HKUST Environmental Engineering Expert to Develop Water Purifier System for Better Public Health

Office of Public Affairs

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S%HBA@ Tel: (852) 358 63 16 Fax: (852) 358 0537

For Immediate Release 1 December 1994

HKUST Environmental Engineering Expert to Develop Water Purifier System for Better Public Health

A top environmental engineer at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology is developing a way to improve public health by upgrading the quality of drinking water with a simple, but highly effective, home water-purifier system.

The system uses extended ultraviolet exposure and carbon absorption/filtration through _ .- water recirculation in a specially designed container.

“We know that activated carbon is very effective in removing a large variety of soluble pollutants from water, and also that ultraviolet irradiation is equally effective in killing harmful germs. If we combine these two technologies in a home water-purifier unit, such a unit can be expected to achieve a very high degree of water purification,” explained Professor Howard Huang Ju-Chang, senior environmental engineering faculty in the Civil & Structural Engineering Department and world-renowned environmental engineer.

Professor Huang is well-versed in the use of activated carbon for water and wastewater purification and using ultraviolet rays to disinfect treated sewage and industrial effluents.

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“In most Asian nations, people would not dare to drink tap water directly, mainly because the existing water treatment works consist of only the conventional treatment processes, which remove only suspended solids and harmful bacteria. The majority of soluble impurities escape the treatment system. As a result, the drinking water of many cities is known to have an unpleasant earthy or fishy taste,” noted Professor Huang. ” Some people install commercial filter gadgets on the faucet. These are not effective in removing organic impurities because of the very short contact time between the running water and the carbon cartridge.”

Professor Huang’s new system is a self-contained unit that recirculates water through a specially designed carbon filter and exposes it to adequate ultraviolet rays for total purification.

Professor Huang hopes that the project will allow Hong Kong to embark on a new industrial venture of manufacturing an improved horns water-purifier product, providing cleaner water to homes across the territory.

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