ALMATY – A filter for purifying drinking water using nanostructured minerals developed at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Science and Technology Park may be presented at EXPO 2017 in Astana, its creators say. The filter is one of the first such devices to be produced in Kazakhstan.
The developers, students Assylbek Aimurzayev, Nikolai Kiyashko and Bagdad Satybaldiyev, under the tutelage of candidate of chemical sciences Bolat Uralbekov, set a goal of eliminating heavy metals from drinking water using natural minerals such as glauconitic sandstone and diatomite. The two minerals create a dual-layer filter which cleans water in two stages, from pre-cleaning to final purification. The use of local raw materials significantly reduces production costs.
The students’ research so far, using modern physicochemical methods, has shown that these minerals are very effective for purifying water with excess lead ions. The minerals are in no way inferior to the activated carbon commonly used in water filters, though activated carbon is much more expensive than glauconitic limestone and diatomaceous earth. According to the young inventors, their filter is capable of cleaning 100 cubic metres of drinking water before recharging.
