Wood can filter nanoparticles from water.

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Pattree

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Jul 19, 2023
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My weekly comic, New Scientist, has an article this week about water filters made from slices of wood.

Water filters made from untreated wood can remove more than 99 per cent of particles, taking out many harmful bacteria and microplastics.

I’m not sure how ethical it might be to copy the article here and a link would require a subscription.

Basically filters made of disks of wood, 50mm in diameter and 1mm thick take out everything above 100nm.

This includes microplastics and most bacteria but not virii.

The article does not say how many discs are used at a time but it implies just one.


The researchers tested slices of yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and silver fir (Abies alba). Two were clear leaders: European beech removed 99.7 to 99.9 per cent of nanoparticles and silver fir removed 99.3 to 99.7 per cent. But water flowed quicker through beech wood, so it was the researchers’ preferred choice.

Perhaps someone can take this up.
We can’t do the detailed before and after testing but is there something that we can detect by smell or taste that would do the job?
 
That’s interesting. Makes sense I suppose due to the tiny hollow vessels remaining in the wood.

I remember being surprised how effective activated charcoal derived from coconut shells is for filtration, of course it’s the long rods I use for my mains drinking water filter, but the specs are crazy. It kind of blew me away that 3 grams of activated coconut charcoal has the surface area of a football pitch, and a kilo has a surface area of a million square metres.
 
I do not have any water filtering system but I thought I’d make a wooden one out of interest. Getting a cross cut slice down to 1mm thick won’t be easy. I’ll probably settle for bigger, thicker and slower.
 

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