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Residential, Commercial & Municipal Water Filtration Systems

ZEOLITE VERSUS ACTIVATED CARBON

A Cursory Comparison of Thier Fundamental Differences as Water Filtration Media


Recently the health of our private and public water supplies has triggered a
movement to test and treat to remove harmful contaminants and improve the
quality of our most basic need, clean drinking water.
The discovery or forced disclosure of the presence of lead, a known toxic
heavy metal in the public water supply of Flint, Michigan has set off a nationwide effort to find out just how dirty our water resources really are. Testing
laboratories in all fifty states are inundated with samples awaiting analysis so
that proper measures can be implemented to facilitate the clean-up of everything from toxic heavy metals, volatile organics, perflouro compounds (PFCs),
PCBs, radiation, pharmaceuticals, hydrocarbons, chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, bacteria and pathogens. The lists are extensive if not endless and the task to
identify and remove them is staggering. Many billions of dollars have already been spent and will continue to be
spent on testing and remediation and filtration systems well into the future for many generations worldwide. The
massive water quality problems we are experiencing are the direct result of our willful neglect, ignorance, and
lax regulatory enforcement of the laws governing our water resources. This is truly a global issue that demands
immediate and effective answers. The overall health of the planet is absolutely and unavoidably dependent on
the health and quality of our waters including our oceans and fresh water resources. Although 75% of the earths
surface is covered by water, only about 3% is fresh water, and only about 2% of that is potable or safe for consumption. With a burgeoning global population, the demand on that finite resource increases by the hour and
nothing less than the wellbeing of humanity and its future is at stake. It is impossible to overstate the importance
of those words.
Although many types of filtration exist, there is no one size fits all solution and we have to look at every option and weigh them all against many factors to determine which to use in a given circumstance.
The term emerging contaminants has made its way into the recent American lexicon to reference a number
of newly identified contaminants. Some are not as new as others, and in fact many have been known for some
time, but somehow still fall into the category due to newfound public awareness, usually and sadly through
forced disclosure. In particular, PFOA, PFOS and other perflouro compounds have taken center stage since
their presence was disclosed in several New England communities from New York State to New Hampshire,
Vermont, and Massachusetts and beyond. In truth, there are locations all across the country that are dealing
with these tiny cancer causing molecules that come from a number of sources, primarily plastics manufacturing and firefighting
chemicals that find their way into underground aquifers. An ether
type of solvent, 1,4 Dioxane is now also known to be pervasive
in thousands of sites across the country. Whatever the flavor of
the week emerging contaminant we are dealing with, theres no
denying that we have made a toxic soup of our environment to the

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Whats In Your Water? New Problems Require New Solutions

extent that practically no truly clean water now exists.


Niles International Corporation, a Northern New Hampshire based company with a focus on environmental science and eco-industrial engineering
has brought a new patented, scalable, sustainable, economically viable and
environmentally responsible solution to many of the challenges of water
filtration. The company works in all facets of environmental remediation as
a research and development group, hands on physical remediation service
provider and resource for water filtration and soil remediation tools, systems
and media. Mineral technologies are an area of specific interest and development for Niles International Corporation. Recently a new line of filtration products and strategies were released to answer the needs of consumer,
commercial and heavy industrial water filtration. These continually evolving
products and strategies are the result of over ten years of extensive study,
testing and development of several naturally occurring minerals that possess
some extraordinary and very unique properties.
Typical Home Carbon Filter
The purpose of this paper is to identify the advantages of these special
minerals, known in the scientific and geological world as Zeolites, and to
compare their superior qualities with the characteristics of an older and more
familiar technology, namely granular activated carbon or GAC. GAC is the most widely known and accepted
media in current use.
Zeolites are comprised of a group of about forty naturally occurring volcanic minerals that are more easily described as hyper porous solids that possess the ability to sort and sequester other molecules through their lattice
work or honeycomb structures. There are two distinct processes that happen in this action, size exclusion and
ionic exchange. The minerals are first prepared by way of a patented process to enhance the minerals natural
affinities for positively charged ions and isotopes which include most heavy metals and radioactive particles. A
process has also been developed that puts a positive charge on the zeolite media to make it attractive to neutral
or negatively charged targets. The resulting media options are arguably the best available, least expensive and
most effective filtration choices in the world.
Consider the following:
Granular Activated Carbon is derived from two primary sources, coal and coconut shells. Both are burned to
produce a charcoal substance that is then treated to produce a positive electrical charge on the surface of the
finished product, making it somewhat attractive to a limited range of contaminants. Due to the positive charge
of GAC, it is repulsive to metal ions and radioactive isotopes which immediately disqualifes GAC as an effective solution for those types of contaminants which, by the way, make up a major portion of the list of the most
harmful things we need to remove from our water.
GAC is organic by nature, meaning that it must eventually biodegrade and collapse, thereby releasing anything it loosely holds in its comparatively large porous structure. The difference between GAC and Zeolite in
this regards is astounding. The pore size of GAC is 1000-1200 angstroms versus 4 angstroms for natural Zeolite. The angstrom is a form of measurement that uses light waves to measure extremely small distances such as
pore structures.
In direct comparison, Zeolite can therefore trap up to 1200 times smaller molecules in its pores than GAC,
meaning that it can capture and hold very tiny molecules, organic and otherwise, including heavy metals and
radioactive isotopes, something GAC could never do. That fatal flaw makes GAC a serious future liability with

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Whats In Your Water? New Problems Require New Solutions

respect to its inherent guarantee to re-pollute the environment.


Engineering studies on GAC as a water filter media are identifying other significant disqualifying factors for
GAC as well. The material is comparatively soft, versus Zeolites hardness of 4 on the Mohs hardness scale of
1-10, 10 being the hardest for materials like diamonds. As a result, GAC filter beds are experiencing a very high
attrition rate attributed to that characteristic softness and the large pores that comprise its overall structure. Media collapse is pervasive across GAC beds in pressure type vessels due to abrasion of the granules versus lower
head pressure and flow rates of atmospheric systems.
Pressure vessels make up the vast majority of consumer and commercial/industrial and municipal filtration
systems, which means that the GAC systems we have relied on for decades are, and have apparently always
been, largely ineffective, inferior and subject to catastrophic failure.
Another considerable disadvantage to GAC is its high cost and the sheer volume of material required to
achieve only temporary results. GAC versus Zeolite, in terms of volume of media required in systems of equal
capability, is best expressed as 6 to 1. That is an important figure given several factors. First is the direct cost of
the GAC media itself. Bulk Zeolite is about one third the price of bulk GAC. Multiply the cost per ton/volume
differential by six, and then consider the volume of toxic waste generated by GAC and the costs associated with
its disposal as a hazardous waste. Zeolite generates no hazardous waste and therefore no anticipated hazardous material disposal costs. A very important further consideration is the frequency with which GAC must be
replaced.
Studies are being done to determine those exact
parameters but preliminary studies indicate GAC
will need to be replaced up to three or four times
to match Zeolite which has little to no attenuation/ attrition factor and a long and highly effective
lifespan due to its extraordinary internal surface
area and superior encapsulation and ionic exchange
capacity.
The time required for GAC to perform its duties
is substantially greater than Zeolite as well. Recent
studies by qualified engineers working several large
scale and municipal filtration pilots with GAC as
Zeolites can be charged to attract certain molecules
a filtration media for 1,4 Dioxane and PFOA have
disclosed that up to and in some cases more than an
hour of contact time is required to achieve acceptable removal rates of those two constituents.
Zeolite performs the same function in less than three minutes of contact time. This is a clear indication that
validates the statements of the need for large volumes of GAC to offset its slow performance characteristics.
There are, no doubt, instances where the physical properties of GAC may be of some benefit, but water filtration, particularly on sustainability, scalability, economics and environmental responsibility levels is clearly not
its true calling. Until now we have unfortunately had to rely on GAC as a filtration media, albeit a poor one, for
lack of a better solution. The revelation that GAC is not and has never been nearly as effective as we have been
led to believe may be hard for some to accept, especially the GAC producers and distributors, but the science
and direct evidence speak for themselves. The filtration industry as a whole will fundamentally change for good
with the introduction of Zeolite technology, a thirty million year old material which is at the forefront of cutting
edge water filtration.

Zeo Zero Water Filters (603) 801-9979 ZeoZeroFilters@gmail.com www.ZeoZero.com


Whats In Your Water? New Problems Require New Solutions

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