4/24/2018 - Week 4


Tap Water Testing Continued: 

Prototype 1:

Inside a water bottle
(Layers of Cotton Pads, Charcoal Powders, Shredded Printer Papers) with cotton pad taped to the opening of the bottle




Result: The filtered water came out completely black where a lot of the charcoal powder came along with the filtered water.

1) Problems: Charcoal powder too powdery which can pass through the cotton pads and into the filter paper
    Possible solutions: Put another water bottle at the bottle of the filter water bottle with layers of printed paper (similar to coffee filters) and layers of cotton pads to catch the charcoal powder from the filtered water

Revised Prototype:

Result: The water still filter out black meaning some of the charcoal powder still came through the cotton pads and into the filtered water. However, this time less of the charcoal pass through as the water appears to be less black. 
Possible Solution: (1) We decided to filter the water multiple time through the same filtration system.
Result: This method appears to be working - the water is coming out much clearer, but the charcoal was not quite fully filtered. 

(2) We decided to add another layers of cotton pads, a thicker layer underneath the filtration water bottle so that the water can be filter again to filter out the charcoal. 
 


Result: The water filtered too slowly, but the water is coming out clear.

Revised Prototype:


(1 inch of cotton and 1 inch of charcoal powder)

Result: The filtered water came out completely clear and quick.




1st Solution Testing:
           Fluorescent Red Dye (#SL-570-L) from CA Turner Co
Result: The solution water filtered in 45 seconds and came out completely clear on the first try.

Summary: 
Today we continued with the tap water testing using the different prototypes and revising it throughout to further filter out the charcoal powder from the filtered water. The revision to our prototype was needed because the charcoal powder layer was ending up in the filtered water. And using the last revised prototype (using approximately an inch of cotton pads and an inch of charcoal), we were able to filter out the charcoal powder from the water by running water through the system several time and the red dye solution on the first try.

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