Scalable and Sustainable Total Pathogen Removal Filter Paper for Point of Use Drinking Water Purification in Bangladesh

This article describes for the first time the full cycle of development from raw material cultivation to real-life application of a truly sustainable and scalable filter paper material intended for point-of-use drinking water purification in Bangladesh. The filter paper, featuring tailored pathogen removal properties, is produced from nanocellulose extracted from Pithophora green macroalgae, growing locally in Bangladesh, a new unexploited resource that can address a global problem. We demonstrate that the Pithophora cellulose filter paper can be used as a total pathogen barrier to remove all types of infectious viruses and bacteria from water. The performance of the filter is validated using surrogate latex nanobeads, in vitro model viruses, and real-life water samples collected from the Turag River and Dhanmondi Lake in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Access to clean drinking water is a persistent problem in Bangladesh, affecting tens of millions of people every day. The mortality rate due to water-borne diarreal in...