Interesting. Sort of like the Katadyn ceramic filters? I have one of those and just love it. Doesn't help with heavy metals or organic contaminants like pesticides, so you don't want to use it on agricultural or industrial runoff, but it's great for biologicals. When it clogs with bacteria, you just pull out the abrasive pad, rub off the outermost coating of ceramic, and it's good to go again; you can repeat hundreds of times on a single filter.

My filter is one of those siphon ones, which is nice and convenient. I ordered a few carbon filters last week and I'm going to try chaining one after the ceramic filter to take out organics; if it doesn't have enough pressure, I can extend the tubing to allow for a greater height difference in the siphon. Combined with flocculating the source water before the ceramic if it's particularly contaminated, it should be a killer system, able to take care of almost anything but saltwater. Even the volcanic runoff water that I encountered when hiking in Japan could have been made safe and tasty by including that last step**.

Of course, it's not useful in a "I find myself stranded unexpectedly!" situation.

** Instead of using premade tablets, I have the individual components used in modern flocculant purification tablets. That way I don't have the added chlorine compounds (which I don't need and don't want because of the filter) and can adjust the pH (more aluminum sulfate to lower, more sodium bicarbonate to raise) as needed. Much cheaper, too.