WATER FILTER PROJECT

BSEN 2210 – Group 8 – Women In STEM

Mattie Brennan, Ali Boardwine, Frances Fabbrini, Ashley Spencer

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INTRODUCTION

Safe and clean drinking water is essential to human life, and everyone should have access to
it. However, 26% of the global population does not have access to a reliable drinking water service.
This group is exposed to numerous diseases that spread through contaminated water. It is important
that we work towards making it possible for everyone to have clean water because it is fundamental
to a quality life. The Woman in STEM team proposes a solution to this daunting challenge. The
team designed a simple filtration system that can be recreated by anyone using scavenged
materials. The basic design will improve the quality of life of individuals.

Our assignment is to design a water filter that can be built with everyday materials.
Therefore, things like activated charcoal or chemicals are not available for use. The water does
not have to be drinkable, but it does have to have a turbidity read of less than 10 NTU. The filter
must be portable and cannot exceed twelve inches. 300 mL must pass through the filter in 20
minutes, and it must have a basin to catch the flowing water.

METHODS

Our design process started with an exchange of ideas for one class period, where we discussed
several assorted designs. We had planned to brainstorm ideas, create a prototype, evaluate, and
refer to previous ideas to correct errors. All the designs mentioned had a similar layering of
materials in the filter bottle; however, we did debate the ordering of the materials along with what
would be the initial layer. The main difference in each model was the bottle size. During our first
construction day, we made a prototype with the layering we deemed the best fit. The ideal layering
included a layer of sand, followed by smaller rocks, topped off with larger rocks. Around the mouth
of the bottle was a filtering material. The main bottle we wanted to use was a 1750 mL bottle with
the mouth of the bottle being under 3.81 cm. Other bottles mentioned included a 591 mL Dasani
water bottle and a 591 mL smart water bottle. As for the variations of layering, we consistently
had sand as the first layer (starting at the mouth of the bottle), followed by smaller rocks. There
were changes in the top layer, along with the quantity of material for each layering.
PROTOTYPE

The prototype design we used can be seen in figure 1. This design consisted of a 591 mL
plastic water bottle with the mouth of the bottle being 2.5 cm. This design gave the team a
starting point for where we needed to take our filter and how we could make it more efficient and
create cleaner water. This prototype had a coffee filter around the mouth of the bottle followed
by a layering of sand, small aquarium rocks, and large rocks, each containing one cup of
materials.
ATTEMPT 1

The first large-scale design, seen in figure 2, was in a 1750 mL bottle with the base cut off
that was layered with a cup of sand, a cup of small aquarium rocks, and cup of large rocks ranging
in a 1.27 cm to 3.81 cm in length. We also had a sock tied with a rubber band around the mouth of

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the bottle. This design proved to be defective after several trials. We attempted variations of this
bottle (figure 3) by adding more sand, about 2 – 3 cups worth, and mixing the sand and aquarium
rock layer, but these changes did not affect the results. These insufficient results can be seen in
table 1.
ATTEMPT 2

We scrapped this large bottle model and started remaking the layers in the Dasani water
bottle (figure 5). This time we used coffee filter to cover the mouth of the bottle. We used nine
coffee filter total, layering these filters with a specific process. This process was setting three
coffee filters on the mouth of the bottle and securing those to the bottle before adding any more.
We repeated this process three times to get to our total of nine. The bottle was ¾ of filled with
sand, topped with aquarium rocks that made a layer 1.25 cm deep. The final layer was about 2.54
cm deep with the larger rocks. This model was much more effective, but still not reaching quota.
We did not make any variations to this layering, instead we tried the exact same design just in a
different bottle.
FINAL RESULT

Our final and most efficient model was using a smart water bottle layered five-sixths full
of sand, topped with aquarium rocks and cotton balls. The sand was doing most of the work in
the filter, and the 1 cm thick layer of aquarium rocks and 2.54 cm layer of cotton balls were used
to distribute the water evenly across the sand. We again used nine coffee filters, layered in sets of
three. This model accomplished our goal (figure 4).
PROCESS TO CREATE MODEL

1. Find a bottle that has a cylinder body, cut off 2 cm from the base of the bottle so that
there is a larger, circular opening
2. Remove the cap, and place three coffee filters around the mouth of the bottle, securing
them with a rubber band
3. Repeat step 2 two more times
4. Pour the sand into the bottle to wear it fills five-sixths of the bottle
5. Top the sand with a layering of smaller rocks, where the layering is about 1 cm (about
0.39 in) thick
6. Fill the remainder of the bottle with cotton balls
7. (All material quantities are listed in table 2)

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

The Women in STEM Team went through multiple filter designs to find one that could
provide water with a turbidity level below 10 NTU. Time was never an issue for the team as we

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could always filter 300 mL of water in less than 20 minutes. Our flow rate out of our final filter
was 8 minutes for 300 mL of water.

Although, we failed many times in providing water that had a low turbidity level. After many
attempts, we were able to find a design that worked. This design could produce water that had a
turbidity level of below 10 NTU. The final results can be found in Table 3.

These failed attempts sparked the discussion of how lucky we are to have clean water with
low turbidity levels. It was challenging and took many different attempts to reduce the turbidity
of the water, it would take even more time and effort to decontaminate the water.

CONCLUSION

The team succeeded in creating a water filter made from everyday materials. The water
filter layers were sectioned into cotton balls, small rocks, sand, and coffee filters fit into a plastic
water bottle. The cotton balls and small rocks caught the larger materials in the dirty water and
the smaller materials were caught going through the large section of sand and finally the layered
coffee filters. The turbidity of the filtered dirty water must be below 10 NTU to meet filtered
water standards, and this filter measured below that standard in three different trials. The filter is
portable and does not exceed twelve inches. 300 mL of dirty water was able to pass through the
filter in 20 minutes and it had a steady stream of water filtering into the basin.

Even though this water is not drinkable because it still must be decontaminated, this
design can be beneficial to areas of the world that do not have a source of reliable drinking
water. It can be constructed with a variety of household materials that are easy to layer. This will
help improve the quality of life for individuals of the 26% of the global population that do not
have access to safe drinking water.

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REFERENCES

World Health Organization. “Drinking-Water.” Who.int, World Health Organization:

WHO, 21 Mar.2022, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water

APPENDIX

Clean Water Dirty Water Dirty Water

Turbidity Turbidity #1 Turbidity #2
Second Large- 8.91 NTU 179 NTU 156 NTU
Scale Attempt
Table 1: October 3rd. This table shows our failed results for our second large-scale water filter. The first
column represents the clean water going through the filter to clean and remove any loose sand or dirt
particles. This was an acceptable value because the water was cleaning filter. The next two columns show
failed results because our filter was not cleaning the water enough.

Materials Quantity
Cylindrical Shaped 500 mL Bottle 1
Sand 3-4 cups
Small Rocks (> 1cm in diameter) 1-2 cups
Cotton Balls 10-15
Coffee Filters 9
Rubber Bands 3
Table 2: This table shows the materials used in our final filter and the quantity of the materials.

Clean Water Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3

Turbidity From Filtered From Filtered From Filtered
Dirty Water Dirty Water Dirty Water
Final Filter 3.1 NTU 6.2 NTU 5.5 NTU 4.7 NTU
th
Table 3: October 10 . This table shows the final results of our filter. These results met the goal.

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Figure 1: September 19th.
Prototype design of our first
filter. The layering consisted of
large rocks on top, aquarium
rocks second, sand third, and
then two coffee filters wrapped
around the bottom.
Figure 4: October 10th. This is the team's
final filter. From top to bottom, the filter
contains cotton balls, aquarium rocks,
sand, and two coffee filters.
Figure 2: October 3rd. First
large-scale filter. Layers from
top to bottom consist of large
rocks, aquarium rocks, sand,
and a sock.
Figure 5: October 5th. This is our
Dasani water bottle attempt and the
first time we abandoned large rocks.
Figure 3: October 3rd. This is
our second attempt at our
large-scale design. This
attempt has more sand and
aquarium rocks. This image
shows the filter right after the
dirty test water was poured in.