Purifying Europe’s Water with Graphene Filtration

Icon LifeSaver join European industry leaders in water purification innovation

We are excited to announce Icon LifeSaver are participating in the GRAPHIL Project. This project is additional and separate to our on-going work exploring how graphene technology can revolutionise portable water purification with the National Graphene Institute in Manchester, UK. The GRAPHIL project is funded by The Graphene Flagship, a ‘Future and Emerging Technology Flagship’ created by the European Commission.

“The Graphene Flagship is tasked with bringing together academic and industrial researchers to take graphene from the realm of academic laboratories into European society in the space of 10 years, thus generating economic growth, new jobs and new opportunities.” – https://graphene-flagship.eu/project/Pages/About-Graphene-Flagship.aspx

The Graphene Flagship funds a number of spearhead projects which each have clearly defined, application-oriented goals motivated by real market opportunities. The core idea, common between all the projects, is to develop new or improved products that integrate graphene or related materials.

The specific goal of the GRAPHIL project is to utilise graphene to create innovative new filters for household water treatment and portable water purification. The increasing presence of toxins and contaminants in European water sources, many of which are resistant to conventional purification technologies, has been identified as a growing issue which GRAPHIL seeks to address. These contaminants, referred to as ‘emerging concerns’ (EC’s) vary from pharmaceuticals and pesticides to pathogens and microplastics. It is hoped the unique properties of graphene will be the solution and revolutionary water filters will be produced to meet this urgent market and societal need. The products developed from this project are estimated to be ready for commercialisation by 2023.

Icon LifeSaver’s experience and expertise in water purification, product design, manufacturing and existing involvement with graphene research is why we’ve been chosen to be involved, alongside other leading industrial partners such as Medica S.P.A and Polymem S.A.

Joe Lovegrove, Technical and Operations Director of Icon LifeSaver:

“Working alongside some of Europe’s finest research institutes and ultrafiltration experts is extremely exciting for LifeSaver. Our work within the GRAPHIL project is imperative to guarantee the supply of clean, safe drinking water for generations to come around the globe.”