Local research team competes for grant with innovative new water treatment system

By Michael Pollick

Imagine a filter-less water filter that runs on the heat of the sun.

Two streams would come out from the other end. One would be very pure water that would be refreshing to drink. The other stream would have a higher concentration of whatever you are trying to get rid of.

The system already HAS been made and tested in a configuration the size of a traveling coffee mug. Theoretically, it could be scaled up to deliver millions of gallons of potable water per day.

Now, because of an old friendship and a challenge by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to find sustainable ways to work with our watery environment, the project has one foot in Sarasota.

The story starts with the guy who wrote the book on water.

Gerald Pollack, who teaches bioengineering at the University of Washington and runs the Pollack Laboratory there, won a U.S. patent in 2010 on his method for “separating components of aqueous mixtures.”

His 2013 book, titled “The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid and Vapor,” presents the theory that living things create a type of water that is not H2O, but H3O2. This structured water, which he calls "EZ water," is denser than regular water and can hold and delivery energy, like a battery. He believes this structured water works at the cellular level to facilitate everything from transferring nutrition to keeping your knees from creaking.

With his invention, Pollack has figured out how to replicate this process using modern chemistry, to separate this very pure form of water from whatever else is in there.