2982: Water Filtration - Revision history

172.70.208.99: /* Explanation */

2025-05-27T05:24:48Z

‎Explanation

108.162.227.7: /* Explanation */ autoclaves probably aren't used for water sterilization

2025-05-27T05:23:17Z

‎Explanation: autoclaves probably aren't used for water sterilization

Firestar233: forward osmosis is a technique that is actually used

2025-04-10T20:33:35Z

forward osmosis is a technique that is actually used

Lettherebedarklight: /* Explanation */ real

2024-11-20T15:25:20Z

‎Explanation: real

Xurkitree10: /* Transcript */

2024-10-21T05:24:58Z

‎Transcript

Starstar: The "taking water apart and cleaning each part" takes a few steps

2024-10-08T19:26:52Z

The "taking water apart and cleaning each part" takes a few steps

162.158.74.118: /* Explanation */ Better commaing

2024-09-28T21:07:27Z

‎Explanation: Better commaing

Whoop whoop pull up: /* Explanation */

2024-09-28T19:01:13Z

‎Explanation

CategoryGeneral: It's really really small...

2024-09-28T14:14:58Z

It's really really small...

Xurkitree10: /* Explanation */

2024-09-20T17:51:39Z

‎Explanation

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 |Condenser
 |{{Yes|Real}}
-|{{Yes}}
+|{{No}}
 |This step condenses the steam generated by the autoclave back into water. This is a normal part of the process used in "traditional" water purification by distillation.
 |-

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 |Autoclave
 |{{Yes|Real}}
-|{{Yes}}
+|{{No}}
 |{{w|Autoclaves}} are essentially large pressure cookers that sterilize items and liquids through exposing them to a high temperature (~120°C or ~248°F) over tens of minutes in presence of water. By maintaining a high pressure, the boiling point of water goes up. This creates a very hot and humid atmosphere, making efficient heat transfer with all contents and inactivating all biological entities through this heat. They are commonly used in hospital and laboratory settings to sterilize plastics, glassware, equipment and solutions (like bottles of growth medium for bacteria) to be used in a sterile environment. The advantage of this method compared to dry heat (aka putting things in a 150°C-180°C oven until they are sterile) is that most lab plastics survive a passage at 120°C without melting. While difficult to streamline (as this technique is used for batches), it has the advantage over light-based methods that heat gets everywhere, and that instead of just damaging DNA, you also denature many of the proteins and other structures of microorganisms.  Some proteins, such as {{w|prion}}s, can survive autoclaving intact but, for most purposes, equipment that's been autoclaved can be regarded as sterile.
 |-

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 |Regular osmosis
 |{{Yes|Real}}
-|{{No}}
+|{{Yes}}<!--style="background:#FFFF9E;vertical-align:middle;text-align:{{{align|center}}};{{{style|}}}" class="table-yes"|Sometimes-->
-|Regular osmosis (also known as "osmosis") is the tendency of a solvent (like water) to flow through a semipermeable membrane towards the side that has a higher concentration of dissolved molecules or ions. It therefore goes from a purer state to a less pure state, the opposite of filtration.
+|{{w|Forward osmosis|Regular osmosis}} (also known as "forward osmosis" or "osmosis") is the tendency of a solvent (like water) to flow through a semipermeable membrane towards the side that has a higher concentration of dissolved molecules or ions. It therefore goes from a purer state to a less pure state, the opposite of filtration. However, careful selection of solutes can render this process useful in water filtration. For example, with sugars like glucose or fructose enclosed in a semipermeable membrane, the package can be submerged in a lake or stream, and water will be drawn into the bag producing a drink that is ready to consume, having been filtered by the membrane. Magnetic particles have also been used, as they can be easily separated from the filtered solution with a magnet.
 |-
 |X-Ray Sterilization
 |{{Yes|Real}}
 |{{No}}
-|{{w|Sterilization_(microbiology)#Ionizing_radiation_sterilization|X-ray sterilization}} is used to sterilize equipment, and may also be used as a cold method (in contrast to techniques like pasteurization) of eliminating germs and killing insects in fresh foodstuffs. Has also been used to sterilize postal mail.
+|{{w|Sterilization_(microbiology)#Ionizing_radiation_sterilization|X-ray sterilization}} is used to sterilize equipment, and may also be used as a cold method (in contrast to techniques like pasteurization) of eliminating germs and killing insects in fresh foodstuffs. X-Rays have also been used to sterilize postal mail.
 |-
 |Carbon Filter

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-This comic seems to be a diagram of how well water is purified, a common set of procedures done to make said water safe to drink. However, this well water is "purified" through a series of increasingly unnecessary, expensive, and possibly hazardous steps, ending with producing "pure" water synthesized from hydrogen and oxygen (which have each been synthesized from subatomic particles) - before promptly undoing all of the work by re-adding raw well water and its original minerals and probiotics, (which is one way of describing chemical and biological contaminants) "for taste and to support immune health". In real life, groundwater generally only needs treatment for any contaminants (chemical or biological) known to be a problem based on the results of water testing or an incident, but adding the original water back in could be dangerous if the water has not been sampled recently.
+This comic seems to be a diagram of how well water is purified, a common set of procedures done to make said water safe to drink. However, this well water is "purified" through a series of increasingly unnecessary, expensive, and possibly hazardous steps, ending with producing "pure" water synthesized from hydrogen and oxygen (which have each been synthesized from subatomic particles) - before promptly undoing all of the work by re-adding raw well water and its original minerals and probiotics (which is one way of describing chemical and biological contaminants) "for taste and to support immune health". In real life, groundwater generally only needs treatment for any contaminants (chemical or biological) known to be a problem based on the results of water testing or an incident, but adding the original water back in could be dangerous if the water has not been sampled recently.
 {| class="wikitable"
 |-
 !Step
-!Real Device?
+!Real?
 !Used for water treatment?
 !Explanation

@@ Line 129: / Line 129: @@
 ==Transcript==
 :[Header:]
 :How Water Filtration Works

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 |{{Yes|Real}}
 |{{No}}
-|The water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen gas using an electric current. Assuming the gas outputs of this process are pure hydrogen and oxygen gas, this *would* be an extremely effective sterilization tactic, seeing as no known organism or water pollutant is entirely composed out of hydrogen or oxygen gas. Along with the next step, this step may be a misguided attempt to "take the water apart and clean each part individually". The hydrogen is sent to the ionizer, while the oxygen is sent to the oxygen spallation step.
+|The water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen gas using an electric current. Assuming the gas outputs of this process are pure hydrogen and oxygen gas, this *would* be an extremely effective sterilization tactic, seeing as no known organism or water pollutant is entirely composed out of hydrogen or oxygen gas. Along with the next few steps, this step may be a misguided attempt to "take the water apart and clean each part individually". The hydrogen is sent to the ionizer, while the oxygen is sent to the oxygen spallation step.
 |-
 |Oxygen Spallation

@@ Line 167: / Line 167: @@
 {{comic discussion}}
+[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
 [[Category:Chemistry]]
 [[Category:Physics]]
 [[Category:Engineering]]