In essence, fouling is the gradual reduction in efficiency of the distillation process due to a buildup of contaminants along the membrane as it is used for a prolonged duration. To study this, during Mountaintop we will examine how flux changes when the process is ran between one and seven hour periods, and how properties such as material and porosity affect the magnitude of fouling.

Our goal for fieldwork is to confirm agriculture as our use case, build a network of farmers, learn about farm equipment/technology suppliers, and connect with future partners in the department of agriculture. To do this we hope to meet with the Department of Agriculture and university officials (at UPD, UPLB, and BatState) to see how our venture can fill in gaps in their improvements to existing agricultural technologies. Additionally, we must observe the livelihood of farmers and their businesses; how they operate, where they obtain resources and equipment, and access to capital and electricity.

Constructed a new module design on AutoCAD and manufactured a larger scale prototype. Throughout this, we ran a series of different tests to obtain specs regarding flow and production output. Simultaneously, we conducted research and literature reviews on different use cases relating to wastewater purification, waste heat, and solar driven desalination.

During fieldwork, our goal is to strengthen connections with lcoal NGOs and water purification companies around the main city of Manilla. We will meet with potential stakehodlers and clients, obtaining data on mopre use cases for direct contact membrane distillation and on individual incentives for solar water heater driven desalination.