Toilet-to-tap Process Turns Water from “Nasty” to Nourishing

What flows from our membranes is essentially the Rolls-Royce of municipal water.
– Snehal Desai, Global Business Director of Dow Water & Process Solutions

After a day spent basking in the sunshine of Orange County, California, you head inside to pour a cool glass of water from the tap. What you taste is clean, pure and refreshing. You’d never know that just weeks ago that water was … sewage? Really?

You can’t be blamed for thinking this idea far-fetched – or even a little gross. But with Dow technology, it’s not only happening right now through the Orange County Water District (OCWD) Groundwater Replenishment System, it’s also producing some of the most pristine drinking water possible. And as sou...ties and companies are increasingly realizing the economic value of clean water,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow chairman and chief executive officer. “That’s driving growth in Dow’s water business at two times [the rate of] the global GDP.”

As Dow’s RO technology becomes more widely used, what’s next for the “toilet-to-tap” concept? Desai sees a future where this type of system is made even more accessible – where each flush of your toilet is contributing to your household’s supply of delicious, drinkable water.

“What we’re perfecting at a large scale, for big centralized plants, may become affordable and effective enough to use in a decentralized system, household by household,” he said. “[This way], we each control and regenerate our own water supplies.”

Read the full Bloomberg Businessweek article at their website here.

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