There seems to be an industry for everything. And surprisingly enough many of these industries can be quite large. As an example the water purification and filtration industry. In many countries finding water that is drinkable is not easy. Therefore finding and using portable water filters is a huge international business. Even in the United States water filtration is used in many homes. There are systems that you can use to purify your entire home’s water system or even just one particular faucet. There are also gravity based filters which do not even need to be installed or plugged in. The water is poured into the top and filters out the bottom. As an example, Berkey water filters create gravity based purification systems.

How Big is the Industry?
I was unable to find yearly sales figures but I have to believe it’s in the hundreds of millions if not larger. Many of these systems are probably sold by builders when installed in the homes. Many of these companies and are privately owned and do not release their sales figures. But one of the best things about any business is repeat business. While you buy the system you will still need to continuously buy new filters. Some of these filters like the Berkey filters are good for filtering 6000 gallons. That is quite impressive. So while you may not need to buy them every day you do need to buy them often. This is an excellent business model when you can continue to obtain recurring business and sales.

What can be filtered out?
Many different contaminants can be filtered out. But it depends on the filters being used. It is not the system as much as it is the filters. In many cases they call them elements. These elements can remove things such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, detergents, and all sorts of things that you would not want to put in your body. Believe it or not some of these things are in the drinking water of highly industrialized countries. So to be safe some people like to utilize these types of systems. Also you may want portable systems in case of emergency. As an example hurricanes often wipe out small cities and towns, then drinking water can be difficult to find. Portable filtration systems that do not need electricity will provide clean drinking wate. They are also useful on travel as long as they are portable and do not need to be plugged in. As you can see you can obtain pure, safe, drinking water in almost any situation with the right system.