Imagine a single trailer-mounted device that turns scum into
over 20,000 gallons of pure water a day, stores electricity better than a
battery, makes medical-grade oxygen, and runs on the sun.
A trio of inventors today unveiled the first working model
of The HYDRA, a fuel cell-based device they say does all that, at a
hydrogen-powered show house in Hopewell,
N.J. They are taking orders at
$99,500, and targeting the device at medical clinics, schools, remote
communities, and disaster relief agencies.
“What we’re doing is using the sun to break water into
hydrogen and oxygen, saving the oxygen for medical uses and using the hydrogen
to power the fuel cell, which provides the energy to run the water purification
system,” said Brad Carlson, chief operating office of The Essential Element,
which is commercializing The HYDRA. “So it’s fully self-contained, needs no
outside sources of power, and can be delivered to any point on the globe.”
One in eight people worldwide lack access to safe, clean
drinking water, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, and many
others walk miles a day for it. Over 3.5 million a year die from water-related
disease, most of them children.
Dr. Devra Davis, founder of the Environment Health Trust,
saw the device in operation at a recent demonstration. She said it could
address the fact that “people are dying every day because of their
environment, and others live limited lives because of the scarcity of clean
water. If The HYDRA specifications play out in the field by cleaning up
contaminated surface water, and it provides stable clean water to communities,
it would extend and boost the quality of life in many parts of the world.”
Carlson said The HYDRA can be flown in by helicopter,
dropped by parachute, or delivered on the back of a pickup truck.
“It also gives water purification levels that are much
purer, much cleaner than any other available,” he said, “so one of the beauties
of this unit is that it can provide virus-free, bacteria-free drinking water in
disaster relief areas.”
Its inventors say the device solves the problems of previous
mobile water purification systems that rely on diesel fuel, which can easily
spill and contaminate water supplies; heavy, expensive, low-efficiency solar
panels; or high-maintenance batteries with limited life and storage capacity.
The HYDRA’s mobile solar/hydrogen fuel cell uses light-weight, low-power
components and very fine water filters.
David Squires, chief financial officer of the new company,
explained that hydrogen can store energy for a long time, “so with this system,
we can go anywhere without fossil fuels.” The oxygen produced can also be
stored for use by medical facilities near or far. Electrical devices can be
plugged directly into the unit.
