With New Method, China Can Mass-Produce Light Water For Its Citizens' Thirst

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 01.06.2011 at 11:56 am 10 Comments

Water Drop Wikimedia Commons

In an effort to produce mass quantities of healthier H₂O, Chinese scientists have come up with a new method to change water’s chemical composition. It involves making light water.

Natural water has tiny amounts of D₂O molecules, deuterium and oxygen, mixed in with the dihydrogen monoxide. Deuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, is an isotope of hydrogen that contains one proton and one neutron. In North America, typical drinking water has a deuterium concentration of about 150 ppm, roughly equivalent to a few drops per every quart.

Water with higher concentrations of D₂O is known as heavy water, and it is harmful to plants and animals. By contrast, water with hardly any D₂O — or light water — can boost the immune system and benefit plant and animal health, according to several studies. In one study from 2003, plant photosynthesis increased with the use of light water. A study involving mice blasted with ionizing radiation showed a dramatic difference in survival between mice that drank light water and mice that drank regular water. It is even used as a cancer treatment for humans: In 2008, researchers reported that light water noticeably lengthened the lifespan of terminal cancer patients.

Given these positive effects, it seems smart to provide greater quantities of light water for public consumption. But it’s hard to produce — current methods include electrolysis, distillation, a high-temperature exchange method that uses hydrogen sulfide, and desalination from seawater, according to authors Feng Huang and Changgong Meng of the Department of Chemistry at Dalian University of Technology in China. These methods are either expensive, inefficient or bad for the environment.

The authors propose a new method involving a platinum catalyst, which quickly removes deuterium from water using cold and hot temperatures, according to the American Chemical Society. The result is water with a deuterium concentration of roughly 125 ppm.

The method could be the basis for industrial-scale light water production — and a new way to produce huge quantities of healthier water for the masses.

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10 Comments

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B.V.

01/06/11 at 5:30 pm

Someone ought to bottle that stuff and sell it.

I can see the "Water Light" commercials now... "MMM! tastes just like regular water, but without all the deuterium!"

PATENT PENDING, PATENT PENDING, PATENT PENDING!

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nonethewiser

01/06/11 at 6:25 pm

The Chinese need the deuterium for all their fusion reactors they have been secretly constructing. This is why they have begun hoarding rare earth metals like platinum. This lite water is just a by-product of their impending world domination.

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Gene192

01/06/11 at 10:35 pm

Never knew about this deterium in water thing.
Great idea.
Should use this water for things like disasters.

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nicholasjh1

01/07/11 at 12:44 pm

You could be onto something @nonethewiser. this definitely fits a pattern.

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jakos8

01/07/11 at 12:41 pm

yeah ok china, don't sell your bombs to me as goodwill towards humanity. The "study" involving cancer patients stated in this article has a sample size of four. four is not an adequate sample size, especially when you have no control to compare it to. And the water the patients were given was of significantly less D20 concentration than china's proposed method can create after the first couple months, decreasing by "10 to 15 to 20 ppm lower deuterium (D) content every 1 to 2 months" (not very scientific either).
The mice just straight up drank water with 30 ppm D20. 125 ppm is not anywhere near light, especially when compared to any water that has shown any promise (no matter how unscientific this promise may be).

light water?
nonethewiser's comment seems much more plausible in comparison.
I mean, hey, everyone knows heavy water is useless. And china wouldn't do anything right now to build up their military:
j-20 stealth fighter; new modified dong feng 21

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david_forbus

01/08/11 at 2:21 am

I'm with nonethewiser. I think this is just spin on their efforts to produce more Heavy Water. They may not have any fusion reactors running, but they may be just thinking ahead.

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lnpath

01/10/11 at 8:18 am

Heavy water has its uses. Look at Canada and its Candu reactors. They use heavy water as the moderator so they can use natural uranium as the fuel. Much safer design.

A spin off benefit is that a byproduct of running the Candu's is Helium 3 which is in critical supply and is needed for radiation detectors world wide. As a byproduct, the heavy water Candu reactors produce tritium which is a radioactive gas that produces the helium-3 isotope as it naturally decays in radioactivity. Canada currently stores the tritium as a metal.

Note, that China is building Nuclear Reactors as fast as they can in order to reduce reliance on oil and all of its green house issues. Nothing sinister here.

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NickFun

01/13/11 at 11:41 pm

Perhaps bottled water maker could claim "our water has 25% less deuterium than other leading brands!"

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HYD LLC

01/17/11 at 7:48 am

Gabor Somlyai,Ph.D. a Hungarian molecular biologist was the first who started to investigate the biological effects of deuterium depleted water, the first publication appeared in 1993 (FEBS Lett. 317, 1-4). Different applications of deuterium depleted water are patented by HYD LLC (Hungary). HYD's deuterium depleted products are available on the market since 1999. Deuterium depleted medicine has been also registered by the company for veterinary use. Further information: www.hyd.hu, www.preventa.org, www.deuteriumdepletion.com

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Elena Serban

01/17/12 at 6:15 am

I drink this water on a regular basis and I can say it has really helped. I am from Romania, the country that patented this invention. Qlarivia is a deuterium depleted water with 25 ppm deuterium. I have been drinking it for a year and I had HPV which started to heal after a few months. Now I am free of that problem and I sincerely recommend Qlarivia.
Also, the Preventa water is made with deuterium depleted water produced in Romania, by the producers of Qlarivia.

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