German water hygiene specialist Aqua free and Lufthansa Technik have jointly developed a two-stage water filtration system called PuriFLY to ensure increased quality and hygiene of drinking water on board commercial aircraft.
The company says the PuriFLY water filtration system removes 99.99999% of all known germs and bacteria and can be retrofitted in most existing commercial aircraft types.
Potable water filters currently use activated carbon, which both neutralises chlorine and filters the water. However, they require regular filter changes and additional cleaning.
Unlike conventional filters, PuriFLY adds a second filtration stage which uses a hollow fibre membrane with extremely small pore diameters in addition to activated carbon. This filtration stage holds back all particles larger than 0.2 µm and removes water bounded bacteria and other particles, achieving a reliable bacteria retention of 99.99999%, which corresponds to the standard of medical sterile filters (7-log stages).
The separation of the chemical and mechanical filter stage means that PuriFLY needs less filter changes or additional cleaning. It can be retrofitted into almost all commercial airliners with no additional modifications.
