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Dustin Plantholt’s “Life’s Tough—YOU can be TOUGHER!” podcast is honored to feature Rodney Herrington, an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and Founder and CEO of Aqua Research—a leading-edge company providing affordable and sustainable lifesaving water technologies.
This “Life’s Tough” episode released on October 7th, 2020 and is now available on all major podcast networks, under the Podcast Channel “Life’s Tough”.
From 1908, when the practice began in the United States, adding chlorine to drinking water is one of the greatest health innovations in human history as it eliminated waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera and increased our life expectancy from 47 to 63. Today, unless you have a private well, the water in your home has chlorine in it. When Americans turn on the faucet, we don’t think twice that the water is free of pathogens. Disturbingly, that is not the case in most countries. According to the CDC, over 3 million people die each year from water-related health problems.
Rodney Herrington has spent decades in water treatment and is passionate about creating innovative, affordable, mobile and sustainable technologies that provide safe water and disinfectant to everyone. In 2010 he founded Aqua Research LLC in Albuquerque with a mission to offer affordable and sustainable lifesaving water technology to developing nations where the median income is less than $2 a day; to support disaster relief and humanitarian aid; and offer the same technology to the outdoor community through commercial markets and retail sales to promote a healthy and adventurous lifestyle.Rodney has taken technology previously used on large-scale municipal devices and miniaturized it into two compact devices that have already saved countless lives in more than 50 countries.
Both his devices generate chlorine using only salt and electricity. It’s incredibly simple: salt is dissolved in water, electricity is run through this saltwater, and chlorine is produced. The electricity can be from any source, even solar power. And because salt is the only ingredient, there is virtually no cost to run them. The H2gO Purifier fits in your pocket and will treat 10 gallons of water per day—enough for a family. It is inexpensive to purchase and virtually free to operate (50-cents per year), with no maintenance, no spare parts, and no consumables other than common salt—making it truly sustainable. The H2gO purifier has saved thousands of lives to date in both developing and developed countries. The STREAM unit comes in a briefcase-sized case and produces enough chlorine to disinfect 60,000 gallons of drinking water each day—the equivalent of a swimming pool. It can also be used as a surface disinfectant that meets the World Health Organization’s specifications, making it ideal for hospitals, health clinics, schools, disaster relief and humanitarian aid.
Given the portability, low cost, no maintenance and ease of use, these units have been embraced by major humanitarian organizations for COVID-19 response including Catholic Relief Services, Caris Foundation/USAID, PATH/Hilton Foundation, and Operation Blessing.
Prior to forming Aqua Research, Rodney was one of the founders and former Chief Technical Officer of MIOX Corporation, as well as inventor of the MSR MIOX Purifier, a first generation water purifier and Grand Award Winner for Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New Award” in General Innovation in 2003 and a US Navy SBIR / STTR Success Story in 2007.
Join Dustin and Rodney for an inspiring and heartfelt conversation on Rodney’s incredible achievements and hear him discuss why there remains a great global need for safe drinking water and disinfectant. As Rodney says, “When I realized the potential of this technology, I was compelled to develop it and deploy it worldwide (to save lives). It’s very gratifying to be able to develop a technology that can be used for good … for humanity.”
