Patent ID: 7850859

Claim:
A method of treating low-pressure untreated water, said method comprising: (a) passing low-pressure untreated water from a source of low-pressure untreated water through a low-pressure water filter device, such that the average fluid contact time is greater than about 2 seconds, the low-pressure water filter device comprises a storage housing and mesoporous activated carbon filter particles, wherein (i) a sum of mesopore and macropore volumes of the mesoporous activated carbon filter particles is between about 0.2 mL/g and about 2 mL/g, wherein mesopore means an intra-particle pore having a diameter between 2 nm and 50 nm, and macropore means an intra-particle pore having a diameter greater than 50 nm, and (ii) a total pore volume of the mesoporous activated carbon filter particles is greater than about 0.4 mL/g and less than about 3 mL/g; (b) removing bacteria and viruses from the low-pressure untreated water with the low-pressure water filter at a level of Filter Bacteria Log Removal of greater than about 2 logs and a Filter Viruses Log Removal of greater than about 1 log to produce treated drinking water; and (c) filling the storage housing with treated drinking water at a rate greater than about 5 mL/min.