Crystallization
Lead reaches people today through water, not wine — from aging infrastructure (Michigan and other US cities), brass fittings, industrial discharge, and contaminated soils.
Technology brief
Lead reaches people today through water, not wine — from aging infrastructure (Michigan and other US cities), brass fittings, industrial discharge, and contaminated soils.
The challenge
Primary use cases: removal of lead and other dissolved heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, cadmium) from municipal/town drinking water; point-of-supply treatment where infrastructure leaches lead.
Outputs/uses: full-recovery drinking water; dry solid residue with lead extracted and controlled (no brine).
Industries and users: municipalities, water utilities, public-health programs, small towns.
Scale: 200 tons/day = 100 000 people (2 L/day); a 2 000-person town ≈ 50 tons/day.
ARBOK solution
Lead reaches people today through water, not wine — from aging infrastructure (Michigan and other US cities), brass fittings, industrial discharge, and contaminated soils. It is invisible, tasteless, and detected too late. Conventional fixes only redistribute it: filters become hazardous waste, ion exchange concentrates lead into liquid waste, and reverse osmosis turns 50–70 % of the volume into a toxic brine carrying the same lead back to the environment. ARBOK removes it completely: cold vacuum evaporation lets only water become vapor, so lead (and arsenic, mercury, cadmium) physically cannot pass — yielding clean drinking water plus a dry, controlled solid residue, with no brine.
> Core technology: same platform as the metal cases — see ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking) / ARBOK PURI. This entry covers the lead/heavy-metal drinking-water case.
Per the platform: cold vacuum evaporation — only water transitions into vapor and condenses as clean drinking water; lead and other dissolved metals do not pass and remain as a dry solid residue. Not filtration, not chemistry — physics. No toxic brine, no return of contamination.
(Full mechanism: see platform / Arbok-PURI entry.)
Market and application
Lead-in-water is systemic across aging US/EU infrastructure (Flint and beyond), with regulatory limits routinely exceeded and children most affected. A complete-removal, brine-free, low-cost local solution addresses a large public-health market; the same unit extends to arsenic, mercury, and cadmium.
Local production ~$0.1–0.2/m³ vs trucked water $300 000–400 000/year (2 000-person town, ~50 t/day); energy 0.7 kWh/ton; payback 5–7 years; no secondary-waste disposal cost. (Per-site economics by population and contamination level.)
Use cases
Primary use cases: removal of lead and other dissolved heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, cadmium) from municipal/town drinking water; point-of-supply treatment where infrastructure leaches lead.
Outputs/uses: full-recovery drinking water; dry solid residue with lead extracted and controlled (no brine).
Industries and users: municipalities, water utilities, public-health programs, small towns.
Scale: 200 tons/day = 100 000 people (2 L/day); a 2 000-person town ≈ 50 tons/day.
Steps: water assay (lead/metal levels) → unit sizing → containerized install at supply point → commissioning. Automated, low-energy, minimal staffing.
Same platform as the metal-recovery cases and Arbok-PURI; deploys at town/utility supply points; pairs with monitoring.
Lead reaches people today through water, not wine — from aging infrastructure (Michigan and other US cities), brass fittings, industrial discharge, and contaminated soils. It is invisible, tasteless, and detected too late. Conventional fixes only redistribute it: filters become hazardous waste, ion exchange concentrates lead into liquid waste, and reverse osmosis turns 50–70 % of the volume into a toxic brine carrying the same lead back to the environment. ARBOK removes it completely: cold vacuum evaporation lets only water become vapor, so lead (and arsenic, mercury, cadmium) physically cannot pass — yielding clean drinking water plus a dry, controlled solid residue, with no brine.
> Core technology: same platform as the metal cases — see ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking) / ARBOK PURI. This entry covers the lead/heavy-metal drinking-water case.
Primary use cases: removal of lead and other dissolved heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, cadmium) from municipal/town drinking water; point-of-supply treatment where infrastructure leaches lead.
Outputs/uses: full-recovery drinking water; dry solid residue with lead extracted and controlled (no brine).
Industries and users: municipalities, water utilities, public-health programs, small towns.
Scale: 200 tons/day = 100 000 people (2 L/day); a 2 000-person town ≈ 50 tons/day.
Per the platform: cold vacuum evaporation — only water transitions into vapor and condenses as clean drinking water; lead and other dissolved metals do not pass and remain as a dry solid residue. Not filtration, not chemistry — physics. No toxic brine, no return of contamination.
(Full mechanism: see platform / Arbok-PURI entry.)
Throughput: 200 t/day (≈100 000 people); town scale ≈50 t/day for 2 000 people. Energy: 0.7 kWh/ton (~140 kWh/day, ~5.8 kW continuous for a 200 t/day unit).
Output: clean drinking water (no dissolved metals) + dry solid residue (lead controlled); zero brine. Also removes arsenic, mercury, cadmium.
Regulatory context: lead limits 15 µg/L (US), 10 µg/L (EU) — exceedances are systemic (Flint crisis).
Platform cold-vacuum evaporation/condensation unit; drinking-water collection; dry heavy-metal residue extraction; control system. Containerized, modular. (See platform entry.)
Technical: removes lead completely (does not move it); no brine, no secondary waste; same unit handles As/Hg/Cd.
Economic: ~$0.1–0.2/m³ vs trucked water at $300 000–400 000/year for a 2 000-person town; payback 5–7 years; no logistics.
Environmental: no toxic brine returned to the environment; full water recovery.
Strategic: local drinking-water safety for lead-exposed communities (US/EU), protecting children most at risk.
Same platform as the metal-recovery cases and Arbok-PURI; deploys at town/utility supply points; pairs with monitoring.
Steps: water assay (lead/metal levels) → unit sizing → containerized install at supply point → commissioning. Automated, low-energy, minimal staffing.
Proposed TRL 6 — ⚠ confirm. Built on the validated ARBOK vacuum platform / Arbok-PURI; the drinking-water lead/heavy-metal case is the step to confirm with a reference site. Confirm level.
Lead-in-water is systemic across aging US/EU infrastructure (Flint and beyond), with regulatory limits routinely exceeded and children most affected. A complete-removal, brine-free, low-cost local solution addresses a large public-health market; the same unit extends to arsenic, mercury, and cadmium.
Local production ~$0.1–0.2/m³ vs trucked water $300 000–400 000/year (2 000-person town, ~50 t/day); energy 0.7 kWh/ton; payback 5–7 years; no secondary-waste disposal cost. (Per-site economics by population and contamination level.)
Reference-site validation for drinking water; residue (lead) classification/disposal; municipal procurement cycles; public trust in vacuum-recovered drinking water.
ARBOK PURI · ARBOK-Copper-Waters · Vacuum Osmosis
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