The Simple Water Purification System.

Intro: The Simple Water Purification System.

This purification system gets its inspiration from the replenishment of groundwater with one additional material, Cotton. It works totally brilliant you just pour in dirty water and voila! it comes down as pure crystal clear water. increase cotton and increase the purity, all in the macgyver's style. There's a story behind this project, I was walking down on our old community park at a hot sunday afternoon with a monstrous thirst. there was no vending machine, no shops but only few drinking water taps the water from it came very dirty, and the park's management told that some muddy dirt have been mixed in the tank because of rain, all they could do is nothing but say sorry. then this idea sparked off and it worked because of the old waterbottle i had, first aid kit  and a pocket knife.

I added this instructable to some contests. if you liked this project, please vote this


My answers to the Make-To-Learn contest:

What did you make?

I made a portable water purifier using some natural materials and a plastic bottle water flowed slowly, but gave a very good result the body is made of plastic bottle, cut and kept the top side upside down inside the other side. inside it consists 4 simple layers cotton, pebbles, gravel and sand, simulating the groundwater replenishment . the edges of the open side is covered with duct tape in order to prevent hazard.

How did you make it?

At the time I made this project, i didn't have any tools to make it, except my handy pocket knife and first aid kit in my bag. I just cut out the bottle into two, then found the pebbles, gravel and sand in the park, filled the dirty water and came the pure water on the other end,   
and saved the day from the thirst. The ideas are basically from my science book and it's chapter about water.

Where did you make it?

I made it initially at a situation at the local park, but also used that project for my school's annual science fair, and it worked very well.

What did you learn?

I learnt mainly about replenishing the groundwater, its importance and it's practical use on our lives. It also gave a better insight of this topic. one of the challenges i met here was to layer everything evenly. i had to close the cap, layer up and then open up the cap for further purification. It gave me good grades too.

STEP 1: Things You'll Need

1) A one litre plastic water bottle
2) duct tape
3) a knife
4) pebbles
5) sand
6) gravel
7) cotton
and dirty water to be purified
and that's what you need to make this project.

STEP 2: Make the Body

First, cut out the bottle in two nearly equal parts, with the top part's partition a little lesser and make sure if the top part fits into the bottom part if upside down. Now cover the sharp edges with duct tape in order to prevent hazard but leave a little gap at the bottom part without duct tape on a particular part of the bottom part in order to get the water out to the bottle without any odor. note that the sticky part of the tape should not be visible  both inside and out. it should go inwards sticking with the bottle

STEP 3: Layer It Up

Now layer with the given materials like this
*each layer should be 2cm thick
bottom should consist cotton.
At top of that should have pebbles, followed by gravel and finally sand.
now that makes the purification layers. make sure everything is even. Note that the gravel getting inside the pebbles is normal and is not a problem. now it is ready for purification process.

STEP 4: Finally, the Last Step.

Now you have your purification system. just open the cap gently, place it inside the lower part, and start pouring water. It finally reaches the bottom, and pure water comes out. and that's all. Make and enjoy.

Comments

[tech ace]

really, thanks for everyone for the comments. this is just a miniature model made in 5 minutes. the elaborate plan is really that after this process, it will be aerated, so that the aerobic bacterias can form and eat up the unremovable toxins, which also produces the biogas, it is removed, then exposed to extreme uv radiation, and boiled that kills those bacterias too.

[Jibrules]

Is it safe to drink? i'm in grade 8 and we're doing a design challenge and it has to be safe to drink i think..

[tanksterbot]

Now this is getting voted for in both competitions it was entered in

[flavrt]

I want to reiterate and amplify GearSkin's comments. Waterborne toxins, parasites, and diseases are a monstrous problem causing vast morbidity and mortality. This Instructable is interesting as a springboard for learning about the vital topics of water quality and water treatment. However, the narrative goes beyond overselling its benefits. This filter is inherently dangerous for the stated purpose of producing potable water.

Even worse, the media remains moist and contaminated, which turns the device into a breeding ground for microorganisms. So passing clean water through it will likely produce a contaminated product. Nobody should ever drink anything that has come into contact with this device, before real purification.

Searching for something positive, this project could provide some insights into developing a water purification pre-filter. Backpackers must forage drinking water from contaminated sources for weeks at a time. There are a number of portable filter devices cleverly manufactured for this purpose, but they often fail from particulate clogging. The type of light-weigh device shown in this Instructable would help, because the sand and gravel filter media could also be foraged instead of carried.

[antioch]

"Even worse, the media remains moist and contaminated, which turns the device into a breeding ground for microorganisms."
You want this to exactly become that, because the bacteria that form in that part of the device are extremely useful and valuable.
I would suggest adding more media the higher the tower the better their diversification and specialization can evolve) and more testruns to let them develop the balance. And keep it moist and active, keep feeding those bad, evil micro-bacteria-germ-things.

Seriously, there is of course absolutely nothing wrong with additional charcoal filtering and UV-treatment afterwards. I would do it if I had not much clue about the water source that I'm filtering. And if I had the tools present at the time.
But this unscientific mumbojumbo about how microorganisms are bad for health belongs in 1960's nursing schools and needs to stop.
Or rather, be replaced by science and knowledge.
When you're on the web, those two tend to be just around the corner, 1 or 2 clicks away.

[tech ace]

thank you for your comments. my version of the total water purification system x3 will be soon out there in summer

[tech ace]

there is a help that viewers here can do for me. please vote me. if you did so. a hearty thanks for you...

[gearskin]

This is a miniature version of what is called a "Multimedia Filter" or MMF in water treatment (those typically use sand, anthracite, garnet, and gravel). The water you will produce with this will be relatively free of particulate material (Total Suspended Solids or TSS), but it may still contain biologicals (bacteria, viruses) or organics and will retain all the dissolved salts from the original water source. For safety, you'll want to purify this further by passing through a charcoal filter (which you could make in the same fashion as above), by dosing with a chemical (bleach, iodine), by boiling it, or by exposing it to ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) for an extended period of time. I like how simple and quick this project would be, and it is a good use for an otherwise wasted material.

[ToniRose]

Good to know, gearskin. Would charcoal from a campfire work? Will it filter giardia?

[gearskin]

Charcoal produced by a campfire would work fairly well - the only difficulty would be in ensuring that your powder is of uniform size (which will help to prevent channeling in your packed charcoal filter, which occurs when water takes a preferential path through the filter instead of filtering through all the filter media) and ensuring that you are using just charcoal and not ash from your campfire. It would suffice to rinse the charcoal before pulverizing it. A charcoal filter made in this way could help with giardia, but if that is a known risk in your water source I would recommend dosing your filtered water with bleach, then passing it through your charcoal filter (which will remove the leftover bleach).