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Posted by Backcountry (Guest) on December 17, 2007 at 3:50:09 pm EST
In reply to Water purification in extreme conditions posted by Bill S on October 19, 2007 at 11:58:04 am EDT

Great topic Bill.
My first thought was to use a pre-filter, then settling & decanting followed by either a filter or your Steripen. As you know, the problem is that really fine clays & organics (ie. those passing through 0.5 micron pre-filters) could take a very long time (days) to settle out. The PUR treatment seems to solve it all by using a combo of a flocculant to clump particles & organisms together yielding clear water & a chemical treatment to kill the remaining bugs. If you can't get your hands on it, you could still use a flocculant to clump up those tiny particles & then decant or pre-filter before using your filter or Steripen. I don't profess to know about the safe or effective concentrations, but I suspect you don't mind a research challenge.
Starting at Wikipedia gives this list of common flocculants (some used to treat drinking water):
alum
aluminium chlorohydrate
aluminum sulfate
calcium oxide
iron(III) chloride (ferric chloride)
iron(II) sulfate
sodium aluminate
sodium silicate

"Natural" flocculant products:

Chitosan (clarifies wine & beer according to Wikipedia)
Moringa oleifera seeds
Papain
A species of Strychnos (seeds)
Isinglass

So if you can find something safe, effective & available you can measure & pre-package doses for treatment. Then why not start selling you new product to less enterprising backpackers & safarists?

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