H20’s first contact with Oxfam UK’s public health division was 3 years ago, at a time when H20 was working on a colloidal silver product for killing bacteria. Oxfam was fully aware of the power of silver to kill bacteria, but had concerns about colloidal silver’s “consumable” nature – especially in remote locations. They wanted something more permanent and longer lasting. Tom Tranfaglia, H20’s president and founding investor, took the concept back to California and in about a year’s time, Solid Form Biocide (SFB) was born. A solid mesh of material with silver plating, SFB could last a long time and kill bacteria on contact.
H20 first proposed “two-bucket” systems to Oxfam, requiring dirty water in the top bucket to flow through several filters, including an SFB cartridge, before emerging clean at the bottom bucket. The concept is used by many others, and Oxfam wanted us to try for a more unique “one-bucket” system. To meet this desire, H20 came up with the SFB pad: a mesh coiled around itself capable of killing bacteria in any bucket or container. Samples were sent to the University of Surrey for testing, and miraculously, they killed bacteria. The especially exciting thing was how well they killed bacteria in containers that were shaken. With this experiment, “Water in Motion” applications for SFB were born.
After this successful test, H20 went back to the drawing board and created a product called Guardian: SFB formed into 5-foot long ropes covered in a specialized cloth, just the right size for stuffing in a Jerrycan*.
*Jerrycans are military-style fuel canisters which are the most widely used water-carrying containers in Africa (over 80 million estimated in use)
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History of Guardian: Part I
H20’s first contact with Oxfam UK’s public health division was 3 years ago, at a time when H20 was working on a colloidal silver product for killing bacteria. Oxfam was fully aware of the power of silver to kill bacteria, but had concerns about colloidal silver’s “consumable” nature – especially in remote locations. They wanted something more permanent and longer lasting. Tom Tranfaglia, H20’s president and founding investor, took the concept back to California and in about a year’s time, Solid Form Biocide (SFB) was born. A solid mesh of material with silver plating, SFB could last a long time and kill bacteria on contact.
H20 first proposed “two-bucket” systems to Oxfam, requiring dirty water in the top bucket to flow through several filters, including an SFB cartridge, before emerging clean at the bottom bucket. The concept is used by many others, and Oxfam wanted us to try for a more unique “one-bucket” system. To meet this desire, H20 came up with the SFB pad: a mesh coiled around itself capable of killing bacteria in any bucket or container. Samples were sent to the University of Surrey for testing, and miraculously, they killed bacteria. The especially exciting thing was how well they killed bacteria in containers that were shaken. With this experiment, “Water in Motion” applications for SFB were born.
*Jerrycans are military-style fuel canisters which are the most widely used water-carrying containers in Africa (over 80 million estimated in use)