BIOLOGY PBL 2.

Recycled water
5S6
 RECYCLED WATER

Boay Jun Wei

Lai Zi Yang

Liew Jun Wei

Soo Wen Xuan

Abstract

In this modern civilization, factories facilities have expanded throughout the country, however this

has become one of the most critical cause of water pollution. Their release of substances into bodies

of water that makes water unsafe for human use and disrupts aquatic ecosystems. Water pollution can

be caused by a plethora of different contaminants, including toxic waste, petroleum, and disease-

causing microorganisms. As it is our responsibility to keep the world clean, we should take a step

forward and find ways to clean the water. Therefore, my team have innovated a simple yet efficient

design to recycle dirty water into usable water. The materials are from scraps where can all be found

in your household such as sand, charcoal, plastic bottles, stones and cotton sheets. This specific model

consists of four connected to each other by a two-way pagoda joint sealed by RTV silicon gasket

maker to prevent any leakage. The first bottle is used to store waste water, the second bottle acts as a

carbon filter, the third bottle acts as a sand filter whilst the fourth bottle will store the clean water. The

filtered water can be used for gardening the plants, flushing the toilet, washing clothes, and washing

vehicles. We hope that our innovation can be implemented into every household, as this would greatly

subdue the ground water pollution and help save money on water bills.

Keywords: water, recycled, pollution, waste, clean, efficient, scraps, bottles, leakage.
 Introductions

Water is a biogeochemically dynamic natural resource that supports all critical components that
comprise aquatic ecosystem and Terrestrial waters. Water covers about 71% of the earth's surface and
according to recent studies, 70% of our surface water resources are polluted because of human
activities and untreated wastes. Water bodies such as Ganges River and Citarum River are so polluted
that these “lagoons” are basically toxic pools as they reach up to a pH level of 11, more than 2,000
industries contaminate 5,020 sq. miles of the river with lead, mercury, arsenic, and other toxins.
Contaminated water can harbour bacteria, such as those responsible for diarrhea, cholera, dysentery,
typhoid, hepatitis A, and polio. According to the WHO, every year, approximately 297,000 children
under five dies from diseases linked to poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water.

To overcome and reduce this predicament, Organizations such as The Pacific Institute, Wastewater
Infrastructure Science Team and other USGS Programs are building upon their previous studies to
understand sources and occurrence of toxicants and pathogens in aquifers, streams, drinking water
facilities and tap waters in homes and residences. This information is used to understand human and
wildlife exposure, and to determine if there are any adverse effects upon exposure.

Therefore, my team has designed a simple, straightforward yet efficient contraption that uses
materials that can be found around the house so that everyone could make one at their own comfort
zone and encouraging others to take part in helping the community. This specific design requires no
electrical appliance and machinery, it uses organic resources and reuses old waste. It is a natural
process of filtration from contaminated water to useable water.

Our aim for establishing this project is to recycle as much waste water in a minor level and encourage
our community to find ways to keep water bodies clean, Thus, if our innovation can be implemented
into every household, this would greatly subdue the ground water pollution.
 Methodology

Apparatus: Razor blade, ruler, marker pen.

Materials: two-way pagoda joints, empty 1 litre bottle, Sand, pebbles, charcoal, cotton sheets, RTV
silicon gasket maker.

Step 1

Prepare the materials and sent them aside, use a ruler to measure the width of the tube following up by
marking holes slightly bigger than size of the tube’s width onto the bottles. The first bottle’s mark
should be around 2 inches from the bottom, the second bottle must have the same mark as the first
bottle but the opposite side would have a mark 3 inches from the top. The third bottle markings would
be the same as the second bottle, the fourth bottle marking would 2 inches from the bottom and the
opposite side marking would be in the middle.

Step 2

After carving holes on the

markings, connect the
Two-way pagoda joints
accordingly as seen in the
image. Hold the tubes with glue,
and prevent any leakage with
self-hardening RTV silicon gasket maker. Continuously fill the bottle up to let the water flow through
to observe if there is any water leaking, repeat this process until the results are satisfactory.
 Step 3

Once the flow is in

order, cut the top off
for the first three bottles
and equally fill all four
bottles with the same
amount of rocks. The
rocks must be slightly higher than the Two-way pagoda joints as its purpose is to prevent debris from
clogging the pipes and prevent the flow of water. Place the cotton sheets above the rocks to prevent
any tiny particles and dust that are too small for the rocks to filter out.

Step 4

Now that the base layer is done, fill up the second bottle with coal/charcoal and until it reaches 2
inches before the tube. On top of the charcoal, place another cotton sheet and rocks above it to prevent
the charcoal from floating up top and blocking the flow of water. Finally in the third bottle, place a
cotton sheet onto the rocks then pour around 2 cups of sand into the bottle. Shake the model to check
if the sand would fall through the cotton sheet, if it doesn’t then the model is done and ready to be
used.
 Observation/Result

In this first diagram, dirty water is being poured into the first bottle filled with medium size pebbles,
which we will refer this as the First Phase. In the First Phase, large particles will be filtered out from
the dirty water and be transport to the second bottle.

In this second diagram, as you can see the dirty water has filled up to the brim of the second bottle.
The second bottle is filled with charcoals, which we would refer this as the Second Phase. During the
Second Phase, the charcoal will act as a carbon filter to remove chlorine, sediments, taste and odor
from the dirty water, and then the water will then be poured out from the second bottle to the third
bottle.
In this third diagram, the dirty water is filling up the third bottle filled with fine sand, which we will
be referring this as the Third Phase. During the Third Phase, sand will filter out any tiny particles,
algae and organic materials among the dirty water. And now the “cleaned water” will be carried into
to the last bottle.

In this fourth diagram, the dirty water is now transferred to the last bottle filled with medium size
pebbles which is the exact same as the first bottle and will act as the First Phase, we will then refer
this as the Final Phase. In the Final Phase, the now “cleaned water” is then filtered one last time to
make sure there is no more leftover unwanted particles before it is sent for storage, now what we left
with is officially cleaned water.

In this final diagram it shows the before and after results of the dirty water once process through our
contraption. The results significantly differ from the initial substance, the particles were greatly
subdued and the colour of water is now clear. This proves that the model filtration process
successfully filtrated contaminated water into useable water.
 Discussion

Using this technology would greatly benefit rural areas that are struggling to get fresh clean water to
drink. Water is an indispensable resource needed to sustain our lives as humans. You can survive
without food for a while, however, if you don't have access to drinkable water, you will be dead
within days. Hence, the importance of water cannot be overemphasized. A lot of people may not
know this; however, you are contributing your quota to saving the environment when you drink
filtered water purified by making use of a homemade water filter. This is because filtering water helps
save water, and the amount of plastic bottles that would have been disposed of which causes pollution
of the environment especially when not properly done becomes drastically reduced. Water filtration
may further improve some aspects of tap water. Besides, filtering water helps with ensuring that you
and avoid wasting it. It is no news that water can be reused again through the use of a water filtration
system.

Any comments about the prototype we've built? Turns out it works out pretty well and is way beyond
our expectations. We were expecting to fail but it turns out everything goes according to plan, one
flaw we have noticed is it leaks a lot, maybe we've used the wrong type of adhesive to stick the tubes
into the bottles. There's a lot of things we think that also can be improved. The built quality is one of
the major issues, maybe instead of using a plastic bottle which has weak and thin walls which is also
limited to 2 liters of water every refill, we could replace it with bigger ones like a water dispenser's
box with a few modifications here and there. Another important part to improve we think that is to
upgrade the filtration system, to make sure the water is cleaned enough to drink from the filter system,
it needs to undergo a few more filtration phases. In our original design, we are more focused on
making it easy to build while maintaining a low cost, instead of focusing on the quality. And that
made us missed one of the main points of this built, which is physical filtration. Physical filtration
mainly focuses on the removal of solid waste and particles contaminants from the water but chemical
filtration (although charcoals do that but it is not enough to make the water crystal clean, in the final
result we can still see the water is still a bit yellow and dirty) involves the removal of chemical
contaminants, which would be much safer to drink if this is added into our homemade filtration
system. So, if we have the choice to upgrade or redesign our homemade water filter, we would focus
on the structure and the filtration system to improve the water quality as well as the quantity.
 Conclusion

The outcome of the prototype was very similar to the prediction made at the beginning of the
planning. As stated in my discussion, I believed that this homemade water filter we made will not
cause any harm to the environment, nor will it cause any harm to people who use it. The experimental
model supported my discussion, indicating a direct relationship between the dirty water being purified
by the filter system we've put together. The more phases the water has gone through, the more
drinkable and clear it gets. However, the prototype also shows that there are pros and cons; low
building quality leads to leakage problems and the quality of the filter system is unable to filter water
into drinking conditions. possible errors made could have been the data was collected incorrectly or
was due to careless error and use of the wrong material. The experimental model confirms that the
water filter system we built does indeed work.

Throughout our research as well as experience, we discovered that there are more rooms for the
homemade water filter to be improved and upgrade while maintaining at a low cost. Ideas for a future
experiment would be redesigning and improving the ease of use and access of pouring the water in or
changing the filter after some time of use. In a nutshell, a homemade water filter is a simple and fun
activity that children will love. Not only does the project help children learn about the water cycle, but
it's a hands-on experiment using common materials found around the house or outside that will
fascinate them.