operation is simple, the thickness of the Graphene Oxide membrane remains even, the level of flexibility remains intact, and it’s easy to transfer the membrane to other substrates.

RINZTECH patented water filtration technology

RINZTECH patented water filtration technology is a cost effective solution for the many millions in the world who do not have access to clean drinking water. The technology includes Graphene Oxide, Neem, Bamboo and Activated carbon.

The simple prototype demonstrates our multilayer water filter removing impurities from coca cola. The filter can remove more than 200 impurities.