STEM 4° 12/11/19

Wat-er We Drinking?

Emma Rice, Evan Colenbrander, Vanessa Diaz, and Jake Hobson

Our Problem:

We hope to help third world countries successfully gain access to

clean drinking water that is affordable. With our model we hope to
provide people without clean water with an easy solution so they
can stay healthy and live prosperous lives.
Our Problem
● People in developing or poverty
stricken countries do not have
complete access to clean water
● 785 million people lack even a basic
drinking-water service, including 144
million people who are dependent on
surface water.
● In least developed countries, 22% of
health care facilities have no water
service, 21% no sanitation service,
and 22% no waste management
service.
● Drinking unclean water can lead to
serious diseases and even death
Background
Some of our original questions:

What kind of filters are we going to use?

What kind of chemicals will we use?
What would the price look like for this item?
How will it be accessible to people in developing countries?
How will it be sustainable or environmentally friendly?
What kind of table display will convey our message or problem?
How large should the item be?
How much will it weigh?
What things that are similar to this currently exist?
Flint Water Crisis
● In process of building new pipeline
to bring water from Lake Huron
○ Water became foul smelling and
discolored
● The protective membrane on the
pipes in Flint had eroded
○ The lead that the pipes were made
of seeped into the water
● Had high levels of organic molecules
called Trihalomethanes
○ Can get into water when chlorine is
used to disinfect
○ Reacts with algae, leaves (etc)
○ Produces trihalomethanes
Causes of the Flint Water Crisis
Trihalomethanes
● When chlorine reacts with algae and such,
trihalomethanes are produced
○ Linked to health problems like liver, kidney,
and heart conditions
Lead
● No protective layer/it was eroded away and
water traveling through pipes was
contaminated
○ Not healthy for humans to consume lead
and causes health problems and even death
Water Filters
 ● Disinfection:
What do they do?
● Passes through screens made
of mesh or other polymers to
remove large particles such as
sticks, leaves, and other debris.
● Passes through a series of
filters consisting of sand and
sometimes even biological
filters such as algae to remove
smaller contaminants, such as
dangerous bacteria
○ Adding a small amount of
powder or liquid containing
chlorine
○ Bubbling in ozone gas
○ Passing the water through
ultraviolet light (rapidly kills
any remaining harmful
pathogens that may have
passed through the filters)
Our original filter
plan:
What our prototype
filter looks like:
Top Gravel Layer
for filtering out
large items
Sand Layer for
filtering out fine
Charcoal Layer particles

Cotton Balls and filter paper keeps the

filter materials in place

Activated Charcoal:
Many organic impurities in water
are carbon based and attracted to
the carbon in the charcoal creating
chemical bonds between the two.
Other compounds, such as water,
do not bond to the charcoal so they
are able to pass through.
Activated charcoal is created by changing
the internal structure of charcoal through
high temperatures. This change in structure
comes in the form of smaller pores.
Activated charcoal has a negative electrical
charge which helps it attract positively
charged molecules such as toxins that can be
found in water. Through this attraction these
toxins are absorbed by the charcoal. It is still
safe to consume this charcoal because it is
not absorbed by our bodies so it will carry
the absorbed toxins in and out of our
digestive tract without any harm.
Activated charcoal is not good at removing
bacteria or viruses.
Additionally:
● Our final product will also include chloramine in the filter
● Chloramine is created by bonding ammonia and a chlorine
● It is good for killing of germs and disinfecting drinking water
● Monochloramines are used in drinking water and are safe for humans to consume
● The idea pH for chloramine to form is 8 so our water samples will work fine

Reaction equation: NH3 + HOCI -> NH2Cl + H2O

During this reaction three forms of chloramines form. When the pH is 7 or above monochloramines form.

This is more beneficial than chlorine because it lasts much longer than chlorine.
Our Filter’s
Materials:
1. Untraditional filter paper
2. Cotton balls (natural)
3. Activated Charcoal
4. Sand
5. Gravel
6. Cup
7. Bucket
Benefits of our filter:
● It is very light weight
● It is small
● The materials used in it can be replaced easily
● It would be cost effective
Some aspects that need to be improved:
● The filter paper is not very strong so the filter part would have to be replaced after many uses
Our Water Sample
Before Filtration After Filtration
Our data
Ammonia Nitrogen Test

The Ammonia Nitrogen levels stayed the same for the dirty sample before
and after filtering at around 0.1 ppm which is within the safe levels.
Ammonia is dangerous to aquatic life but it is fine in human drinking water

Chemical Composition is NH3

What is pH?

● pH is the potential of hydrogen

● The pH scale is a scale
○ rank the relative basicity or acidity of substances to other
substances
○ based on the amount of hydrogen ion activity in a substance
● High pH = low hydrogen ion concentration (basic)
● Low pH= high hydrogen ion concentration (acidic)
PH Levels

Dirty ph= 7

Filtered ph= 8

Safe pH levels for drinking water= 6- 8.5 pH

Iron Test The cleaned sample is on the left and the dirty sample is on the right

Dirty: 10 ppm

Filtered: 5 ppm

Safe level of iron in drinking

water: 0.3 ppm

Iron in drinking water contains bacteria

that feeds off of it and high
concentrations of iron can lead to We would like to further look into lowering
overload which causes diabetes, stomach iron levels
problems, vomiting and nausea.
Copper Test

0 ppm (for both)

Safe level of copper in

drinking water: 1.3 ppm

A high concentration of copper

can lead to vomiting, diarrhea,
stomach cramps, nausea, liver
damage and kidney disease.
Chlorine Test

O ppm for both dirty and filtered water

A high concentration of chlorine has been linked to

higher incidence of bladder, rectal and breast cancer.
Further Steps
Further Steps

Replace filter paper

Check for bacteria

Polish up appearance

Larger Scale

More tests
Our Water Table
Our Water Table:
Design of Water Table:

Observers will be allowed to create dirty water

themselves. They will then pour their concoction
through our filter to observe how it is able to produce
clean drinking water.
Our Water Table
● Materials
○ Lemons (“dirt and grime”)
○ Water
○ Our filter (polished and larger scale)
○ Cups
Questions?