Water disinfection system using functional mixture, copper foam catalyst, continuous flow, UV radiation, optical pipe

A method for purifying water, said method comprising:

• obtaining a water permeable copper foam support comprising a plurality of open pores with average pore dimensions of between 5 and 0.5 millimeters, said copper foam support having 90% or greater of its volume consisting of void spaces;
• treating said copper foam support with an aqueous mixture of silver nitrate for sufficient time as to allow formation of precipitated silver particles in at least some of said pores, thus producing pores comprising silver particles;
• treating said copper foam support by spraying a surface of said copper foam support with droplets comprising an aqueous slurry of Portland cement and sand particles so as to fill at least some of said pores with Portland cement and sand particles, thus producing a water permeable copper foam catalyst comprising pores filled with Portland cement, sand particles, and silver particles;
• cleaning said copper foam catalyst with water to remove unbound Portland cement, sand particles, and residual soluble material, and then disposing said copper foam catalyst inside of an interior of a hollow, UV transmissive, plastic tube, said plastic tube having a length of at least 1 meter and a diameter of at least 1 centimeter, an entrance opening, and an exit opening so that said copper foam catalyst extends from the entrance opening of said plastic tube to the exit opening of said plastic tube;
• thus creating a catalytic tube assembly;
• said copper foam catalyst configured so that water is not blocked from flowing from said entrance opening of said plastic tube to said exit opening of said plastic tube, but must contact said copper foam catalyst while progressing from said entrance opening to said exit opening;
• placing said catalytic tube assembly in at least one focal point of a solar UV reflector, said solar UV reflector configured to concentrate UV components of sunlight so that substantially an entire length of said catalytic tube assembly is exposed to solar UV light when said solar UV reflector receives solar UV illumination;
• connecting said entrance opening to a drinking water source comprising drinking water suspected of having microbial contaminants, and said exit opening to a drinking water collection device;
• and running said drinking water suspected of having pathogenic microbial contaminants through said catalytic tube assembly in a presence of said solar UV illumination at a rate slow enough that action of said solar UV illumination on said copper foam catalyst is adequate to destroy substantially all of said pathogenic microbial contaminants, thereby producing purified drinking water.