Water Filter Project
Define the problem
Project management summaryWe made a Gantt chart and divided responsibilities list to help us manage our timing on the project and keep us on track. The Gantt chart especially helped.
Team resposibilitiesMichael- Items, Weebly, oral presentation
Andrew- Pictures, Weebly, oral presentation |
Gantt ChartDesign Brief |
Brainstorm
Research and Generate Ideas
Existing solutions
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/#
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
Sponges- They were very good a absorbing a filter out the water
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Cloth- Good at filtering out smaller sized particles
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Coffee filter- good as a last line of defense against smaller particles
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Foam cup holder- Decent at improving the overall water quality.
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Cotton- Very good at filtering out large objects but not much else
Select an Approach
Decision matrix
Develop a Design Proposal
Sketches of final design
Make a Model or Prototype
Fabrication of functional prototype
Testing and Evaluation
Record Results - Turbidity value
Turbidity Results: 1st Variant - 160 NTU
2nd Variant - 108 NTU
3rd Variant - 84 NTU
4th Variant - 36 NTU
2nd Variant - 108 NTU
3rd Variant - 84 NTU
4th Variant - 36 NTU
Summarize findings
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
Summary of different variations
The first variation that we did involved stuffing all of our materials into the foam cup holder itself, which proven itself to not be very effective. Because of that, we changed it by adding a cut open water bottle which we would the stuff the materials into the water bottle then put the water bottle into the foam cup holder. The was better then the last variation but we wanted to further improve on the design. So we added specific layers to the way the materials are in the bottle. First the sponges went in the the cotton on the top. Then user the bottle itself we put cloth and the put all of that in the foam cup holder. In the end it turned into a very efficient water filter.
Communicate Processes and Results
water_filter_project.pptx | |
File Size: | 5837 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Conclusion / reflection
Throughtout the project I learned many things. I learned that designing and creating an efficient water filter takes a lot of hard work, patience, and dedication. It also needs really good time management. If I could have done something differently I think I would have tried to bring in more items since my partner Michael had to carry that burden most of the time and I think it would be best if I would better share that burden by bringing more items in then I had originally did. Other then that I think our water filter turned out really well. I think our teamwork was really good, especially at the end when it came to making the Weebly and PowerPoint since we worked really well together gathering all of the pictures and information needed. Overall this was a really good practice in preparation for the final project because we learned in this project how to identify world problems and design and create a solution for that chosen problem.