Beer Bottle Water Filtration

Transcription

1 Beer Bottle Water Filtration Introduction to Engineering Fall 2016 Khalil Sharif Abdulla Alaqeel Casey Benincosa Tyler Underwood Rachel Ingerson

2 Introduction: Clean water is an essential resource, and has been the difference between survival and extinction for the human race. Transportation and access to it has been critical to the advancements of many civilizations. Simple water filtration using sand and gravel or heating water to purify it has been around for millions of years. At the time, they could not have known how their methods worked, but they recognized that cleaning water before drinking it made a difference in health and survival. As time went on and scientific advancements were made, we now understand that the sand and gravel method physically removes organic matter and some bacteria, and heating water kills microorganisms that would be too small for sand and gravel to filter out. Throughout the technological advances of water filtration, we have used physical and chemical methods to clean our water. Desalinization and distillation have also been used. The current process is a multi-step filtration that uses a combination of many methods to remove microorganisms, chemicals and some minerals. It was only in the last 80 years that standards have been set for what constitutes clean water using Coliform Bacteria (e.g. E. coli) as the indicator of cleanliness and safety. We set out to create a small, portable filter from common materials for use in emergency situations or for areas where there is not access to clean, safe water such as hiking or camping. Research: We researched several methods of water filtration and decided to use a physical process of elimination, as well as one chemical layer of activated carbon to remove chemicals for better tasting water. The physical filter sizes were calculated according to the size of microorganisms that we wanted to filter out. We decided to focus on a few common microorganisms that would likely be encountered on the trail in rivers or lakes in North America. Giardia lamblia: (Parasite, causes GI distress) 6-10 µm

3 Cryptosporidium: (Parasite, causes GI distress) 4 6 µm E. Coli (Bacterium, causes GI distress) µm Salmonella (Bacterium, causes GI distress) µm Commercial filters available for sale such as the Sawyer and Lifestraw filter down to 0.02 µm. This would remove all typical viruses and bacteria along with other small microorganisms as the smallest size for those is 0.02 µm. They are made of fiber filters that are not accessible to the general public. We decided to go with a 1 µm (Micrometer) filter as our smallest filter, as it would filter out the two most common parasites and catch most of the E. coli and Salmonella as they are both over 1 µm in length. During emergency use for a natural disaster in an urban area, it would be prudent to boil the water along with filtration to ensure the absence of bacteria and viruses that fall below the 1 µm size. Activated Carbon was also chosen as another layer to remove any leftover chlorine, sediment, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). One gram of Activated Carbon has a surface area in excess of 500 m 2, and works by adsorption to chemically bind to organic molecules. It is used often in water filtration to improve the taste as it binds to many organic compounds that affect taste and odor. It will not remove some minerals (lead, fluoride) or nitrates, but hopefully those would not be an issue in a rural environment. It can remove some chemicals that would be present if a hiker was near an agriculture area and dealing with pesticide run off. Our Idea: We wanted to build something small and light, yet reusable for the entire trip. Using an Aluminum beer bottle gave us an accessible, rugged container that would hold up well on the trail and that could be sterilized before use. We wanted to create several different levels of filters, starting from a loose foam and working down to the Activated Carbon. We wanted to add a tube to the cap so it could be

4 used as a straw. Our original design was had gravel and sand layers, but we decided to replace those with smaller, light foam filters that were more efficient at removing smaller particles. Build Process We started with an aluminum beer bottle, which was sanded down on a lathe to remove the outer

5 paint. Then some sand blasting on the cap, followed by a lot of hand sanding to buff it to a nice finish. Caps and Tubing

6 The caps were sanded down, a hole drilled in the center and food grade silicon used to seal a piece of ¼ tubing in place. The original design depended on the silicon alone to hold the tubing steady, but that resulted in leaky caps and tubing that moved, so we added a small rod to hold it steady. The tubing extends several inches up next to the filter. By attaching it to the side of the filter with a rubber band, the Activated Carbon will stay wet, keeping any media that has been filtered out from moving around when dried out. We originally discussed building a valve for the end, but we felt the design worked well without adding another component so we added a simple cone shaped silicon plug. Filters

7 The filter layers inside are as follows: Stage 6: Large foam mesh to catch leaves and any large creatures such as tadpoles Stage 5: 595 µm foam filter to catch small aquatic insects and large sediments Stage 4: 297 µm foam filter to catch coarse or medium sand or sediment Stage 3: 10 µm paper filter to catch fine sand, and large microorganisms Stage 2: 1 µm spun polypropylene filter to catch remaining microorganisms Stage 1: Activated Carbon to chemically bind any remaining organic compounds and improve taste Filters laid out

8 Filter Assembly

9 End cap prototype and final We created a temporary cover for the top of the filter, and then ended up creating a simple flange plug out of plastic that fits in the end snugly.

10 Final prototypes

11 Results Water flow test: it works! The water moved fairly quickly in the gravity fed system, but we realized that it was not properly sealed on the sides of the filter and water was flowing down and skipping entire layers of filters. We remedied this by sealing the 1µm filter to the walls of the bottle on the inside with food grade silicon. [insert pics of inside]

12 Final prototypes and display Water testing [insert water testing info and pics] Conclusion: We did succeed in making a light, portable filtration system that would be able to sustain a hiker or a person in an emergency situation, however, we learned that it s difficult to build a water filtration system out of common items that would sustain a larger group. This prototype could be scaled up, and easily balanced with a sterilization procedure or chemical drops to provide water to a larger group, but in the cases of a natural disaster or emergency, heat and chemical additives may not be accessible. The technology for the 0.02um filters is still not available or cost efficient for the general population.