Water Filter

My group was given the challenge of turning dirty creek water into pure clean water able enough to drink. To do this you would have to go through a lengthy process.  First it starts with testing your water to figure out what kind of bacteria and stuff is in your water, so you know what to target for your filter. 

Contaminated Water:

Chlorine: 0 ppm

Hardness: 70 ppm

Iron: 1 ppm

Copper: 0 ppm

Ph: 7 

Bacteria: positive 

By seeing this we knew we needed to target the hardness of the water, as well as focusing on the iron. Bacteria was also positive which is good because by filtering the water we can get rid of that bacteria. 

Sand:free Rocks: free

Charcoal:$4.99/ 1 oz bag Sponge: $1.25

Cotton balls: $1.50

Coffee Filters: $1.25 Water bottle: $1.25

Tape: $1.00 Rubber Band: 98 cents

Hot plate: $15.48

Total cost: $27.7 or $11.22 without hot plate 

This is what we used in the filter to make clean water.

Physical Filtration/ Adsorption: Activated charcoal physically traps sediment through its highly porous structure which captures particles based on size.It also absorbs certain dissolved contaminants onto its surface (Lead, Mercury, Chlorine etc)

Iron Removal  (Ion Exchange)

Ion Exchange: Fe²⁺ ions are exchanged with other cations on the charcoal surface, removing them from the water.

This process prevents iron buildup which can lead to discoloration, metallic taste, and oxidation into ferric iron (Fe³⁺) which forms rust-like precipitates.

Boiling water is able to destroy bacteria by breaking down their proteins and enzymes, which are essential for cellular functions. The high temperatures disrupt hydrogen bonds in proteins.

Two things I have learned during this project was that I need to work on my communication. I feel like I didn't communicate enough what I was doing or how the filter was working. We had to re evaluate it after we filtered the water in order to understand what each substance was doing. I feel like I was a good collaborator, but could have been better. There were times were I wasn't fully on task and could have done more to help, but I did make sure I did my part.