MBEYA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(MUST)

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (CET)

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING (MIE)

PROJECT TITTLE: DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF AN AUTOMATIC

SMALL SCALE WATER TREATMENT MACHINE

STUDENT NAME: ISSA MUHIDINI ABUBAKARI

ADMISSION NUMBER: 20100134010108

EXAMINATION NUMBER: UE/BME/22/15857

MODULE NAME: PROJECT II

MODULE CODE: ME 8316

SUPERVISOR: MR I. KOMBA

ACADEMIC YEAR; 2022 / 2023

 CERTIFICATION

The undersigned certifies that he has read and hereby recommends for acceptance by Mbeya
University of Science and Technology a project titled “Design and construction of an automatic
small scale water treatment machine” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering of Mbeya University of Science and Technology.

MR. KAMOLEKA
(Supervisor)

Signature………………………

Date: ………………………….

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 DECLARATION

I, Issa Muhidini Abubakari, declare that this project is my own original work and that it has not
been presented and will not be presented to any other University for similar or any other degree
award.

Signature……………….

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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Apart from efforts, the success of any report depends largely on the encouragement and
guidelines of our supervisors and others. I take this opportunity to express my sincere to the
people who have been instrumental in the successful completion of this works.

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge my supervisor Mr. I. Komba. For his prestigious lectures
and guidance on how to prepare and deliver the most acceptable engineering projects, I would
also acknowledge our Project coordinator Mr. Kamoleka for his guidance and support in all the
period of preparation of this work. Also, I would like to deliver my gratitude to all staff
members of Mbeya University of Science and Technology, especially the Mechanical
Engineering Department staff, for their good accessibility whenever they were needed for
consultation. Lastly but not for least, I must remember the Mbeya University of Science and
Technology library staff for being responsible to their work and lovely supports during for
materials finding.

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 DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to my beloved country and its honorable leaders who give their all to see this
country’s prosperity, and also to eradicate the causes and the forthcoming effects of water
pollution.

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 ABSTRACT
Water is easily one of the most fundamental needs of any human being, availability of clean and
safe water however is and has been a problem in many places especially in Dar es salaam. Also
clean water supply infrastructure has proved to be cost full, hence calling for alternative
initiatives to provide clean and safe water to the communities at an affordable cost. Water
cleaning system designed in this project aims at providing an alternative solution to water
sanitation problems, by incorporating sand filter, cartridge filters and heating unit water is
filtered and sanitized easily at an affordable cost. A case study of Dar es salaam has been used,
as it reflects the reality of most communities in Tanzania.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATION..........................................................................................................................i

DECLARATION...........................................................................................................................ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...........................................................................................................iii

DEDICATION..............................................................................................................................iv

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................v

CHAPTER ONE............................................................................................................................1

1.1 Introduction to water treatment.............................................................................................1

1.2 Historical background of water treatment.............................................................................1

1.3 Historical Background of automation....................................................................................2

1.4 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................4

1.5 Objectives of the project........................................................................................................5

1.5.1 Main objective................................................................................................................5

1.5.2 Specific objectives..........................................................................................................5

1.6 Scope and Limitations of the project.....................................................................................6

1.7 Significance of the project.....................................................................................................6

CHAPTER TWO...........................................................................................................................7

2. Literature review......................................................................................................................7

2.1 Public Water treatment steps.............................................................................................7

2.2 Domestic (Household) water treatment methods..............................................................9

2.3 Existing System...................................................................................................................12

CHAPTER THREE.....................................................................................................................13

Methodology..............................................................................................................................13

3.1 Data collection.................................................................................................................13

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 3.2 Design of the project........................................................................................................13

3.3 Components description..................................................................................................16

CHAPTER FOUR.......................................................................................................................18

4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................18

4.2 Criteria to be considered in the selection of the best alternative.........................................18

4.3 Design alternative one.........................................................................................................19

4.4 Design alternative two.........................................................................................................20

4.5 Design alternative three.......................................................................................................22

4.5 Matrix method.....................................................................................................................23

4.6 Matrix method showing the best alternative........................................................................24

4.7 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................24

REFERENCES............................................................................................................................25

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Water filtration illustration, circa 500 BCE.....................................................................................2

An example of a micro controller (Interval Zero)...........................................................................3
Examples of unsafe water sources in Dar es salaam.......................................................................4
Public water treatment.....................................................................................................................8
Examples showing the arrangement of layers of natural filters....................................................11
Pictorial and cross-sectional view of the existing system.............................................................12
3D View of the project..................................................................................................................14
An illustrational example of the Layer arrangement in the filtration section................................15
A Cross-sectional view of an automatic water treatment machine without reverse osmosis........19
3D view of the Automatic Water Treatment Machine with reverse osmosis................................20
3D view of the membrane filters...................................................................................................21
3D view of a carbon filter..............................................................................................................22
Table 4.1Criteria rate scores with scales.......................................................................................23
Table 4.2 Weight factors................................................................................................................23
Table 4.3 The best alternative........................................................................................................24

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 CHAPTER ONE

This chapter contains an introduction to both water treatment and automation, the Historical
background of both water treatment and automation, the problem statement, objectives of the
project, expected solution and significances of the project. This chapter will also contain figures
that will help in the understanding of this project.

1.1 Introduction to water treatment

Water treatment is simply defined as the act or process of making water more portable or useful
by purifying, clarifying, softening or deodorizing it (Collins, Water treatment). Water treatment
is also scientifically defined as a process of making water suitable for its application or returning
its natural state. Thus, water treatment is always required before and after its application. The
required treatment depends on the application, for example the treatment of grey water (water
obtained from bath, dish and wash water) differs from that of the black water (water from flush
toilets).

1.2 Historical background of water treatment

The earliest recorded attempts to find or generate pure water date back to 2000 B.C. Early
Sanskrit writings outlined methods for purifying water. These methods ranged from boiling or
placing hot metal instruments in water before drinking it to filtering that water through crude
sand or charcoal filters (Baker & Taras, 1981). These writings suggest that the major motive in
purifying water was to provide better tasting drinking water. It was assumed that good tasting
water was also clean. People did not yet connect impure water with disease nor did they have the
technology necessary to recognize tasteless yet harmful organisms in water. Centuries later,
Hippocrates, the famed father of medicine, began to conduct his own experiments in water
purification. Hippocrates designed his own crude water filter to purify the water he used for his
patients. Later known as the “Hippocratic sleeve” (Collins, Water treatment), this filter was a
cloth bag through which water could be poured after being boiled. The cloth would trap any
sediment in the water that were causing bad taste or smell.

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 Water filtration illustration, circa 500 BCE
In the 1700's the first water filters for domestic application were applied. These were made of
wool, sponge and charcoal. In 1804 the first actual municipal water treatment plant designed by
Robert Thom, was built in Scotland (Collins, Water treatment). The water treatment was based
on slow sand filtration, and horse and cart distributed the water. Some three years later, the first
water pipes were installed. The suggestion was made that every person should have access to
safe drinking water, but it would take somewhat longer before this was actually brought to
practice in most countries.

In recent times technological advancement is very high. Technologies like automations are
invented and widely used, so this project is mainly going to base on automation, meaning that
will not require human labor for simulation. The following are short notes on automation.

1.3 Historical Background of automation

Automation is the application of machines to tasks once performed by human beings or to tasks
that would otherwise be impossible. Although the term mechanization is often used to refer to
the simple replacement of human labor by machines, automation generally implies
the integration of machines into a self-governing system. Automation has revolutionized those
areas in which it has been introduced, and there is scarcely an aspect of modern life that has been
unaffected by it (Groover, 2020).

A number of significant developments in various fields have occurred during the 20th century,
the digital computer, improvements in data-storage technology and software to write computer
programs, advances in sensor technology, and the derivation of a mathematical control theory.

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All these developments have contributed to progress in automation technology. Development of
the electronic digital computer (the ENIAC [Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer] in
1946 and UNIVAC I [Universal Automatic Computer] in 1951) has permitted the control
function in automation to become much more sophisticated and the associated calculations to be
executed much faster than previously possible (Groover, 2020). The development of integrated
circuits in the 1960’s propelled a trend toward miniaturization in computer technology that has
led to machines that are much smaller and less expensive than their predecessors yet are capable
of performing calculations at much greater speeds. This trend is represented today by the
microprocessor that is a miniature multi circuited device capable of performing all the logic and
arithmetic functions of a large digital computer (Groover, 2020).

An example of a micro controller (Interval Zero)

Advances in sensor technology have provided a vast array of measuring devices that can be used
as components in automatic feedback control systems. These devices include highly sensitive
electromechanical probes, scanning laser beams, electrical field techniques, and machine vision.
Some of these sensor systems require computer technology for their implementation. Machine
vision, for example requires the processing of enormous amounts of data that can be
accomplished only by high-speed digital computers. This technology is proving to be
a versatile sensory capability for various industrial tasks, such as part identification, quality
inspection, and robot guidance.

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Water covers over 97.5% of the earth surface but only 2% of the coverage is fresh (safe) water
and of this only 0.4% is water fit for human consumption (Columbia, 2012). Most of the water
on the surface is unsafe water, this only means that the earth is growing thirstier as the days go
by. Lack of safe water for drinking and sanitation increases the rate of diseases like Cholera,
Diarrhea, skin diseases, infant abnormalities and many other outbreaks as stated earlier.

During the last 50 years, the world’s population has doubled, while the water use has increased
fourfold (Malz, 2007). The increased demand has led to a global water crisis, with the low-to
middle-income countries being most affected (UN, 2003). The United Nations Sustainable
Development Goal 6 (SDG6) tries to target this human right to “Ensure access to water and
sanitation for all” by 2030. In Dar es salaam, 2017, residents living in an area with access to the
municipal fresh water supply was 85% and the proportion of residents connected to the sewage
system was 10% (EWURA, 2018).

1.4 Problem Statement

Dar es salaam is the leading region when classified according to water pollution and misusing
rates, If the current trend of water pollution and misusing continues then the water demand rate
will exceed the water supply rate for the next generations by 63%, this only means that the world
will continue being thirstier and some researches also insist that this will lead to the extinction of
the human race. To avoid this, innovative ideas are hugely needed to handle this situation. A
good example, according to researches the water demand of India during 2030’s will sky rocket
up to 7Billion cubic meters while their supply rate will still be 4.3Billion cubic meters, that is
approximately a 40% short fall on the supply rate, this is due to their always rapid increasing
population (Columbia, 2012). The population in Dar es salaam is also rapidly increasing and also
relates to the Indian trends.

Examples of unsafe water sources in Dar es salaam

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The main vision of this project is to provide an easy, cheap and automatic mean of obtaining safe
water so as to help manage this water Supply-Demand trend for the future generations. By
constructing an automatic water treatment machine for domestic purposes, an easy way of water
treatment that can be performed not only by certified water industries but also by the Locals.

Most of the local areas of Dar es salaam contain springs, lakes, dams and ponds of dirty waters
due to the shape and curvature of the ground and mainly due to improper waste water
managements. Despite this fact many Locals of the region face the problem of poor water supply
which has even led to the miss judgement of the ruling government that they don’t perform their
tasks, but the reality is that the problem lies on the fact that the nature of the region is
continuously changing in a negative way due to an increase in global pollution. Water recycling
(treatment) is a major way to react to such problem where the already used (waste) water is
converted into usefulness.

1.5 Objectives of the project

The objectives of this project are classified into two, the main objective and specific objective.

1.5.1 Main objective

The main objective of this project to design and construct an automatic small scale water
treatment machine for local and domestic purposes.

1.5.2 Specific objectives

The following are the specific objectives of the project

Below are the specific objectives that are intended to be met up on achieving the main objective
of the study:
i. To design machine frame to be used
ii. To select pipes, sensors, pumps and filter material to be used
iii. To prepare engineering drawings
iv. To simulate the machine
v. To assemble machine parts and test the machine

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1.6 Scope and Limitations of the project
With full details gotten from various tests, it shows that water is indeed needed to be treated
before use and after use (recycling). These treatments are traceable to be a combination of factors
that are: fund, self-interest, seasons (summer, rainy seasons, drought seasons) and conditions
(weather). This project covers a precise story of improving the rate at which water is treated to
full (or approximately full) cleanness before usage.

The case study of this project is the Dar es salaam which is the leading region when classified
according to water pollution and misusing rates. I also decided to go through with this case study
as it is the region I am from and in which I’ve experienced the need of this project existence.

This project is limited to;

 The treatment of chemical waste water from chemical industrial disposal, as the chemical
compounds in the waste water might have an adverse reaction with the chemicals used as
dis infectants and the natural filters.

 The continuous treatment of muddy waste waters, as the pumps involved will fail due to
concentration of mud and other heavy particles.

1.7 Significance of the project

 This project will help reducing the safe water shortages and the growing needs of the
global population.

 This project will help reduce serious health issues and diseases such as diarrhea, cholera
and dysentery caused by the intake of unsafe water

 This project will also help combat the problem of environmental water pollution which is
of a huge rate in Dar es salaam.

 The project will be using natural filters and will also be at a small scale, so it will be able
to do all the above at a lower cost.

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 CHAPTER TWO

2. Literature review
Public drinking water systems use different water treatment methods to provide safe drinking
water for their communities. Public water systems often use a series of water treatment steps that
include coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection.

2.1 Public Water treatment steps

2.1.1 Coagulation
Coagulation is often the first step in public water treatment. During coagulation, chemicals with
a positive charge are added to the water, the positive charge neutralizes the negative charge of
dirt and other dissolved particles in the water. When this occurs, the particles bind with the
chemicals to form slightly larger particles. Common chemicals used in this step include specific
types of salts, aluminum, or iron (Kawamura, 2000).

2.1.2 Flocculation
Flocculation follows the coagulation step. Flocculation is the gentle mixing of the water to form
larger, heavier particles called flocs. Often, water treatment plants will add additional chemicals
during this step to help the flocs form.

2.1.3 Sedimentation
Sedimentation is one of the steps water treatment plants use to separate out solids from the water.
During sedimentation, flocs settle to the bottom of the water because they are heavier than water.

2.1.4 Filtration
Once the flocs have settled to the bottom of the water, the clear water on top is filtered to
separate additional solids from the water. During filtration, the clear water passes through filters
that have different pore sizes and are made of different materials (such as sand, gravel, and

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charcoal). These filters remove dissolved particles and germs, such as dust, chemicals, parasites,
bacteria, and viruses. Activated carbon filters also remove any bad odors.

Water treatment plants can use a process called ultrafiltration in addition to or instead of
traditional filtration. During ultrafiltration, the water goes through a filter membrane with very
small pores. This filter only lets through water and other small molecules (such as salts and tiny,
charged molecules).

Reverse osmosis external icon is another filtration method that removes additional particles from
water. Water treatment plants often use reverse osmosis when treating recycled water external
icon (also called reused water) or salt water for drinking.
2.1.5 Disinfection
After the water has been filtered, water treatment plants may add one or more chemical
disinfectants (such as chlorine, chloramine, or chlorine dioxide) to kill any remaining parasites,
bacteria, or viruses. To help keep water safe as it travels to homes and businesses, water
treatment plants will make sure the water has low levels of the chemical disinfectant when it
leaves the treatment plant. These remaining disinfectant kills germs living in the pipes between
the water treatment plant and your tap.

In addition to or instead of adding chlorine, chloramine, or chlorine dioxide, water treatment

plants can also disinfect water using ultraviolet (UV) light work well to disinfect water in the
treatment plant, but these disinfection methods do not continue killing germs as water travels
through the pipes between the treatment plant and your tap (Prevention, 2020).

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 Public water treatment
This project only deals with water treatment at a small scale, this means domestic water
treatment. In domestic water treatment only the steps of sedimentation, filtration and dis-
infection are applied with the addition of the heat treatment process (Mihelcic, J., Fry, L., Myre,
E., Phillips, L. & Barkdoll, , 2009).

2.1.6 Heat treatment

Heat kills microorganisms and is the oldest effective means of disinfecting drinking water.
Adequate heat treatment will kill virtually any disease-causing organism, including bacteria,
cysts such as giardia and cryptosporidium, and viruses.

Heat the water to a vigorous boil for one minute, which includes an adequate safety factor at
elevations found in Nebraska. Any longer could concentrate other chemical contaminants that
may be present. Since water boils at a lower temperature as elevation increases, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends boiling for three minutes at altitudes above
6,562 feet (2,000 meters) (Guide, 2016).

Though boiling effectively disinfects water for drinking, it does not provide a residual (or long-
term) disinfection; therefore, care must be taken not to decontaminate the water. Boiled water
may taste flat. The taste can be improved by pouring it back and forth between two clean
containers to deoxygenate it or by adding a pinch of salt to each quart after it has cooled.

2.2 Domestic (Household) water treatment methods

In many parts of the world, communities lack the capacity to construct community-wide piped
water systems. Today, over 2 billion people do not have access to safely managed drinking
water. Household water treatment is the treatment of water that happens at home or at a point of
use or collection locations within communities (such as schools and community centers). In the
absence of a piped water system, this type of treatment can make water safe to use and reduce
diarrheal and other waterborne diseases.

There are many ways to make water safe from harmful germs. The methods used most are:

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  Sedimentation
 Filtration
 Dis-infection (Chlorination)
 Boiling
Water that has fuel, toxic chemicals, or radioactive materials in it will not be made safe by any of
these treatment methods. Use bottled water or a different source of water if you know or suspect
that your water might be contaminated with fuel or toxic chemicals. Boiling or heating water is
the most widely used and effective method to kill disease-causing germs, including viruses,
bacteria, and parasites.
2.2.1 Chlorination
Chemical disinfection is another common method for making water safe to use. Chlorination is a
common chemical disinfection technique that involves adding a chlorine-based product (such as
sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, or household bleach) to water to kill bacteria and
viruses. Other chemical disinfectants, such as iodine and chlorine dioxide, can also be effective
for disinfecting water. Using or drinking water with small amounts of chlorine, iodine, or
chlorine dioxide does not cause harmful health effects and provides protection against
waterborne disease outbreaks (Mcghee, 1991).

2.2.2 Filtration
Filtration effectively removes turbidity (cloudiness) and microorganisms through various
biological and physical processes in a single treatment step. A filter consists of vertically
arranged layers of natural filters. When constructed, the filter consists of a tank, a bed of fine
sand, a layer of gravel to support the sand, a layer of charcoal and layer of properly packed
cotton for final filtering of the water. No chemicals are added to aid in this filtration process.

10
 Examples showing the arrangement of layers of natural filters
The above figures show an illustration of the filtration part of this water treatment project
(McAllister, 2005).

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2.3 Existing System
There is existing system which is mostly used in Tanzania which is operated manually, the
system depends on the pressure difference to operate. It is technically the simplest to perform but
it is unreliable due to its low ability of purifying the water. It is mainly used in irrigation to
primarily purify water for irrigation.

Pictorial and cross-sectional view of the existing system

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 CHAPTER THREE

Methodology
3.1 Data collection
Data collection is the process of finding out the correct numerical impact of an event. In this
project data collection will involve different methods that will help in getting a good picture on
the population density of the area, population's use of water and how it affects them, also the
success and failures of any conventional water cleaner system if available in the areas. Several
data collection methods to be used will be,

3.1.1 Interview
This is a data collection method, where the researcher will be talking, asking questions and
opinions direct from the residents of the selected area. It will involve different categories such as
ward leaders, teachers, medical personnel, women, men and children getting their feedback and
recording it for further use and analysis

3.1.2 Questionnaire
This is a data collection where by residents have to answer a series of questions, written to
provide a statistical data on different aspects as required in this project. This method may be
limited in terms of only those who can read and write will be able to perform it effectively, but it
is quite efficient to those people with less time to do oral interviews.

3.1.3 Observation
Through observation the researcher (me) has to able to evaluate the conditions in the stated area
and decide on the ways to design the given system as per needs of the general population of this
area.

3.2 Design of the project

The project consists of all the major parts of the domestic heat treatment process. The parts are,

 The body
 Sedimentation chamber
 Filtration chamber

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 Dis-infection chamber
 Heat treatment chamber

3D View of the project

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3.2.1 The Body
The body is made up of a steel metal welded perfectly to form a rectangular shape. The main
purpose of this part is to enclose all the treatment sections.

3.2.2 Sedimentation section

This section contains a tank in which the dirty (unsafe) water is initially poured. At this section
the water is expected to be stored for about 5minutes, after that the Pump 1 is then triggered by
the controller unit (ARDUINO UNO) to pump the water towards the filtration section.

This section also contains of a sensor (ultrasonic sensor) called SENSOR 1 that is connected to
the controller, this sensor detects the level of water, the level up to 20L, if this water level is
reached the sensor sends a signal to the controller so that it first sends a command to light a bulb
located outside on the body and secondly to start a timer at which after 5 minutes the controller
the pumping of water from the sedimentation tank using Pump 1, this process will be done in
mere seconds.

3.2.3 Filtration section

The filtration section consists of two tanks made up of layers of natural filters. A layer of sand,
charcoal, gravel and cotton, all the layers arranged downwards respectively. The figure below
illustrates the arrangement of the layers in the filtration section,

An illustrational example of the Layer arrangement in the filtration section

The filtered water from one container is transferred to the other container and then to the dis-
infection tank by means of pressure difference between the bottom outlet of the tank and the top
inlet of the tank.

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3.2.4 Heating
This section consists of a Solar heater that uses the solar energy to heat the water from the dis-
infection sectors. This heater is connected to the solar panel directly. This heater contains a tap at
one of its ends, at which after the heating process water can be obtained by just opening the tap.

3.3 Components description

The following are the components to be used in the construction of this project Solar Panels

• Water Tank
• Cone filter
• Stage 1 Purifier Vessel
• Water Pumps
• Electrical Circuitry
• UV Tube
• Membrane Filters
• Steel Tap
• Steel Handle
• Piping
• Pipe Fittings
• Nozzle
• Pipe Connector
• Battery
• Hinges
• Supporting Rod Pipes
• Protective Mesh
• Monitoring Glass
• Mounts and Joints
• Base Frame
• Supporting Frame
• Screws and Fittings

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The above components are classified depending on the sections of the project as follows,
3.3.1 Sedimentation section
This section will use,

 A 20L sedimentation tank

 A digital LTR390 ultra-violet sensor
Chosen basing on the price tag and its best performance (as according to price)
 A water pipe
 A 5volt water pump
This type of pump is chosen based on the price tag and the required water flow rate is
very small, hence larger pumps are not advised.

3.3.2 Filtration section

This section will employ,

 Two 10L tanks full of natural filters arranged in layers as explained earlier
 Water pipes

3.3.3 Dis-infection section

This section will use,

 A 20L tank
 A digital LTR390 ultra-violet sensor
 1L of Chlorine Dioxide solution for water dis-infection
 A 5v water pump
 Water pipes
 This type of pump is chosen based on the price tag and the required water flow rate is
very small, hence larger pumps are not advised.

This project will also need the use of a controller programmed with ARDUINO UNO and a solar
heater.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

DESIGN ALTERNATIVES

4.1 Introduction
The best design of automatic small scale water treatment machine is obtained or selected by
considering the purifying efficiency of the machine and not the principal of the operation as
it is the same for all systems. Other factors are like cost, portability and easiness in
operating.

The following are the three alternatives which are going to be used

i. Automatic Water Treatment Machine without reverse osmosis

ii. Automatic Water Treatment Machine with reverse osmosis

4.2 Criteria to be considered in the selection of the best alternative

The following are the criteria to be considered while choosing the best design for this
project,

i. Manufacturability, this measure of the easiness of the machine to be manufactured

ii. Function ability, this is how a machine doing its work as intended to do

iii. Maintainability, this explains the measure of simplicity in maintenance

iv. Safety, this criterion takes into consideration the operators safety

v. Production cost, aim of this criterion is to ensure affordability of purchasing the

machine

vi. Ergonomics, this criterion explains the efficiency environment around the machine
vii. Efficiency, this criterion examines if the machine will perform well the intended
function
viii. Durability, the measure of how machine can perform intended work without failure
ix. Environmentally friendly, this is a measure that how a machine can be good to
operators and environment around it
x. Aesthetics, is a measure of how a machine look appealing

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 4.3 Design alternative one
 Automatic Water Treatment Machine with Multi-stage filtering

This alternative uses multi stage filters to filter out the dirty water. The first stage in the filtering
being the fine sand filter followed by filtering using rough sand, filtering by gravels, and finally
filtering by cotton wools. All the above filtering methods are at different but co-dependent
buckets and hence creating a multi-stage filter. This alternative could be easy to construct as it
contains fewer components.

A Cross-sectional view of an automatic water treatment machine without reverse osmosis

Advantages
i. Low cost
ii. Easy to maintain
Disadvantages
i. Low efficiency of purification
ii. Occupies more space
iii. Difficult to operate

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4.4 Design alternative two
 Automatic water treatment machine with reverse osmosis

This reverse osmosis system uses a semi-permeable membrane to remove contaminants from the
water. These membranes can effectively remove dissolved salts, heavy metals, bacteria and other
impurities. This will be an addition to the multi-stage filtration to increase the efficiency of
filtration.

3D view of the Automatic Water Treatment Machine with reverse osmosis

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 3D view of the membrane filters

Advantages
i. Easy to use
ii. Easy to maintain
iii. High production
iv. safe
Disadvantages
i. High cost
ii. Require more skills

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4.5 Design alternative three
 Automatic water treatment machine with carbon filters

Carbon filters are effective in removing chlorine, organic compounds and some heavy metals.
These types of filters work by adsorption where the contaminants (impurities) stick to the surface
of the carbon. The carbon filters are mainly used to filter heavy duty (highly impurified) water
hence they are not commonly used in many local water treatment systems.

3D view of a carbon filter

Advantages
i. Easy to use
ii. High efficiency
iii. safe
Disadvantages
i. High cost
ii. Pollutes the environment as the carbon filters can’t be filters hence disposed as wastes

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4.5 Matrix method
By using the decision matrix method then the best alternative will be selected among of the three
alternatives. The table below shows the criteria rate of scores with scale

Table 4.1Criteria rate scores with scales

SCALE SCORE
Excellent 5
Very good 4
Good 3
Average 2
Poor 1

Also, the table below shows the weight factors that are used to select the best design alternative
of the project.

Table 4.2 Weight factors

S/N CRITERIA POINTS

1 Manufacturability 15
2 Function ability 10
3 Maintainability 8
4 Safety 10
5 Production cost 12
6 Ergonomics 11
7 Efficiency 8
8 Durability 10
9 Environmentally friendly 8
10 Aesthetics 8
TOTAL 100

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 4.6 Matrix method showing the best alternative
Table 4.3 The best alternative

ALTERNATIVE(I) ALTERNATIVE(II) ALTERNATIVE(III)

S/ CRIITERIA WEGHT SCORE PRODUCT SCORE PRODUCT SCORE PRODUCT
N
1 Manufacturability 0.15 5 0.75 4 0.6 4 0.6
2 Function ability 0.1 3 0.3 4 0.4 4 0.4
3 Maintainability 0.08 4 0.32 3 0.24 3 0.24
4 Safety 0.1 1 0.1 4 0.4 5 0.5
5 Production cost 0.12 4 0.48 3 0.36 2 0.24
6 Ergonomics 0.11 2 0.22 3 0.33 3 0.33
7 Efficiency 0.08 3 0.24 4 0.32 4 0.32
8 Durability 0.1 3 0.3 3 0.3 1 0.1
9 Environmentally 0.08 2 0.16 4 0.32 2 0.16
friendly
10 Aesthetics 0.08 3 0.24 4 0.32 4 0.32
TOTAL 1 30 3.11 36 3.59 32 3.21

4.7 Conclusion
Since the second alternative has higher score than the first alternative and third alternative,
therefore the second alternative which is Automatic Water Treatment Machine with reverse
osmosis is the best solution.

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Kawamura, S. (2000). Integrated Design and Operation of Water Treatment Facilities. New
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Malz, S. (2007). Water Demand and Supply.

McAllister, S. (2005). Analysis and Comparison of Sustainable Water Filters.

Mcghee, T. J. (1991). Water Supply and Sewerage. McGraw-Hill, New York.

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