ES 10A: Chemistry for Engineers LAB | Lab Activity 5 Page 1 of 8

Name: Doligol, Trunxs Vincent J. (LEADER) Date: 12/02/21

Ompoc, Ed Kristian H.
Paeste, Rovell Ryan S.
Semblante, Randiel Faye A.
Villarazo, Kristelle Mae T.
Section: BSEE 1A Group #:5

ES 10A
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY

Lab Activity 5
Water
Purification

Introduction

Water is essential for life. It is Earth’s most precious resource. All living things need
water to survive. Human beings are advised to drink eight to ten glasses of clean water
each day to stay healthy and hydrated. In addition, all residences need water for bathing,
washing, and cooking. Large amounts of water are also necessary for energy production,
as well as for growing crops, fruits, vegetables, and animal needs. The Earth is abundant
in water with 71% of it covered by water. However, 99% of Earth’s water is not fit for
drinking. Out of all of Earth’s available water, only 0.62% is ground water. This is the
reason drinking water is scarce. With the increasing population, the need to conserve and
purify water is badly needed.
The use of water filtration systems continue to rise. Contaminants within drinking
water, such as disease-causing microorganisms, toxic metals, as well as organic and
inorganic chemicals, pose hazardous health effects that can cause developmental delays
in children, birth defects, and even cancer. While community water treatment facilities
are useful, they cannot guarantee complete control over the contamination of our drinking
water sources. Natural materials such as carbon, ceramic, and sand are some of the most
efficient water filtration systems to protect against these deleterious effects (Cuffari,
2016) .
In this activity, a device that helped “purify” dirty water was constructed. Filtration
set-ups generated in this activity were design to remove physical and some chemical
contaminants.

Objectives
⦁ To identify the properties of materials and their respective
functions in in water purification
⦁ To identify which filtration set-up is more effective in purifying water
⦁ To assess the cleanliness of water
AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho
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Materials
The Materials used in this activity are the following:
1) Two clear 1.5-L plastic (soda) bottle
2) Cheesecloth
3) Two cups each of gravel, sand, charcoal, and marbles
4) Spoon
5) Flashlight
6) Ruler
7) Rubber bands / string
8) 500 mL gray water 500mL distilled water
9) Wooden stick

Procedure
Part A. Set-up A
1. Using a knife, the bottom of 1.5 cola bottle was cut.
2. The 1.5-L bottle was placed upside down with its mouth over the cut part of the
bottle to catch the filtered water. Cheesecloth was then wrapped in the bottle’s
mouth.
3. Marbles, gravel, sand, and coal were then selected as the four filtering materials.
4. The set-up was decided to be layered from the top to the bottom as follows:marble,
gravel, charcoal, then sand.
5. The bottle was filled with two cups of sand, the first filtering material, then by
using a spoon it was flattened to even its surface.Then another 2 cups of the
second filtering material, charcoal, was placed on top of the sand, and just like
the first layer it was made sure it was even. Further, the 2 cups of gravel was put
on top of the charcoal as well as the 2 cup of marbles on top of the third material.
All the four materials were assembled in the plastic bottle of the set up A.
Part B. Set-up B
1. The same procedure of Set-up A was done in this set-up , as well as the same
materials. But the first material and second material in set-up A, which are the sand
and charcoal respectively, were switched in order. So the order of layer for this set-
up was charcoal, sand, gravel, and marble from the bottom to the top.
Part C. Data Collection and Recording
6. A diagram of the two filtration system set-up was drew and labeled .
7. The data needed in this activity was the assessments of color and odor of the water
sample. Thus the techniques used to collect the data were:
a) Wafting technique to smell the water.
b) Using stirring/wooden stick to mix the water and observed any signs of tyndall
effect for purified water don’t exhibit this effect.
AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho
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8. A sample of the clean water were observed and data of it collected and recorded .
9. Clean water was poured through the filtering system.Then the water after was
observed and data was collected.
10. A sample of unclean water was also observed before filtering.

11. The unclean water was poured into the filtering system. Its properties were
observed after it has been filtered. Data below were recorded.
a) Number of drops per minute. Continue counting for 3 minutes.
b) Measure (or estimate) the total volume of the filtered water using measuring cup.
c) Any signs of Tyndall effect in the filtered water.
12. The data collection was done in both of the set-up. Following the same procedures
for observations.
13. The material was discarded in the open pit for recyclable materials. The used water
was disposed in the ground and never in the sink.

Results and Discussion

This part of the paper contains the results collected and its discussion. Diagrams, tables,
and figures from this activity are showcase to make the results clearer and for it to be
visualized.

Figure 1. Diagrams of the Filtration Set-ups A and B

AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho

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Figure 2. Filtration Set-up A Figure 3. Filtration Set-up B

Figure 4. Clean water before filtration Figure 5. Gray water before filtration

AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho

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Figures 6 and 7. Clean water after filtration

Figure 8. Gray water after filtration set-up A Figure 9.Gray water after filtration set-up B

Figure 2 shows the assembled filtration system Set-up A. The top layer is the marble.
Then below the layer of marble is the gravel layer, below the gravel is the charcoal layer. The
bottom layer consist of sand as its material. Filtration system set-up B, shown in Figure 3,
consists of the same materials of set -up A yet the two materials at the bottom, the charcoal and
sand layer, were interchanged. Hence in this set-up the charcoal was at the bottom of the
system. Figure 4 and 5 are the sample water before being filtrated. The clear water after
filtration and Gray water after filtration in each set-ups are presented in Figures 6 to 9.

Table 1. Physical Properties of the Water Samples for Set-ups A and B

Gray Gray
Clean Water Water (Set-up A) Water (Set-up B)
Parameter

BEFORE Filtration:
Color Colorless Light Gray Light Gray
Odor Odorless Petrichor Petrichor
AFTER Filtration:
Color Brownish Colorless Colorless
Odor Petrichor Petrichor Petrichor
Tyndall Effect (yes/no) No No No
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Table 2. Quantity of Filtered Gray Water for Set-ups A and B

No. Of No. Of
Time (mins) Drops* Drops*
(Set-up A) (Set-up B)
1 139 124
2 261 225
3 338 360
Total Volume (mL) 16.9 mL 18 mL
The tables presented the data collected from the filtration system of each of the set-ups.
Table 1 showcased the physical properties, specifically odor and color parameters, of the water
samples before and after filtration. There’s no observed Tyndall effect in all the samples.
Quantity of Filtered gray water for each set-ups is presented in Table 2 where it can be seen
that the total volume of set-up A is 16.9 mL, not so far to the 18 mL total volume of set-up .

Discussion

In the created filtration system the bottle used acted as the filter. The materials inside
the bottle for the layers in both of the filtration system set-up were marble, gravel, charcoal,
and sand. The marble layer, the uppermost layer of the filtration system acts as the first layer of
filtration. It blocks large pieces of materials blended in the water if ever there are any. The
gravel layer functions to catch large pieces of debris, such as twigs, leaves, and bugs that get
passed through the marbles. The charcoal layer gets rid of bacteria and some chemicals. The
sand layer plays its role to catch smaller particles, such as dirt and grit and makes the water
look clean.
Ordinary charcoal was used for this activity. For good reason, charcoal water filters are
one of the most popular types of water filters for they are healthy, clean, and natural. It's also
an odorless, tasteless fine black powder, or a black porous solid made up entirely of carbon and
any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and
plant matter. Charcoal filters can not only remove a lot of the bad stuff from water, but they
can also attract pollutants and add things back in to make it healthier to drink. Charcoal filters
not only absorb these foul-tasting chemicals, but they also remove odors, making drinking
water much more pleasant to drink. Because the process forms connections between chemicals
and keeps contaminants in the filter, charcoal filters must be replaced once all of the pores have
been filled. Since it is simple and inexpensive to maintain and replace charcoal filters, they're a
popular choice among many households. Activated charcoal, on the other hand, acts via the
adsorption process. Adsorption, rather than absorption, chemically binds these contaminants.
The natural and effective removal of numerous pollutants from water, such as volatile organic
compounds and chlorine, without the need of chemicals or the removal of salts and minerals, is
why activated charcoal makes such an excellent material for water filters. Cuffarri(2016)
mentioned that factors such as molecular weight, pH, particle size, surface area, and flow rate
significantly determine carbon’s purification ability.Within carbon’s molecular surface area,
AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho
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several attractive forces exist to attract other molecules. These forces function similarly to that
of a gravitational force, where contaminants within the water adhere to the large surface area of
carbon. The interaction of these forces depends upon carbon’s non-polar nature, where the
electrical charges surrounding a single molecule of carbon are evenly distributed, canceling out
any charge to the molecule.
When comparing sand and gravel for removing or separating coarse impurities,
gravel is way better than sand. This is because sand can only filter smaller impurities, whereas
gravel can filter larger particles and hold back impurity-containing precipitates, making it a
highly effective filter media. Particle sizes of soil in gravel range from 4.75mm to 76.2mm,
while particle sizes of soil in sand range from 0.075mm to 4.75mm. That means soil particles
in gravel are larger than that of sand (Admin, 2011). Thus large particles can be trapped
between the layers of gravel, which helps to oxygenate the water, tiny gravel will filter out
smaller particles if there is smaller gravel beneath it and the filtration process would next be
completed with pea-sized gravel. As a result, because gravel is more effective at separating or
filtering course impurities or pollutants, it should be the one to use to separate coarse
impurities.
The results of each setup observed and data collected were assessments of the
filtered water odor and color before and after filtration. Based on the observations and
evaluations, both set-ups are effective in the sense both resulted in good quality. In terms of
color, the two set-ups resulted in colorless water from gray waters. There was no observable
presence of any physical properties floating in the filtered water. The filtered water did not
exhibit any Tyndall effect. The smell did not change, the water before and after smelling the
same, still petrichor. But set up B filtered more quantity of water than set-up A.But the
difference of value is just a tiny amount of mL, 1.1 mL only. The switching of the sand layer
and charcoal layer affected the results of the quantity of filtered water of set-up A and set-up B,
making the results vary. Set-up B garnered more quantity of filtered water while Set-up A have
less. Set-up A has sand at the most bottom layer of the filtration system while set-up B has
charcoal and gravel and sand are next to each other at set-up B.Water retention is mainly
dependant on the particle size of the soil. The finer the soil particles, the higher the chance
that water molecules shall hold on to soil particles, such as in clay, as opposed to sandy soil,
that has large and coarse particles that are not cohesive. Porosity in sand is relatively higher
than in gravel. Yet, aside from the variation of quantity of filtered water, set-up A and set-up B
generally resulted similarly rather than differently.Both set-ups produced results that show the
effectiveness of the generated filtration system.

Conclusion
The properties of materials and their respective functions in water purification were
identified and the filtration set-ups resulted to good effectiveness. The filtered water was
assessed in terms of its odor and color by using techniques. The cleanliness of water was
AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho
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evaluated. This activity showed that water purification happens in the nature and the materials
of the filtration system contribute to the process. The kind of material and its components have
roles and functions that make results in the process. Finally, importance of Water Filtration and
Purification Water is an absolute necessity of life as water is important since all living things need
it to survive.

References

Admin. (2014). Difference Between Gravel and Sand | Compare the Difference Between
Similar Terms. https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-gravel-
and-vs-
sand/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20difference%20between%20Gravel%20an
d%20Sand%3F,in%20gravel%20are%20larger%20than%20that%20of%20sand.
AWP Group, Inc. Water Filters Fast (2018). Five Benefits of Using Charcoal Water Filters.
https:// www. waterfiltersfast.com/5-Benefits-of-Using-Charcoal-Water-Filters b
64.html
Benedette Cuffari. (May 5, 2016). Materials in Water
Filtration.https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=582
Chris Davis (2018). What is the function of gravel in water filtration.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-function-of-gravel-in-water
filtration?fbclid=IwAR2q59avxvLq9mFQjsDu1FVDbSXW20W76Y6NmkXv6
7HnFDOL0JhX4xDpQZ0
How to Make Charcoal Sand Water Purifier at Home-Science Project|DIY
(waterfilteradvisor.com).https://www.waterfilteradvisor.com/how-to-make-
charcoal-sand-water-purifier-at-home-science-project-diy
Kleen Industrial Services (2014). Water Filtration media using Filter Gravel.
https://www.kleenindustrialservices.com/water-filtration-media-filter
gravel.html?bclid=IwAR2VH1AhYUciA8T4JaKzi_Gx94a1BhNczWZDnLoMh
2wbJs7tTLmK6dgJS7

AY 2021-2022 1st Semester D. A. Agbayani, C. G. Racho