Water Filter
Define a Problem
Project Management:
We made a Gantt chart and divided the responsibilities to help us manage our time for the project and to keep us on track.
Team Responsibilities:
Michael- Items, Weebly, oral presentation
Andrew- Pictures, Weebly, oral presentation
We made a Gantt chart and divided the responsibilities to help us manage our time for the project and to keep us on track.
Team Responsibilities:
Michael- Items, Weebly, oral presentation
Andrew- Pictures, Weebly, oral presentation
Brainstorm
Research
Some existing solutions are:
Reverse Osmosis- Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane which contains tiny pores through which the water is able to flow through. The small pores in the membrane don't allow organic compounds such as salt, rocks, sand, and other natural minerals. Some of the downsides to reverse osmosis are that for drinking water, this process removes all of the healthy minerals that are naturally in the water. Some of these minerals serve a vital function to the body and if the water is lacking these minerals, it could actually become unhealthy for the body. Reverse osmosis is an extremely slow and inefficient when compared to Filtration and Distillation. For every two to three gallons of water that go through this process, only about one gallon of purified water comes out of it, which is a waste of water if compared to other methods. http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com/reverse-osmosis-pc.html Filtration- Filtration is at this moment the most effective type of water treatment method currently available. Most filters utilize both chemical and physical filtration processes to remove a large number of drinking water contaminants such as rocks, and sand, and even some of the dangerous chemicals in water such as pesticide and herbicide chemicals. On the other hand this process is relatively slow, and depending on the type of filter used the water that goes through the filter might not have enough contact time with the filter to completely filter out all of the contaminants that are in the water. Which means the water we not be completely free of the chemicals, and other contaminants. http://www.historyofwaterfilters.com/filtration-pc.html Distillation- Distillation is a method where water is brought to its boiling point, and then the water evaporates into vapor and then condenses back down into water in a separate chamber. Some pros are is that this method removes the heavy metals and fluoride in the drinking water and it leaves behind most of the particles that we in it before such as dirt, rocks, and sand. However this method is very time consuming, and it requires a large amount of heat to bring the water its boiling point. http://www.intoxicatedonlife.com/2013/08/21/water-filtration-systems/# |
Explore Possibilities
Select an Approach
Develop a Design Proposal
Make a Model or Prototype
Test and Evaluate the Design using Specifications
Turbidity Results: 1st Variant - 160 NTU
2nd Variant - 108 NTU
3rd Variant - 84 NTU
4th Variant - 36 NTU
Throughout the process of researching, designing, building, and testing we have come across my problems in building our water filter. However we have learned a great deal about what it takes to build a good and efficient water filter. We found that cotton helps in filtering out the really big particles such as rocks and the cloth helps with smaller particles such as sand. The sponges that we used helped to absorb the water and filter out some of the smaller particles that made it through the cotton and cloth. The foam cup holder that houses the cotton, cloth, and sponges serves as a good stopper against medium and smaller size particles. And as a last resort the coffee filter, removes most of the remaining particles that made it all the way through the previous stages. We also learned that a water filter is not good if you are using just one or two materials because those two materials cannot stop all of the different particles in the water, eventually they will stop absorbing the water, and there will be too much particles or contaminants on the object already for it to no longer work. It sort of works like an old air filter. When that air filter is new is easy filters out the air, but as time goes on the filter becomes more and more saturated with dust and other particles to the point where it no longer filters the air, and it just lets all of the dust and particles through. Purity wise we found that coffee filters serve the best in filter the water where the cotton does the worst. Through this process, we have learned that our water filter needs stages, so we put the cotton on the top to help with big sediment, then the sponges and cloth to help with medium sized particles. After that we put the foam cup holder to help with smaller particles, and finally the coffee filter for the really small particles that made it through the whole filter.
2nd Variant - 108 NTU
3rd Variant - 84 NTU
4th Variant - 36 NTU
Throughout the process of researching, designing, building, and testing we have come across my problems in building our water filter. However we have learned a great deal about what it takes to build a good and efficient water filter. We found that cotton helps in filtering out the really big particles such as rocks and the cloth helps with smaller particles such as sand. The sponges that we used helped to absorb the water and filter out some of the smaller particles that made it through the cotton and cloth. The foam cup holder that houses the cotton, cloth, and sponges serves as a good stopper against medium and smaller size particles. And as a last resort the coffee filter, removes most of the remaining particles that made it all the way through the previous stages. We also learned that a water filter is not good if you are using just one or two materials because those two materials cannot stop all of the different particles in the water, eventually they will stop absorbing the water, and there will be too much particles or contaminants on the object already for it to no longer work. It sort of works like an old air filter. When that air filter is new is easy filters out the air, but as time goes on the filter becomes more and more saturated with dust and other particles to the point where it no longer filters the air, and it just lets all of the dust and particles through. Purity wise we found that coffee filters serve the best in filter the water where the cotton does the worst. Through this process, we have learned that our water filter needs stages, so we put the cotton on the top to help with big sediment, then the sponges and cloth to help with medium sized particles. After that we put the foam cup holder to help with smaller particles, and finally the coffee filter for the really small particles that made it through the whole filter.
Refine the Design
During the project we had many revisions as we tested different materials and brought in new materials to test or use in the design. Our first revision of the design implemented the use of a water bottle as a funnel to control the flow of water through the filtering materials we were using. The water bottle severely reduced the turbidity of the water by making the materials more effective, but our problem was removing very small particles from the water. Our next revision of the water filter focused on rearranging the materials so that the top materials would be best for removing large pieces of dirt from the water, and as it moved down the lower material like cloth would remove the smaller particles as best they could. The last revision of the filter was when we began to use sponges in the design and we had to again rearrange the order of the material and test the filter multiple times to find the best order possible.
Powerpoint
water_filter_project.pptx | |
File Size: | 5837 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Conclusion/reflection
This project was meant to refresh us with the steps of the design process and how we should be evaluating and redesigning multiple times during the project. The goal of the project was to reduce the turbidity of very dirty water down to drinkable levels of turbidity, and to accomplish this we had to make our own water filters. Our water filters were given the requirements of being cheap, durable, and as effective as possible. During the project I learned how important it is to keep track of your progress and write about each change in the design so that when we had to create the weebly it was very simple to go back and check how we created the final design for the water filter. If we were to do the project again I would want to research more about the different types of material that would be effective at filtering the water because one of our challenges that we faced was finding the right materials to use in the filter. Working with Andrew was very nice because we split up the work evenly and got to testing and brainstorming as soon as possible, we were able to work together as a team well to get a working filter design. For the students next year, I would suggest to advise students from using certain types of charcoal or sand that turns the water to a black or brown color.