Water filtration apparatus and process

Abstract

The instant invention, in one aspect, provides a process for decontaminating water to remove contaminants, said process comprising passing contaminated water through a filter comprising a plurality of filtering elements capable of lowering the contaminants by at least 70%. In another aspect is provides a filtering unit comprising a plurality of filtering elements arranged in individual layers, said individual layers independently selected from brick chips, hemp fibers, mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal, agave, jute fibers, sand, filter paper, and gravel.

1 . A process for decontaminating water to remove contaminants, said process comprising passing contaminated water through a filter comprising a plurality of filtering elements capable of lowering the contaminants by at least 70%. 
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the plurality of filtering elements are arranged in individual layers and each layer is selected from brick chips, hemp fibers, mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal, agave, jute fibers, sand, filter paper, and gravel. 
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 2  wherein the filtering elements are contained within a filtering unit. 
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 3  wherein the filtering unit has a diffuser section comprising a first layer of brick chips, and a second layer selected from hemp fibers and a mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal. 
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 4  wherein the second layer is a mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal. 
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 5  wherein the filtering unit further comprises independent layers selected from fine sand, coarse sand, jute fibers, filter paper, charcoal, and gravel. 
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 6  wherein the filtering unit wherein the further independent layers are selected from fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel. 
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 6  wherein the filtering unit comprises sequential layers of brick chips and a mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal contained within the diffuser section followed by individual layers of fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel. 
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 8  wherein the ratio of the thickness of the brick chips to the mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal ranges from about 1:5 to 1:2. 
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 9  where the ratio of the thickness of brick chips to the mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal is selected from 1:2.5, 1:2.8, 1:3.0, 1:3.2, 1:3.4, 1:3.5, 1:3.6 and 1:4. 
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 9  wherein the ratio of fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel is about 1:1:1. 
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 9  wherein the ratio of brick chips to fine sand to coarse sand to gravel is about 1:1:1:1. 
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 8  wherein the hemp charcoal mixture layer is at least three times thicker than each of the brick, fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel layers. 
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 2  wherein the contaminants are selected from heavy metals, microbes, bacteria, turbidity, and coliforms. 
     
     
         15 . The process of  claim 14  wherein:
 (a) the heavy metals are selected from Cadmium, lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Chromium, and Thallium; and 
 (b) the coliforms are selected from total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and E- coli  coliforms. 
 
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 15  wherein the contaminated water is decontaminated by removing at least 95% of the heavy metal contaminants, 70% of the coliforms, and 80% of the microbes and bacteria from the contaminated water. 
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 15  wherein the process removes at least 98% each of the heavy metals, and e- coli  coliforms. 
     
     
         18 . A filtering unit comprising a plurality of filtering elements arranged in individual layers, said individual layers independently selected from brick chips, hemp fibers, mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal, agave, jute fibers, sand, filter paper, and gravel. 
     
     
         19 . The filtering unit of  claim 18  comprising a plurality of filtering elements arranged in individual layers and selected from brick chips, hemp fibers, mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal, agave, jute fibers, sand, filter paper, and gravel. 
     
     
         20 . The filtering unit of  claim 19  wherein the filtering unit has a diffuser section comprising a first layer of brick chips, and a second layer selected from hemp fibers and a mixture of hemp fibers and charcoal. 
     
     
         21 - 29 . (canceled)