The present invention relates generally to water purifiers and m ore particularly, to a filter cartridge adapted to be detachable installed within a filter assem bly of a water purifier.

BACKGROU N D OF TH E I NVENTI ON

Drinking water is a vital requirem ent for hum an life. However, due to various bad policies of the governm ent, unchecked wastage of drinking water, and poor utilization of existing water resources, there appears to be an acute shortage of supply of drinking water. The situation further deteriorates due to absence of water resources in rem ote or industrialized regions of our country. Moreover, the supply of even drinking water available in various parts of the country is highly affected with contam inants and bacteria which further cause health issues in society. As a result, m ost of the hom eowners, business units, organizations tend to install reverse osmosis ( RO) based water purifiers to drink clean and pure water.

However, the RO based water purifiers are highly resource consum ing purifiers. Firstly, the RO based water purifiers release alm ost a sim ilar am ount of impure water against release of pure water. As a result, water consum ption has substantially increased. Moreover, the im pure water is generally wasted leading to loss of the water. Furtherm ore, the RO based water purifiers are electronic devices and requires availability of electricity for operation. Such RO based water purifiers fail when a particular city or a village does not have access to electricity or have an interm ittent access to the electricity. Moreover, the RO base water purifiers extract various types of m inerals also from the drinking water. As a result of deficiency of these m inerals, societies are prone to different types of m edical issues. I n addition to above deficiencies, the RO based water purifiers are costly and create a financial burden on the end user.

Accordingly, a need exists for a water purifier that can supply drinking water free from contam inations and bacteria as well as m aintain essential m inerals at an affordable cost. SUMMARY OF THE I NVENTI ON

The present invention discloses a plurality of water purifiers which can remove the contaminants from the impure water and yet within an economical range of the end users.

In an embodiment, a filter cartridge adapted to be detachably mounted within a housing of a filter assembly of a water purifier is disclosed. The filter cartridge includes an inner perforated tube comprising a first cartridge engagement mechanism disposed on a top portion, wherein the first cartridge engagement mechanism facilitates detachable mounting within the housing of the filter assembly and causing replacement of the filter cartridge after a predetermined amount of usage. The filter cartridge includes a first membrane wrapped around an outer surface of the inner perforated tube, wherein the first membrane includes a first material predetermined specification. Further, the filter cartridge includes a second membrane in a form of a coating around the first membrane, wherein the second membrane is developed from a first type of nanoparticle and a second type of nanoparticle coated on activated carbon, wherein the first type of nanoparticle is synthesized using pure aluminium sulphate and sodium hydroxides as raw materials, wherein the second type of nanoparticle is synthesized from an activated carbon and silver nitrate. The first type of synthesized nanoparticle acts as adsorbent particles to adsorb inorganic impurities, wherein the second type of synthesized nanoparticles act as biocides for organic impurities. The filter cartridge includes a top and a bottom holder to provide support to the first membrane coated with the second membrane, wherein thickness of wounds of the first membrane coated with the second membrane around the inner perforated tube is in accordance with a filtration capacity of the filter cartridge.

In an embodiment, the synthesis of the first type of nanoparticle from the aluminium sulphate and the sodium hydroxide comprises:

dissolving 0.25 molar weights of the aluminium sulphate in water to create a first solution;

facilitating precipitations of boehmite within the first solution by adding 2.5 molar solution of the sodium hydroxide within the first solution; filtering the precipitates of the boehm ite from the first solution ;

heating the precipitates of boehm ite at 550-575 degrees Celsius for a period of 5-6 hours to synthesize the first type of nanoparticle, wherein the first type of nanoparticle is a stable form of an alum ina nanoparticle and has a size varying between 20-30 nanom eters.

I n an em bodim ent, the synthesis of the second type of nanoparticle com prises:

dissolving 45-50 gm of silver nitrate in 450-500 m l of distilled water and 950- 1 000 m l of ethylene glycol to create a second solution ;

adding the 450-500 gm activated carbon within the second solution after stirring the second solution for a predeterm ined am ount of time;

heating the second solution at 80-85 degrees Celsius for 2-3 hours and facilitating cooling of the second solution ;

perform ing vacuum filtration to remove free silver; and

drying the free silver coated carbon at 50-55 degrees Celsius for 3-4 hours, wherein the second type of nanoparticle is a silver nanoparticle coated over carbon .

I t is an object of the invention to develop household water nano purifier that can rem ove all the organic and inorganic contam inants of water including bacteria, viruses, cysts, arsenic, chrom ium , lead, and among other im purities using the filter cartridge.

I t is another object of the invention to the treat the household water using the filter cartridges to generate drinking water which is as per drinking water standard recom mended by BI S and WHO.

I t is further an object of the invention is to m aintain fluoride level as 0.5 to 1 mg per liter of filter water which is essential in drinking water.

I t is a yet another obj ect of the invention to treat 4000-5000 liters of water before replacing the cartridges of a filter of a water purifier which is designed to be an in-house water purifier. I t is another object of the invention to treat 7000- 1 0000 liters of water before replacing the cartridges of a filter of a water purifier which is designed to be an overhead tank-based water purifier

To further clarify advantages and features of the present invention , a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific em bodim ents thereof, which is illustrated in the appended drawings. I t is appreciated that these drawings depict only typical em bodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered lim iting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the accom panying drawings.

BRI EF DESCRI PTI ON OF FI GURES

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will becom e better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accom panying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein :

Figure 1 shows an exem plary representation of a block diagram of a manual filter assem bly of a water purifier in accordance with an embodim ent of the invention ;

Figures 2A and 2 B show exem plary representations of a sedim ent removal filter cartridge and a nano filter cartridge adapted to be detachably mounted within a housing of the manual filter assembly respectively in accordance with an em bodim ent of the invention ;

Figure 3 illustrates an exem plary representation of a block diagram of a filtration system installed for a hom e in accordance with an embodim ent of the invention ;

Figures4A, 4B and 4 Cillustrate exemplary representations of a sedim ent rem oval cartridge, a filter cartridge adapted to be detachably m ounted within with filtration system , and a carbon cartridge respectively in accordance with an embodim ent of the invention ; Figu re 5 illustrate exem plary steps of a m ethod for synthesizing a first type of nanoparticle from alum inium sulphate and sodium hydroxide in accordance with an em bodim ent of the invention ; and

Figu re 6 illustrates exem plary steps of a method for synthesizing of a second type of nanoparticle in accordance with an em bodim ent of the invention

Further, skilled artisans will appreciate that elem ents in the drawings are illustrated for sim plicity and may not have been necessarily been drawn to scale. For exam ple, the flow charts illustrate the m ethod in terms of the m ost prom inent steps involved to help to im prove understanding of aspects of the present invention . Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more com ponents of the device m ay have been represented in the drawings by conventional sym bols, and the drawings m ay show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the em bodim ents of the present invention so as not to obscure the drawings with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having benefit of the description herein .

Detailed Description :

For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be m ade to the embodim ent illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the sam e. I t will nevertheless be understood that no lim itation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further m odifications in the illustrated system , and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contem plated as would norm ally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.

I t will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the invention and are not intended to be restrictive thereof.

Reference throughout this specification to“an aspect”,“another aspect” or sim ilar language m eans that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrase“in an embodiment”, “in another embodiment” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.

The terms "comprises", "comprising", or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components proceeded by "comprises...a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices or other sub-systems or other elements or other structures or other components or additional devices or additional sub-systems or additional elements or additional structures or additional components.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The system, methods, and examples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In an embodiment, a filter cartridge is disclosed. The filter cartridge includes an inner perforated tube, a first membrane wrapped around an outer surface of the inner perforated tube, a second membrane in a form of a coating around the first membrane and a top and a bottom holder to provide support to the first membrane coated with the second membrane.

In an embodiment, the inner perforated tube includes a first cartridge engagement mechanism disposed on a top portion of the inner perforated tube in a manner such that the first cartridge engagement mechanism facilitates detachable mounting within the housing of the filter assembly and causing replacement of the filter cartridge after a predetermined amount of usage. Further, the first membrane is of a first material of a predetermined specification which depends on the application of filter assembly. In an embodiment, the first material is a polypropylene cloth.

Furthermore, the second membrane in a form of a coating around the first membrane is provided. In an embodiment, the second membrane is developed from a composite mixture of a first type of nanoparticle and a second type of nanoparticle coated on activated carbon. The first type of nanoparticle is synthesized using pure aluminium sulphate and sodium hydroxides as raw materials. The second type of nanoparticle is synthesized from an activated carbon and silver nitrate. The first type of synthesized nanoparticles can also be referred to adsorbent nanoparticles as the first type of synthesized particles adsorb inorganic toxic elements of water such as like fluoride, arsenic, chromium, lead and other inorganic impurities. The coated layer acts as a nano filter layer as its porous structure facilitates the filtration process. The second type of synthesized nanoparticle acts as a strong biocides that eliminate bacteria, viruses, cysts and other organic impurities of water.

In addition, the top and the bottom holder provides support to the first membrane coated with the second membrane, wherein thickness of wounds of the first membrane coated with the second membrane around the inner perforated tube is in accordance with a filtration capacity of the filter cartridge.

Optionally, a third membrane wrapped around the outer surface of the perforated tube before application of the first and second membrane is provided. In an embodiment, the third membrane is of a polypropylene cloth coated with charcoal.

Referring specifically to Figure 1, an exemplary representation of a block diagram of a manual filter assembly of a water purifier in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is disclosed. The manual filter assembly 102 comprises a first container 112, a second container 114, and a third container 116. The first container 112 is placed over the second container 114 and the second container 114 is placed over the third container 116. In an embodiment, the each of the first container 112, second container 114 and the third container 1 1 6 are m ade up of steel metal to provide a relatively longer life to the m anual filter assembly 1 02.

The first container 1 12 includes an inlet 122 for receiving im pure water, which when passes through the various filter cartridges of the m anual filter assembly 1 02, becom e filtered water and is ready for consumption. I n an embodiment, the m anual filter assem bly 102 includes a first filter assem bly and a second filter assem bly in the first container 1 12 and the second container 1 14 respectively. I n an em bodim ent, the first filter assem bly includes at one replaceable sedim ent filter cartridge 132 which filters out sediments from the im pure water. After filtration of the sedim ents from the im pure water, the water enters the second container 1 14 due to gravitational forces.

Figure 2A illustrates an exam ple em bodim ent of sedim ent filter cartridge 132 adapted to be installed within the first container 1 12 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention . The sedim ent filter cartridge 132 includes a hollow perforated tube 202 around which various mem branes are wound to enable filtration of sedim ents from the impure water. Optionally, a charcoal layer 204 is provided around the perforated tube 202. Further, a nano adsorbent layer 206 coated on a polypropylene cloth is provided around the perforated tube 202. Thereafter, depending upon the specifications, the polypropylene cloth 208 is wrapped around the inner nano adsorbent layer 206 to generate an inner filtration layers of the sedim ent filter cartridge 132.

Figure 2B illustrates an exam ple em bodim ent of the second filter assem bly 142 adapted to be installed within the second container 1 14. The second filter assembly includes a filter cartridge 222 that rem oves bacteria and other im purities from the water. Thereafter, the water enters the third container 1 16 wherein an outlet is provided in a form of a tap or another opening so that the user can consum e the filtered water.

As illustrated in Figure 2B, the filter cartridge 222 includes a perforated tube 224 around which a composite layer 226 of nanoadsorbent (nano-alum ina) and nano-biocide (silver im pregnated carbon) particles is provided on a polypropylene cloth. The composite layer 226 includes the first m em brane and the second membrane. The first membrane is of a first material of a predetermined specification which depends on the application of filter assembly. In an embodiment, the first material is the polypropylene cloth. In an embodiment, the second membrane is developed from a composite mixture of a first type of nanoparticle and a second type of nanoparticle coated on activated carbon. The first type of nanoparticle is synthesized using pure aluminium sulphate and sodium hydroxides as raw materials. The second type of nanoparticle is synthesized from an activated carbon and silver nitrate.

Thereafter, a polypropylene cloth layer 228 is provided around the composite layer 226 to eliminate impurities from the water. Such different types of layer assist in filtration of the impure water and make the water consumable water. The composite layer 226 has a size varying between 20-30 nanometers, a pore size between 3-4 nanometers and a surface area between 175 to 225 meters square per gram. As a result, the composite layer possesses adsorption capacity in between 16-22 milligrams per gram for fluoride, 24-28 milligrams per gram for arsenic, 5-8 milligrams per gram for chromium (VI), 7-11 milligrams per gram for lead. In an embodiment, the composite layer 226 is also referred to as nano adsorbent cum nano biocide layer due to presence of nano alumina (adsorbent) and nano silver (biocide).

In an embodiment, the inner perforated tube 224 includes a first cartridge engagement mechanism 232 disposed on a top portion of the inner perforated tube 224 in a manner such that the first cartridge engagement mechanism 232 facilitates detachable mounting within the housing of the filter assembly 142 and causing replacement of the filter cartridge 222 after a predetermined amount of usage.

In addition, the top and the bottom holder provides support to the first membrane coated with the second membrane, wherein thickness of wounds of the first membrane coated with the second membrane around the inner perforated tube is in accordance with a filtration capacity of the filter cartridge.

Figure 3 illustrates an example representation of a filtration system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The filtration system 300 includes a first tank 302, a second tank 304, and a third tank 306 disposed within a housing. Each of the first tank 302, the second tank 304 and the third tank 306 is made of stainless steel. Further, an outlet of the first tank 302 is coupled to an inlet of the second tank 304, an outlet of the second tank 304 is coupled to an inlet of a third tank 306 and an outlet of the third tank 306 is coupled to an inlet of a storage tank 308.

The first tank 302 includes an inlet for receiving impure water, a first filter assembly 312 adapted to include at least one replaceable sediment cartridge to filter sediments from the impure water.

The second tank 304 comprising the second filter assembly comprising a filter cartridge 314 comprising an inner perforated tube comprising a first cartridge engagement mechanism disposed on a top portion, wherein the first cartridge engagement mechanism facilitates detachable mounting within the housing of the filter assembly and causing replacement of the filter cartridge after a predetermined amount of usage. The first membrane is wrapped around an outer surface of the inner perforated tube and the first membrane includes a first material having a predetermined specification. The second membrane is in a form of a coating around the first membrane. The second membrane is a composite mixture developed from a first type of nanoparticle and a second type of nanoparticle coated on activated carbon. The first type of nanoparticle is synthesized using pure aluminium sulphate and sodium hydroxides as raw materials, wherein the second type of nanoparticle is synthesized from an activated carbon and silver nitrate. Further, a top and a bottom holder to provide support to the first membrane coated with the second membrane, wherein thickness of wounds of the first membrane coated with the second membrane around the inner perforated tube is in accordance with a filtration capacity of the filter cartridge.

The third tank 306 comprising a third filter assembly 316 comprising a carbon cartridge for removing odour within the filtered water. Thereafter, the water is sent to the storage tank 308 for storage purpose so that it can be consumed later. Figures 4A, 4B and 4C illustrate exemplary representations of a sedim ent rem oval cartridge 312, a filter cartridge 314 adapted to be detachably mounted within with filtration system , and a carbon cartridge 31 6 respectively in accordance with an em bodiment of the invention . The sedim ent removal cartridge 312 includes an outer layer 402 of a polypropylene cloth which is wrapped around a charcoal particle layer 404 which is further wrapped around a perforated tube 406. As already discussed, the filter cartridge 314 is a nanofiltration cum zero bacteria cartridge which adsorb impurities and elim inates bacteria from the water. The filter cartridge 314 is sim ilar to the filter cartridge 142 of the manual filter. Further, the carbon cartridge 31 6 includes a porous carbon wall 422 around a perforated tube 424.

Referring to Figure 5, a method for synthesizing the first type of nanoparticle from the alum inium sulphate and the sodium hydroxide is disclosed in accordance with an em bodiment of the invention. The m ethod 500 initiates at step 502, wherein the m ethod includes dissolving 0.25 m olar weights of the alum inium sulphate in water to create a first solution . At step 504, the m ethod facilitates precipitations of boehm ite within the first solution by adding 2.5 m olar solution of the sodium hydroxide within the first solution. Due to usage of 0.25 M of alum inum sulphate and 2.5 M of sodium hydroxide, production yield is substantially increased. As a result, tim e for synthesizing the first type of nanoparticle is substantially reduced. Moreover, cost of producing the first type of nanoparticle is substantially reduced by a m argin of 25-30 % .

At step 506, the precipitates of the boehm ite from the first solution are filtered and thereafter at step 508, the precipitates of boehm ite at 550-575 degrees Celsius are heated for a period of 5-6 hours to synthesize the first type of nanoparticle, wherein the first type of nanoparticle is a stable form of an alum ina nanoparticle and has a size varying between 20-30 nanom eters. The heating of the precipitates of boehm ite at 550-575 degrees Celsius m ake a com pletely stable nanoadsorbent and does not allow any leaching of alum inum from the purifier.

Referring to Figure 6, a m ethod for synthesis of the second type of nanoparticle is disclosed in accordance with an embodim ent of the invention . The m ethod 600 initiates at step 602, wherein the m ethod includes dissolving 45-50 gm of silver nitrate in 450-500 m l of distilled water and 950- 1 000 m l of ethylene glycol to create a second solution . At step 604, 450-500 gm activated carbon is added within the second solution after stirring the second solution for a predeterm ined am ount of tim e. At 606, the second solution is heated at 80-85 degrees Celsius for 2-3 hours and facilitating cooling of the second solution. At step 608, vacuum filtration is perform ed to rem ove free silver. At step 61 0, the free silver coated carbon at 50-55 degrees Celsius for 3-4 hours is dried, wherein the second type of nanoparticle is a silver nanoparticle coated over carbon. At this tem perature of 50-55 degrees Celsius the silver ions do not oxidize. As a result, antibacterial property of the filter cartridge can be maintained for a relatively longer duration.

The present invention offers several advantages. For example, the sedim ent cartridge including a charcoal layer (carbon layer) rem oves turbidity, odour and physical im purity of water. Further, this nanoadsorbent layer rem oves inorganic toxic elem ent such as arsenic, lead, fluoride and organic content such as pesticides from the water before consum ption . Sim ilarly, the filter cartridge com prising the nanoparticles contains nanoadsorbent and biocides that rem ove rem aining inorganic contam inants, bacteria, and virus left after filtration from the sedim ent cartridges. As a result, the treated water is free from bacteria and viruses and can be used for drinking and cooking purposes. The nano adsorbent cum nano biocide cartridges contains 50-60 gm nano alum ina and 1 8-20 gm biocides in five inch sizes cartridges. Because of this around 0.5 to 1 .0 mg/I fluoride that essential in drinking water, is always present in treated water. For a higher fluoride ( > 2 mg/I) or arsenic (> 50 pg/l) a separate cartridge can be made which should contains more than 150 gm of nanoadsorbent (nano alum ina) .

Further, the water purifiers as discussed herein can be installed at a plurality of locations to further treat the m unicipal water as the m unicipal water still includes residual chlorine, bacteria, viruses and other organic contam inates. Furtherm ore, due to presence of nano silver coated of activated carbon, the instant water purifier has a capacity of killing m ore than 1 00 m illion of E coli bacteria and is highly useful for household purposes. The water purifiers as discussed herein maintain the essential minerals of the water and thus can replace existing reverse osmosis (RO)-based water purifiers. The developed water purifier work on the gravity force, hence no electricity is required in operation. Moreover, unlike the existing RO based water purifiers, there is no wastage of water during the filtration. The water purifier of the instant invention can also be used for the purification of contaminated ground containing up to 1000 mg/I total dissolve slide. Because of low cost, user friendly and maintenance free, present developed water purifier can be used by any economical sections of the society.

The drawings and the forgoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, orders of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts necessarily need to be performed. Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples. Numerous variations, whether explicitly given in the specification or not, such as differences in structure, dimension, and use of material, are possible. The scope of embodiments is at least as broad as given by the following claims.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific embodiments. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, andany component(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or component of any or all the claims.