This just popped up on one of the lists I subscribe to, http://www.sea-pack.com/ - it's claimed that "USCG has them on their aircraft in their ditch bags".

Looks like a "must have" if it works!

I wonder if you have to use the syrup, or if you can get drinkable plain ol' water without the syrup. I'll have to call them, and I'll report the answers I get.

Thanks for the link!

From their "What's New" page



So at most, you can produce 2.5 liters of water from a basic kit. You can purchase syrup for additional 2.5 liters at $38 a shot.

I can see this being used for small life rafts, but for larger sized rafts, a reverse osmosis pump is going to give you higher, essentially unlimited, output so you'll have more water for less dollars per liter.

It's still a pretty interesting product. Looks like that company sells a variety of water filter products.

Cheers,

Tom A.

I thought I heard once that a human could drink up to a liter/day of sea water without screwing up their biochemistry. Has anybody else heard that? I have not researched it.

It's a (unique) forward osmosis system, so you need the syrup. The dissolved solids in the syrup are what draw the freshwater through the membrane in the "forward" direction, "down" the osmotic gradient, without any additional work by the user. Otherwise, you would need a hand pump to force the freshwater through the membrane in the "reverse" direction, "up" the osmotic gradient, like in your typical reverse osmosis system.

Definitely affordable option, if you are going on known long term sailing then I would carry the KATADYN SURVIVOR 35 (sometimes you can get good deals off of E-bay) but definitely SeaPack would be great for the BOB than a heavy 10 lb KATADYN SURVIVOR 35. And Bear G won't be happy because if will allow you to filter and drink urine.

"I thought I heard once that a human could drink up to a liter/day of sea water without screwing up their biochemistry."

NO!

From Wikipedia: "... seawater should not be drunk because of its high salt content. In the long run, more water must be expended to eliminate the salt (through excretion in urine) than the amount of water that is gained from drinking the seawater itself.

"...The amount of sodium chloride in human blood and in urine is always kept within a very narrow range of 9 g per L (0.9% by weight). Drinking seawater (which contains about 3.5% ions of dissolved sodium chloride) temporarily increases the concentration of sodium chloride in the blood, so the only way to excrete the excess sodium chloride in the urine is by sacrificing internal water from cells. The cells eventually give so much water to try to dilute the salt that they die from dehydration, quickly followed by organs and eventually the organism."

Sue

http://www.caske2000.org/survival/survivesea.htm#Drinking%20sea%20water

This is one site saying that. For survival, not health. I'm not sure everyone agrees with it though.

It's the Alain Bombard French physician making the controversial claim.

The website talks about producing a "drink" not water. I assume the product of this system is a koolaid type liquid that is safe to drink.

Craig.

This may be off topic, but ...

I'm curious about the "sweet" aspect of this process.

It reminds me of a potentially (?) similar situation -- the chemistry of electrolyte replacement mixes.

The cure for electrolyte depletion, associated with dehydration, is simply "a handful of sugar and a pinch of salt" in clean water. Research found that the intestinal wall would not let salts through unless some sugars were present.

So, is this product simply a reverse of that process?