Remove microplastic by kaolin

and paraffin oil

2019/2020
Grade12- semester 1
Group no 12225
Group members:
1. Youssef Mohamed ail
2. Mohamed saber al-Shahat
3. Ahmed Gomaa Rashad
Table of contents
I. Present and Justify a Problem and Solution
Requirements:
-Egypt Grand Challenge(s)
-Problem to be solved
-Research
-Other Solutions Already Tried
II. Generating and Defending a Solution:
-Solution and Design Requirements
-Selection of Solution
-Selection of Prototype
III. Constructing and Testing a Prototype:
-Materials and Methods
-Test Plan
-Data Collection
IV. Evaluation, Reflection, Recommendations:
-Analysis and Discussion - Recommendations
-Learning Outcomes -research sources
 I. Present and Justify a Problem and Solution
Requirements:

Egypt Grand Challenge

1- Address and reduce pollution fouling our air, water and soil
2- Recycle garbage and waste for economic and
environmental purposes
3- Deal with urban congestion and its consequences
4-Work to eradicate public health issues/disease
5-Increase the industrial and agricultural bases of Egypt
6- Improve the use of alternative energies
7- Improve uses of arid areas
8- Manage and increase the sources of clean water
9- Deal with population growth and its consequences
10-Improve the scientific and technological environment for
all
11- Reduce and adapt to the effect of climatic change
In our daily live, we see many new inventions, but the secret that many people don’t
know it is making projects need to follow some specific steps, the hardest step is
determining the challenge that faces us, the grand challenge in this semester is
Address and reduce pollution fouling our water from micro plastics and try to found
a solution that can make a stand for this big challenge and recycle the micro plastics
that we will have it to make a useful things that help us to recycle it for economic
and environmental purposes .

1- Address and reduce pollution fouling our air, water and soil
The pollution is a very big challenge for any country in the world and for Egypt the
pollution is a very big deal. the pollution threatens the people health and make big
changes to the economy of the countries. pollution is the introduction
of conations into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can
take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or
light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign
substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Pollution is often classed
as point source or nonpoint source pollution. In 2015, pollution killed 9 million
people in the world.
Major forms of pollution include: Air pollution, light pollution, littering, noise
pollution, plastic pollution, soil contamination, radioactive contamination, thermal
pollution, visual pollution, water pollution.
Air pollution has always accompanied civilizations. Pollution started
from prehistoric times, when man created the first fires. According to a 1983 article
in the journal Science, soot found on ceilings of prehistoric caves provides ample
evidence of the high levels of pollution that was associated with inadequate
ventilation of open fires. Metal forging appears to be a key turning point in the
creation of significant air pollution levels outside the home. Core samples
of glaciers in Greenland indicate increases in pollution associated with Greek,
Roman, and Chinese metal production.

2- Recycle garbage and waste for economic and

environmental purposes
Recycling is an act of reuse of something. Reusable materials are used in many
industries. Many industries can be established in the residues of the food
industry, such as sugar, vegetable, fruit and dairy

industries. These wastes can be used in the production of alcohol, citric acid,
mushrooms, and animal feed. Metal and engineering industries produce many
waste such as plastic, rubber and metal . Many small industries can be set up to
recycle such waste, such as recycling plastic or manufacturing rubber waste to
produce various products such as hoses. Metal waste can also be reused - For
example, for ease of transport and trading - in many industries. There are many
other industries under which recycled materials are based. The most important
`question we must ask is: What materials are recyclable? for example: Glass,
Bottles plastic, Bags, Paper, Cardboard, Boxes made of aluminum Batteries,
electronics, motor oil for motors Each state has a different system or different
dealing with recycled materials One of the reasons why materials are recycled
1. Save Money
2. Provide job opportunities
3. Environmental benefits
Also recycling help to get rig of the organic materials and materials that can make
biological pollution tha can harm living organisms and can use these materials to
make effictive materials .

3- Deal with urban congestion and its consequences

Urban congestion is a problem that not only Egypt but the whole world suffers from
productivity is linked with the amount of traffic congestion that occurs each day
since traffic jams can cause frustration and accidents and Traffic congestion and
longer transportation means people will be arriving late to their work places and
by that the level of productivity of individuals will be reduced so the issue of traffic
congestion has many consequences which not only affect the productivity level and
economic level of the country but also might cause accidents and also traffic
congestions has many effects on the air around the cars because of the emissions
from the cars exhaust so it’s understandable that by solving the issue of traffic
congestion and reducing traffic jams will solve many issue related some of the
benefit these are:

• Redaction of the level of pollution by attempting to decreasing the number of

cars and encouraging the population to use bikes and other eco-friendly ways of
transportation
• Also, by reducing traffic congestion emergency services take less time to get to
the locations of emergencies

• Reducing graphic congestion will also help increase the productivity level because
transportation trips will take less to arrive to their places of work Egypt is ranked
the fourth country with the worst traffic and with the increasing amount of cars
and no solution appearing soon the government need to start solving the problem
from the root by raising the level of awareness of population about the issues that
the increased traffic congestion presents and its consequences and introduce new
strategies to deal with the issue by creating bike lanes and addressing the benefits
of transportation by ecofriendly ways and by improving the level of public
transportation and promoting them people will start public transportation more
and using cars less which will reduce the overall number of cars and therefore the
amount of pollution Egypt might be in a very position when it comes to traffic jams
but with implanting solutions that actuality has benefits traffic congestion can
reduced and its consequences can be dealt with easily.

4- Work to eradicate public health issues/disease

The lack of appropriate and affordable healthcare could be the number one killer
in Egypt. The country is full of patients dying or suffer because they cannot afford
surgeries or medicines (reaches 42.000 pounds). Even worse, there are
welldocumented stories of patients who could afford the services but died due to
the irresponsible care providers. Millions of Egyptians suffer from Hepatitis C, a
disease that spreads through blood due to the negligence of private and public
healthcare providers. The hospital buildings look like a huge pile of rubbish. Grey
paint was peeling off the walls, stone stairs are broken, and dirt blackens green
walls. As a result, doctors don't want to work in these conditions, the health
ministry’s nursing administration was dealing with a shortage of 40,000 nurses in
the nation's hospitals and clinics. The Medical Association says as many as 230,000
doctors are registered with them, but around 30,000 have left to work in other
countries because the money they get paid. Doctor’s salaries in the public sector
start at less than 500 Egyptian pounds ($73) per month.

5-Increase the industrial and agricultural bases of Egypt

1-Agriculture:
Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food,
fiber, medicinal plants and other products the date of agricultural dates aback
thousands of years it was able to maintain its importance over the year’s
agriculture represent a Column in any country’s economy since it provides the
population with their need from vegetables, fruits meats fish and other products
while the rest is exported to bring back revenue in foreign currencies, the
importance and benefits of improving the base of agriculture in Egypt are huge
some of the benefits of improving agriculture:

• Agriculture is an industry that employs hundreds of millions of workers around

the world by improving agriculture and demanding new expertise in different
fields generates many jobs.
• Another benefit of improving agriculture is the revenue that it brings back some
countries have a climate that does allow certain vital corps to be grown in
doors to countries which have that crop and are able to export it so improving the
ways of transportation ad diversifying the crops planted assist a country’s economy
a lot. Egypt can improve agriculture by first improving the ways of planting crops
and improving the work conditions of framers and by adding extra surveillance to
prevent distributors from monopolism.

2-Industry:

Industry is the other column in a country economy Egypt was one of the most
advanced industrial countries in Africa after south Africa during 1952 revolution
Egypt manufacture many products from automobiles to building materials and
other products some of the benefits of improving industry are:
• Industry provides many products that we use in our everyday life from electronics
to cars and many more so by improving the industry in Egypt the quality of these
products will improve making them more efficient
So, in overall both agriculture and industry are connected in representing a huge
part of Egypt’s economy and they need to be improved upon by bringing in
workers from more industrially advanced countries in order for Egypt to move
forward with industrial wheel And we can see how much foreign currency
agriculture and industry add in the following figure

6- Improve the use of alternative energies

By powering millions of homes and businesses, renewable energy is reducing
the threat of climate change and making the air safer to breathe. Wind farms
have become a familiar part of the landscape, and solar panels have spread across
rooftops nationwide. Yet we have only begun to tap the potential of clean energy
alternatives. NRDC is helping to bring the benefits of renewable energy to more
communities around the globe. In the United States, we develop and support
policies that unleash growth in wind and solar power, working at the state level to
secure renewable energy standards, promote net metering (which allows solar
consumers to sell of the excess power they /generate onto the grid), and
encourage officials to develop strong plans to reduce carbon pollution. Nationally,
we support incentives that spur innovation in renewable energy and push for a
federal standard that would require 30 percent of all U.S. electricity to be
generated from wind and solar by 2030.

We are also helping to ensure that the nation’s transmission grid—designed

more than a century ago—is modernized to support the clean power revolution.
And part of increasing wind and solar

7- Improve uses of arid areas

Egypt has faced a lot of grand challenges at the last years of which the arid area
there are many wide deserts (95%) in Egypt as in we can use it to build a full services
city with job opportunities to attract young people to live in it. The desert covers
an area of 262.800 sq. miles (680.650Km2) Which is two
– third of the land area of the country. its highest elevation is 3.300 ft. (1000m) it
is a very huge space that we aren’t use it Egypt doesn’t has a sander Egypt has a
gold so we must use it to begin the civilization again we must use this space to build
cities to our son’s we must use it in the agricultures I believe that if we will use it in
agricultures. We will be the best country in the world in this field
 8- Manage and increase the sources of clean water
Water is the source of life on Earth for all living organisms. In addition, is the second
most important of all natural resources on Earth next to air as shown in fig.

Fresh water sources in Egypt are:

The River Nile and lake Nasser Egypt depends on the Nile River as main source of
water Egypt's share of Nile water, 55.5 billion cubic meters annual, underground
water, Rain. Rainwater are the main source agricultural activities and other for uses
in the rain-fed areas of the northern coast, as well as in the southeastern region of
Egypt and the estimates vary the total amount of rain falling on Egypt from 10
billion to 17 billion cubic meters. We use fresh water in drinking, agriculture, power
generation. However, Water sources are still limited in Egypt, as the per capita
share of water does not exceed 900 cubic meters/ year because:
1-The water demand has multiplied as a result of Population growth, agricultural
expansion, industrial development, and rise in the standard of living.
2- Pollution.
The ways to solve these problems are:
Achieve cooperation with the Nile Basin countries, develop the use of sea water
desalination, Build Dams on the valleys, Recycle water and reuse it: Recycling
wastewater, recycling agricultural drainage water. Drill groundwater wells, thanks
rolling, and rationing water use. Water resources are related to capstone as we can
benefit from it in generating electricity.
 9- Deal with population growth and its consequences
When the population growth increases with a big average many and big problems
begin to appear.
Egypt suffer from the big number of its population which estimated at 101,015,544
and its not only the problem but the population growth percentage was very big in
1990 to 1995 which was estimated at 2.39% but by every 5 years the percentage
was getting down until 2005 to 2010 it was 1.72% and at 2012 it increased to
1.922% but the population growth still too much. And this fig show the population
growth percentage from the year 1960

We can see that the population growth caused to Egypt many problems which is
absorption all the countries resources and the development and production
revenues, lacking of available public services, prevalence of housing slums,
decreasing in agricultural area by the human phenomenon called Urban Crawling
and increasing unemployment and poverty .

10-Improve the scientific and technological environment for

all
Improving the scientific and technological environment for all is everybody’s right
and technology is the process that we apply science, experiments and information
on a regular form in many fields to come true many purposes for our society. Use
of better knowledge is technology. If technology means process in this case means
regular scientific applications, if it means products in this case means tools and
machines. The most common definition of technology is use of
computers, but it is limited. Technology is ways of thinking, solving problems and
makes individual have good result. Technology is limited in Egypt because there are
no modern labs. Labs aren’t provided with any equipment and machines that any
scientist wants them to make any experiments to modify theories and without
experiment scientists can’t test the hypotheses that are a possible explanation for
an observation, so scientist can’t make researches that improve the environment
and make the Life better and easy.
We can improve the scientific and technological environment by many ways:
1) Build more schools and universities.
2) Help the young researchers and inventors and improve their skills.
3) Make it free to join to high schools and universities to find new researchers and
scientist to build the world tomorrow.
4) Increase the information about technology.
5) Increase collaboration between private and public sector.
 11- Reduce and adapt to the effect of climatic change
Egypt is expected to suffer from many emphasizes of climate change in the recent
century; The average temperature in Egypt will increase by 4OC in Cairo and by 3.1
to 4.7OC in the rest of Egypt by
2060, The annual precipitation may drop by 10 to 40% over most of Egypt by 2100,
raising the Mediterranean Sea level by 0.5m by 2050 which will lead to flooding the
coastal areas along the Nile Delta.

The government of Egypt tries to confront the problem through building concrete
sea walls to protect the beaches along the Mediterranean, reducing the population
growth rate to the replacement level of 2.1 by 2019 are applied. Increasing the
inhabited area of Egypt through establishing new cities in desert with a
comprehensive
 Problem to be solved
A) what specific problems we are addressing?
We suffer from the pollution of micro plastics in Egypt and Egypt is facing this
problem by increasing making plastics and after a long time the plastics are been a
very huge amount and caused a big pollution that make big problems for Egypt also
when the plastics decompose, it will changed to small particles that its size
calculated from 5 Millie meter to micro meter so they call it micro plastics and
micro plastics doesn't harm the human because it is very small to his body but it
can harm a smaller creatures like plants and fishes so they make undirected
damages but we will solve this problem by filtrate water from those micro plastics
and we will recycle it to have solved another problem .

B)The positive and negative consequences that are related to

dealing with micro plastic pollution
As was said the micro plastics rated as a big problem so we have two choices,
solve this problem by a solution or not but what will happen if is it solved?
What will happen if not? Okay in the first, if this problem is solved the we
can use micro plastics to recycle it and make a new plastic production and by
this way we can reduce plastics recourses consumption like betroliambs that
is very important material which is the main energy resource and also the
environmental pollution will be reduced specially the marine environment
that suffer many from these particles that killed many of creatures and this
make bad damages in fish production and it harms the plants and effect the
food production and the national income will become better . secondly what
is going to happen if we don't try to solve it but a question needs to answer
 Are these microplastics harmful for us and other animals?

Microplastics from fish gut

Microplastics found within the gut of a fish. Research into commercial fish species
in the South Pacific identified microplastics in up to 25% of fish collected from the
sampled areas.

Animals and microplastics

Microplastics can be ingested by various animals, ranging in size from tiny

creatures like zooplankton to sharks and whales. The likelihood of microplastics
being eaten is influenced by the amount in the environment and how closely they
resemble food. Laboratory studies indicate that microplastics can potentially
transfer through the food web when marine, terrestrial and
freshwater species that have previously ingested microplastics are preyed on by
other animals.

Microplastics eaten by larger marine animals will generally pass through their
bodies. However, research does show that microplastics can be retained in the gut
for extended periods where they may cause abrasion and damage to internal
tissues. Nanoplastics can pass through the gut wall and travel to different parts of
the body, such as the lungs and liver, where they can cause damage. Further
research is required to understand the potential health implications from ingesting
microplastics.

Smaller animals including marine and freshwater invertebrates can suffer a range
of effects from ingesting microplastics including reduced reproduction and growth.
These effects are generally caused by physical damage including lacerations and
inflammatory responses as well as reduced feeding behaviour when microplastics
are consumed instead of digestible food. Filter feeders such as mussels and oysters
are particularly vulnerable to ingesting microplastics as they filter high volumes of
water while feeding. Effects vary between species and by the types of plastic and
the concentration of microplastics.

Toxic chemicals associated with plastics

Various chemicals incorporated into plastics as raw materials or additives during

manufacture can leach from plastics into the environment. Humans and other
animals are also exposed to these chemicals when they ingest plastics or when
these chemicals leach into food or are released into the atmosphere when plastics
are burned. Some chemicals directly associated with plastics have been detected
in humans and wildlife including birds and various marine species.

Pollutants that stick to microplastics

Some pollutants and heavy metals can also adsorb or stick to plastic surfaces. As a
result, plastics can act like sponges in the environment, passively collecting
chemicals onto their surfaces.

While plastics can remove some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from the
surrounding water, there is concern about what happens when plastics containing
these adsorbed pollutants are ingested by animals. The ability of some POPs to
bind to plastics is particularly concerning due to their toxicity at low doses.
These toxic and persistent chemicals are widely distributed in the marine
environment and are readily concentrated onto plastic surfaces at up to 1 million
times the concentration than in the surrounding water. Studies have shown that
these chemicals can transfer from ingested plastics to animal tissue where they can
become concentrated within the animal and transfer through the food chain.
 research
Searching is one of the most important steps in our capstone project because it
helps us to understand the problem and to identify the ways of solving it, beside
many other small details like: the best way of sticking our materials together. In
researching we must have several sources, to emphasis our information and make
sure that the information we are relying on is correct.

Topics related to the problems:

• Egypt Grand challenges.
• Micro plastics
• Sources of microplastics
• Recycling
• Sources of water
• pollution
• Water pollution
• Marine life
• The most polluted areas
Topics related to the solutions:
• EDP(Engineering Design Process)
• Filters
• Osmosis
• Properties of Microplastics
• Hydrophobicity
• Kaolin
• Sand
• Paraffin oil
• Pipes
• Porosity
• Water flow rate
 Other solution already tried
1-Doulton ceramic water filters
Doulton ceramic water filters provide an absolute filtration rating of
99.99%+. It’s a clever process that filters sub-micron particles and
pathogenic bacteria.

Doulton offers different grades of filters depending on the contaminants you

wish to filter from water. Biome stocks the Super Sterasyl filter listed on the
left of this diagram: Outer Shell for micro filtration, anti-bacterial silver
technology guards the ceramic against bacterial growth, and activated
carbon core to remove chlorine.
Doulton ceramic filters add nothing to the water during filtration. This
ensures that essential minerals are retained for healthy water and a
superior taste.

The OKO water bottle filters use a combination of 400 pores that stop
particles of 1.5 – 2-micron size and a second protective method of electro-
adsorption which stops sub-micron contaminants (e.g. bacteria, Protozoa,
and even some viruses).

2- Ferro Fluid
This project investigates a new method for the extraction of microplastics (plastic
particles less than 5mm in diameter) from water. At present, no screening or
filtering for microplastics takes place in any European wastewater treatment
centres1.

My method was inspired by an article written by Arden Warner using non-toxic

iron oxide (magnetite) to clean up oil-spills2. I used this method in the extraction
of microplastics by adding oil to a suspension containing a known concentration
of microplastics, these then migrated into the oil phase. Magnetite powder was
added. The resulting microplastic containing ferro-fluid was removed using strong
magnets.

The hypothesis was that this extraction method would remove 85% or higher of
microplastics in samples.

To measure the concentration of microplastics in a given sample, I built a visible

light spectrometer which could analyse the spectra of light passed through
samples using the software Spectragryph. This used the Beer-Lambert law to
determine the concentration of a sample3. Samples were also examined under a
microscope and analysed in Adobe Photoshop. Both testing methods gave a
measurement of plastics removed.

The 10 most commonly found microplastics were used in tests. All plastic samples
used needed to be prepared before extraction.
The results obtained supported the hypothesis with an average of 87.6% ± 1.1%
extraction. The method used was most effective on fibres obtained from a
washing machine and least effective on polypropylene plastics.

The next step is to scale this up to an industrial scale.

3- GOJELLY
What do microplastic filters, fertilisers and fish feed have in common? They can
all be produced using jellyfish. At least, that's what one research team has set out
to prove as they look into reducing the plastic waste in our oceans.

The quality of our seas and oceans is deteriorating at an alarming rate. One major
problem is plastic pollution. According to estimates, more than 150 million tonnes
of plastic have already accumulated in the world's oceans, and up to 12.7 million
tonnes are added every year. To top that, our marine environments also have to
contend with rising water temperatures, ocean acidity and overfishing, all of
which affect marine life. One affected sea creature is the jellyfish, which these
conditions seem to favour, leading it to congregate in large masses, called
blooms. Jellyfish blooms have an adverse impact on tourism, aquaculture, fishing
industries and the prosperity of coastal communities.

The recently launched EU-funded project GoJelly is tackling the problems of

plastic pollution and jellyfish blooms through a single ingenious approach. It's
using one problem – the proliferation of jellyfish – to solve the second problem
of microplastic waste in the world's oceans.

GoJelly intends to mitigate the problem of microplastic pollution using the mucus
produced by jellyfish. Taking advantage of the ability of jellyfish mucus to bind
microplastic, the GoJelly researchers plan to use it to develop a microplastics filter
for commercial and public use. The biofilter created will be used in wastewater
treatment plants and in factories where microplastic is produced. This could help
prevent much of the microplastic particles from getting into marine systems.

The next stages of GoJelly (GoJelly—A gelatinous solution to plastic pollution)

include testing various plastic particles and harvesting jellyfish from the sea. Once
developed, GoJelly biofilters will be tested and demonstrated in the Norwegian,
Baltic and Mediterranean Seas by a broad range of stakeholders, including
commercial fishers and industry partners.

GoJelly started in January 2018 and runs until December 2021. SDU has become
the coordinator since March 1, 2019 and will continue in this role until the project
expires.

GoJelly has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program.

II. Generating and Defending a Solution:

Solution and design requirements
Solution Requirements:
1. First that the solution that we choose in our project that the project should
solve the Egypt grand challenges and not make another problem
2. The material that we choose in the solution must be available in Egypt and
cheap to be easy to get these materials in large amounts.
3. The solution should be ecofriendly as the project must be not affect in the
environment in dangerous way fore example don’t made a pollution in
water or air.

Design requirements:
Before choosing the solution, a process of identifying design requirements had
made and the solution should meet these design requirements to be successful.
These design requirements are:
1. the high efficiency which can be measured by making a ration between the
remaining amount of microplastics after the filtration and the amount
which was originally existed before the filtration. We choose this design
 requirement as any project that made must be more effective than the
other devises so that the efficiency is very important.
2. the second one is measuring the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of the water
before and after the filtration. We choose this design requirement as there
are many solids in the water that is very dangerous to the people or living
organisms for example fish and plants and animals so the project should
clean the solids and remove it from the water as it possible.
3. the third one is the applicability which can be measured by whether the
solution can be applied in larger scale or not. We choose this design
requirement as any project that build in small scale should also build in
large scale to be more effective in the environment and be more useful in
the future.
After making the tests, we found that the design requirements that we
mentioned before as it had a high efficiency in removing microplastics from
water, and by removing them you reduce the TDS of the water, and it is
applicable as it can be applied in larger scale because the materials can be easily
found in any country.

Selection of solution
Description of solution
The solution that we decided to work with it is by passing the water from an
ocean (reservoir) into a container which contains several stages. This container is
filter that build on the properties of the hydrophobicity. As the microplastic in the
water have the properties of high hydrophobicity that it means that microplastics
don’t make a solution with the water. So, the materials in the container is also
have the properties of high hydrophobicity. So that the microplastics attraction
with the materials in the filter because all of it (microplastics and the materials)
have high hydrophobicity. Then that mean the microplastic will remove from the
water.
We choose this solution as to make a filtration to the water is very good way to
remove the microplastics from the water. Also, there are many materials that
have the properties of hydrophobicity and these materials is very cheap. We also
choose this solution as that meet with the design requirements that we choose
before and the design requirements is:
1. the high efficiency and the hydrophobicity will make more attraction
between the microplastics and the materials in the filter so the solution
will have high efficiency.
2. The TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and the filter will remove the solids in the
water
3. The applicability and the solution can be in large scale because the
materials will be available and cheap

Selection of prototype
Describe the prototype
Our prototype that we build to solve the problem is a filter. This filter consists of
a container and pipes to pass the water from an ocean (reservoir) into a
container. This container is a box. this box is made of glass. The container
contains materials have the properties of the hydrophobicity like kaolin and sand
was put in paraffin oil. The usage of the sand is the high porosity to make the
water move in the filter faster. So, the water with the microplastic will inter the
filter and the kaolin will make an attraction with the microplastic. As the
microplastic also have high hydrophobicity. So, the micro plastic will be removed
from water and the water will be clean from microplastics.

how it will meet the design requirements?

We choose this prototype as that meet with the design requirements that we
choose before and the design requirements is:
 1. the high efficiency and the hydrophobicity will make more attraction
between the microplastics and the materials in the filter so the solution
will have high efficiency.
2. The TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and the filter will remove the solids in the
water.as the kaolin and sand will remove the solids from the water
because of the hydrophobicity and the attraction.
3. The applicability and the solution can be in large scale because the
materials will be available and cheap.as the kaolin is very available in Egypt
and very cheap. also, the other materials.

-In what ways can prototype be tested?

We will test the prototype to know if the prototype achieves the design
requirements or not.
So, the efficiency and the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) will test by putting an
amount of water in the filter. This water there is an amount of microplastic in it
and measure the TDS and the efficiency.
 III. Constructing and Testing a Prototype
materials
item quantity usage cost source picture
glass 1m*1m To make a box 60 L.E Glass shop
that contain
the mixture of
sand and
kaolin

#pipes 2 pipes To make the 10 L.E Plumbing

water going in shop
and going out
the box

Metal 15cm*15cm To stay the 1.5 L.E Tools shop

mesh mixture out
from pipes

cotton 20 gram To stay the 5 L.E pharmacy

mixture out
from pipes

sand 200 gram To remove the wasted Resource

microplastic shop
from the
water
 kaolin 800 gram To remove the 20 L.E Resource
microplastic shop
from the
water

Paraffin 50 gram The high 8 L.E pharmacy

oil hydrophobicity
in it make the
microplastic
attraction with
it

The total coast is: 104.5 L.E

Methods:
After we bought the materials above, we started to build the prototype following
these steps:
1-First the glass cut to pieces to make a glass box in directions (15cm in
length,15cm in width and 20cm in Hight) with a hole of 30mm in diameter above
the glass box and a hole of 10mm in diameter under the box.
2-Second the metal mesh put in the glass box up about 3cm above the bottom
and put the cotton on the mesh.
3-Third the sand mixed well with the paraffin oil and make it rest about an hour
(50g of paraffin oil put in each 200g of sand)
4-Fourth, add the kaolin to the mixture of the sand and paraffin oil (800g of
kaolin, 200g of the sand and 50g of the paraffin oil).
5-Fifth, the mixture of sand and kaolin and paraffin oil put in the glass box then
close the box.
6-Finally, Installing pipes in the holes well.
Safety precautions:
1-We have designed the prototype in a way that prevents anyone to get damaged
or hurt.
2-Using safe materials that won’t hurt anyone.
3-Keep the working area clean and empty in order not to get hurt as our
prototype needs a little space to work in.
4-Try to use safe equipment while constructing it

Test plan:
The design requirements that we choose to test on the prototype is
1. High efficiency
2. (TDS) Total dissolved solids
3. Applicability
The efficiency and the TDS can measured by the experiment
To measure the efficiency:
1. put an amount of 1.2g of microplastics in200g of water
2. put the water in our filter
3. measure the amount of the microplastic that removed from the water
4. measure the efficiency by the low of output over the input.
To measure the (TDS) Total dissolved solids:
To measure the TDS in water we use a device called (TDS METER) before the
process of the filtration and after it.

Data collection
After the design requirements was put, we test that if the prototype archive the
design requirements or not. So, there is two design requirements that can
measure. The first test is about the high efficiency that measured by the
output/input so we put an amount of 1.2grams (the input)of microplastic in 200g
of water and filtered it by our project. we get that the microplastic in the water
after the process was 0.2g so that 1.0g was removed (the output) as we know that
by subtract the mass of the mixture before the process from the mass after the
process. So that the efficiency of the project is output/input
=(1.0/1.2)*100=83.3% so that the project has high efficiency.
The second design requirements that we test is (TDS) Total dissolved solids. The
TDS in water measured by a device called TDS meter. So that the TDS was
measured before the process and it was 0.6ppt and after the process it was
0.2ppt. so that the project archive it.
The third design requirements is applicability and the project achieved that
because the materials that we need to build the project in large scale is very
available and cheap

Before the After the process

process

TDS 0.6ppt 0.2ppt

Mass of microplastic in 1.2grams 0.2

water

mass of TDS
TDS
microplastic in 0.7
gram 0.6

1.5 0.5
1 1.2 0.4
0.5 0.3
0 0.2
0.2
before the after the procesas
process 0.1
0
mass of microplastic in gram befor the process after the process
tool usage picture
TDS meter To measure the TDS in
the water before and
after the experiment

balance To measure the mass

of microplastic that put
in the water
 IV. Evaluation, Reflection, Recommendations:
Discussion and analysis

Now Egypt faces many grand challenges that make many problems. One of these challenges is the
pollution. Pollution in Egypt is three types air pollution water pollution and soil pollution. In the water
pollution there are many things to make the water polluted. one of these is a microplastic. Microplastics
are not a specific kind of plastic, but rather any type of plastic fragment that is less than 5 mm in length
according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They enter natural
ecosystems from a variety of sources, including cosmetics, clothing, and industrial processes and it very
dangerous in living organisms. Our project is a good solution for the Egypt grand challenge of the
pollution. As the project has high efficiency to remove high amount of microplastic from water. It also
removes a large number of solids from the water so it solves the problem of Total dissolved solid (TDS).
The project is applicability as it can be in a large scale because the materials to build the prototype is
easy to find in any country. By this way the project solves the problem of the microplastic in the water
and it is a kind of water pollution. So, the project can solve the Egypt grand challenges. After the test
plan we found that our project achieved the design requirements. As the first design requirement is high
efficiency and the prototype archive it as the mass of the particles of the microplastics after the process
of the filtration (0.2grams)was lower than the mass of microplastics before the process(1.2grams).) and
the efficiency measured by divide the output/input*100 and it was about 83.3%.The second design
requirement is the TDS (Total dissolved solids) that to remove the solids in the water. the project
archives the design requirement of TDS as the TDS after the process (0.2ppt) was lower than it before
the process(0.6ppt). The third design requirements are applicability and the project achieved that
because the materials that we need to build the project in large scale is very available and cheap. So, it
can be concluded from the results and the analysis above that the design requirements were achieved.
as the mass of the particles of the microplastics after the process of the filtration (0.2grams)was lower
than the mass of microplastics before the process and the efficiency measured by divide the
output/input*100 and it was about 83.3%.the project archive the design requirement of TDS as the TDS
after the process (0.2ppt)was lower than it before the process(0.6ppt). The third design requirements
are applicability and the project achieved that because the materials that we need to build the project in
large scale is very available and cheap. So, our project can be a solution for the Egypt grand challenge of
pollution as it removed the microplastics from the water and it has high efficiency.

Recommendations

Our project managed to achieve the design requirements but every day a new idea come. So, no
complete project and always there are new ideas to improve the project. If our team is given more time,
we would continue Improving our project and start searching in the coming points. The microplastic that
removed from the water can doing a recycling on it to make a building material like building blocks by
mixed it with another material like fly ash, cement or other material that is waste. the other
recommendation is to get a way to put the mixture of the sand, paraffin oil and the kaolin without the
mesh and the cotton. The kaolin should be its size like the size of the gravel to give the mixture high
porosity.it also maybe change the sand to another material that has high porosity and hydrophobicity to
be more effective to attraction with the microplastic. It also can be using another container made by
another material not a glass to protect it from broken this material should be cheap and available.

Learning outcome

Earth science

ES.2.02 – This outcome helped us in deducing the factors that affect water reservoirs along with the
concomitant cost

ES.2.03 – Leaning this outcome helped us in knowing both the natural and human factors affecting
water reservoirs and ways for water conservation and learning

ES.2.04 – This outcome helped us in knowing how pollutants reach water and how to shed them
employing innovative approaches.

Chemistry

CH.2.01 – This outcome facilitated learning about water refinement.

CH.2.02 – This outcome helped us understand that water reservoirs has different TDS and different pH
and the environmental sources that influence this.

English

EN.2.02 – This outcome helped us to produce clear and coherent writing, in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

EN.2.05-We have learned about the writing process to develop and evaluate writing according to
established criteria and rubrics. That’s what should be done in both the poster and the portfolio

Math

MA.2.01- This outcome helped us in drawing graphs for the results of our test plan

Computer science

CS.2.04 – Learning this learning outcome helped us in employing what is necessary for us to understand
the problem properly, thus creating ingenious clue for it.
List the research sources you have used for your project in APA format

Anovitz, L. M., & Cole, D. R. (2015). Characterization and Analysis of Porosity and Pore Structures.
Retrieved November 17, 2019, from
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/rimg/article/80/1/61/140962/Characterization-and-Analysis-
of-Porosity-and-Pore.

Benbow, A., carpenter, M., Hoover, M., Smith,J.M.&Southard,B.J. (2012). Earth Comm: project-based
space and earth system science (2nd ed.), United States, USA: it’sabout time

Definitions for hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity, and superhydrophilicity: Getting the basics right. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jz402762h

Phillips, L. N. (2019). Skincare Alphabet: K Is For Kaolin. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/skincare-alphabet-k-is-for-kaolin

The microplastic pollution: Causes, effects, and can you stop it?. (2018). Retrieved October 30, 2019,
from https://www.greenandgrowing.org/microplastic-pollution-causes-effects-stop/

US Department of Commerce, & National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2016). What are
microplastics?. Retrieved November 11, 2019, from
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html.