Water purification device
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsJames Dennis Cotton, Dennis Stein Everhart, Elizabeth Deibler Gadsby
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A drinking straw that purifies water by forced movement of water through the straw. The straw is composed of: 1) a filter plug made of a fibrous structure, the filter plug having sides, a first end, a second end, and a firmness sufficient to avoid collapse of the fibrous structure under a specified pressure drop; 2) a water purification material integrated in the fibrous structure; and 3) a liquid impervious wrapper covering the sides of the filter plug, the wrapper defining openings at the first and second ends of the filter plug.
Claims37
A device that purifies contaminated water by forced movement of water through the device, the device comprising:
- at least one filter plug composed of a fibrous structure, the filter plug having sides, a first end, a second end, and a firmness sufficient to avoid collapse of the fibrous nonwoven structure under a pressure drop of from about 0.5 to about 22 cm water/cm filter plug length;
- a water purification material integrated in the fibrous structure;
- and
- a liquid impervious wrapper covering the sides of each filter plug, the wrapper defining openings at the first and second ends of the filter plug.
A drinking straw that purifies contaminated water by forced movement of water through the straw, the straw comprising:
- a filter plug composed of a fibrous structure, the filter plug having sides, a first end, a second end, and a firmness sufficient to avoid collapse of the fibrous structure under a pressure drop of from about 0.5 to about 22 cm water/cm filter plug length;
- a water purification material integrated in the fibrous structure;
- and
- a liquid impervious wrapper covering the sides of the filter plug, the wrapper defining openings at the first and second ends of the filter plug.
A drinking straw that removes waterborne pathogens from aqueous liquid by forced movement of water through the straw, the straw comprising:
- a filter plug composed of a nonwoven web selected from a nonwoven web of meltblown fibers and nonwoven web of spunbond filaments, the filter plug having sides, a first end, a second end, and a firmness sufficient to avoid collapse of the nonwoven web under a pressure drop of from about 0.5 to about 22 cm water/cm filter plug length;
- a chemical charge modifier integrated in the nonwoven web;
- and
- a liquid impervious wrapper covering the sides of the filter plug, the wrapper defining openings at the first and second ends of the filter plug,
- so that when water containing waterborne pathogens is forced through the drinking straw, the waterborne pathogens are adsorbed onto the nonwoven web containing a chemical charge-modifier.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.