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Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

cdc.gov

71–80 of 99 posts

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#71
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alum isn't exactly a common household item these days You can often find it in the spice section. People use it to make pickles. McCormick/Schilling sells it, among other major brands. Walmart sells "Hoosier Hill Farm" brand for about $15/pound.

My point was more that it isn't something people are likely to already have on hand at home. It's certainly readily available and extremely cheap for this purpose, but you need to actually buy some before a disaster hits.

Depends on the family!

Hoarding the clearance pickling supplies after the season is over is a long tradition in my family. :)

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#72
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3.5 cents to PRODUCE. Not to ship halfway around the world, warehouse, pick, package and ship.

Each sachet of P&G™ is provided to global emergency relief organizations or non-governmental organizations at a cost of 3.5 US cents, not including shipping from Pakistan by ocean container. Transport, distribution, education, and community motivation can add significantly to program costs. Sachets are generally sold at product cost recovery for 10 US cents each, for a cost of 1 US cent per liter treated. 10 cents fo…

Especially when people pay $2 for a half liter of Poland Spring!

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#73

Detailed video about this: https://youtu.be/6qZWMNW7GmE

He claims P&G is selling it for a loss which I found to be less believable, would love to see if there're more information on that.

We definitely don't make any profit from this and while I'm not familiar with the financials, we do donate these products as part of our CSR and for disaster relief operations.

This is the official website. https://csdw.org/

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#74

3.5 cents per sachet seems very expensive in bulk. A sachet probably only contains a gram or so, meaning these ingredients are being sold at $35/kilo. $3/kilo sounds far more reasonable, and it should be sold in 1kg containers and users instructed to use a teaspoon per large bucket.

$0.035 to clean 10 liters of water is very good. $35/kilo doesn't seem unreasonable given that chlorine itself is $16-$22 a kilo through consumer stores. Given that these are pretty gnarly chemicals in bulk, I don't think you want users handling them. Training users on PPE and procedure and supplying the PPE is a whole mess. I have no idea where you got $3 from.

Don't really need any special ppe for hypo and ferric. They're common industrial water treatment chemicals, meaning they're handled daily by low skilled workers without much news of accidents. There aren't even any special containment requirements for small quantities As a yard stick of cost: surface water treatment costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1/1,000 gallons in the developed world.

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#75
post #2

Saw this stuff on Mark Robers channel. Pretty amazing stuff. Been thinking of finding some for an emergency kit.

If you’re in the US or Canada, you probably want something else for water purification in your emergency kit (iodine or a good filter or the equipment to boil water)— bleach (including the calcium hypochlorite in this stuff) won’t adequately kill Giardia cysts or Cryptosporidium.

I picked up a case of Crypto during a day trip to Milwaukee for a lunch meeting back in the 90s (they had a water treatment issue).

0/10, would not recommend.

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#76
post #2

Saw this stuff on Mark Robers channel. Pretty amazing stuff. Been thinking of finding some for an emergency kit.

You could also ask your local water provider what their emergency plan is. Some parts of their emergency plan are confidential, but they are required by law to have a plan. The larger operators already have their Risk and Resiliency plans in effect, and smaller operators have a July deadline for their R&R plans.

It's been my experience that water operators take a lot of pride in their work and are happy to educate the public about what it is they do.

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to know what percentage of trees are from CO2 and what from the soil? I’ve always wondered how much carbon is captured in, say, a book, or a dresser

Dry wood is about 50% carbon, 41% oxygen, 6% hydrogen, and 3% trace minerals, so it's probably safe to say that over 50% of it comes from CO2, and the rest from water and soil.

Is there not carbon in the soil?

Edit: I misread what you said. I think you are claiming that because there is so much carbon and oxygen, probably more than half comes from CO2. But there is both carbon and oxygen (well really, air) in soil. Although apparently the concentration of CO2 in the soil's air is much higher than it is in the normal atmosphere, so it's possible your statement is correct. (Plus looking at dry wood composition is a bit odd when it's generally less than 15% moisture content - that leaves out a lot of water that's present in a living tree.)

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#78

I worked as an extraction metallurgist in semi desert mines and we used an aluminium based flocculant (alum) to clarify water in dams with rotating stirrers. Quite an old concept and not expensive.

Interestingly the Holy See had a monopoly on alum in the middle ages.

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#79
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how did new trees grow when the ground was covered in piles of dead trees?

I’m no ancient tree expert, but I imagine they’d eventually be buried under layers of new soil, washed away, or be swept along with geological movements

What do you think “new soil” is made of? The original trees evolved in a soil with different composition from the soil we have today (which today includes the consequences of decomposition of... trees).

I mean sure some of that could happen due to a bit of wind, so you’re not at all wrong. But the volume of thick loamy topsoil isn’t mostly tiny rock grains (sand) but a living amalgam of bacteria, fungi, plant matter, plantae, animal detritus (faeces but also cast off skin or carapaces...).

Part of the problem with modern farming is that parts of the economic process treat the soil as an inert matrix (just as road bike manufacturers justifiably (in their case) don’t spend time thinking of the road as part of the bike system).

Re: Flocculant/Disinfectant Powder

#80
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He claims P&G is selling it for a loss which I found to be less believable, would love to see if there're more information on that.

We definitely don't make any profit from this and while I'm not familiar with the financials, we do donate these products as part of our CSR and for disaster relief operations. This is the official website. https://csdw.org/

I’d be curious to know what percentage of the cost is the packaging.

Also, a link to lab results would be great. The article (but not the official website) says it removes some heavy metals. I wonder in what concentration, and which metals.

Also, how does this compare in cost to a softener + carbon + uv/chlorine?

Anyway, this looks like a fantastic technology. Thanks!

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