Comparison of Methods for Local Water Purification and Distillation

United States Naval Academy

English Department

Presenters:
MIDN 1/C Olson, Mechanical Engineering
MIDN 1/C McCartney, Economics

27 March 2009

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List of Illustrations

Figure Title Page Number

1 Photo of homeowner on roof of house 2

2 Drawing of Recumbent Bicycle 4

3 Photo of commercially made filter 6

4 Photo of commercially made filter 6

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Introduction

The Mechanical Engineering Department of the United States Naval Academy is

currently designing a human powered device to distill water. The idea comes from the
following story from a home owner in New Orleans.

On August 25th 2005 Rob was a normal home owner living in New Orleans. He worked
as a contractor building homes. He heard of the approaching hurricane Katrina but
figured that it would not reach where he lived. On August 29th 2005 hurricane Katrina hit
New Orleans. Rob was not prepared. He had figured that it would die down or pass
around them like all the hurricanes in the years past. The hurricane came in with such
speed that Rob was unable to evacuate in time. After the hurricane had passed, he was left
with his family on the roof of his house surrounded by water as seen in figure 1. The
rescue workers were overloaded rescuing others that his family was stranded on their roof
for days. They were dying of dehydration while they were surrounded by water. This may
seem uncommon but it actually happens all around the world. Hurricane and other natural
disaster victims are unable o drink the water all around them because it is full of dead
animals and is usually brackish. The water must be purified before they can drink it.

One means of purifying the water is through distillation. This process involves the actual
boiling of the water. Boiling the water will remove the micro bacteria in the water and
prevent disease, but it will not remove the salt from the water. Drinking any form of salt
water will dehydrate your body faster than not drinking any water at all. Thus, the steam
must be collected from the boiling water and condensed back to water. This condensed
water will be free of salt and will be safe to drink.

Decontamination through filters and other ways may be easier, but potentially may not
remove all of the biological pollutants in the water. An average person would give the
advice to use this easier method of purification because of its success in many areas of
the world. Filters can be made from many different materials and can come in easy to
carry sizes. The main design for most filters removes contaminates from fresh water and
is not usually meant for brackish water. This method of decontamination must still be
considered because of its ease of use and its ability for further development in the future.
Figure 1

(Homeowner on roof of house after Hurricane Katrina)

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Problem Summary

According to washingtonpost.com, close to 99% of the world’s water is unsafe to drink,

and 40% of the world’s population lacks the means to purify such sources to create safe
drinking water. There are many devices in current production that purify water. The
current means of purification would either involve the use of fire to boil water or filters to
purify it. Fire cannot usually be created in many regions right after a water intensive
disaster. Also, purifying the water with filets may not be able to remove the salt from the
water. Engineering a device that uses human power to distill unsafe water would help to
solve this global issue. A solution must be made on the issue on which filtration method
does the best job at purifying water and should be further developed.

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Possible Solution #1

The first possible solution is using human energy. It will be converted to mechanical
energy through a collapsible recumbent bike. As the operator pedals the bicycle wheel, a
belt connecting the wheel sprocket to a generator shaft will then convert the mechanical
energy to electrical energy as seen in Figure 2. Because of the high energy requirement
needed to boil 1.2 L of water, a step-down transformer is incorporated into this design in
order to optimize the electrical resistance heating from the nichrome wire mesh. The step
down transformer will be rated for a certain voltage input and, depending on the turn’s
ratio in the windings, will reduce output voltage while increasing the output current. This
current will then maximize resistance heating from the nichrome wire mesh. The
optimum performance of the transformer will directly relate to the current and voltage
ratings for both the generator, as well as the specific gauge of nichrome wire that is used.
The driving relationships for this design are the following:

 nichrome * L
Rnichrome  where  nichrome  1.3*10 6  m
Ax
L  lineal length of wire used (m)
Ax  cross sec tional area of wire (m 2 )
P  I 2 R    amplify current    amplify heat transfer from wire

Figure 2 “Recumbent Bicycle”

A good estimate for the resistance from the wire nichrome is presented here:

L = 4m
Ax = 5.189 × 10 -7 m 2 ( for 20 gauge wire)
ρ nichrome * L 1.3 × 10 −6 (Ω ⋅ m) × 4(m)
Rnichrome = = = 10.02 Ω
Ax 5.189 × 10 -7 m 2

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The purpose of making a human powered device removes any need for outside power
which will most likely not be available during a natural disaster. The
generator/transformer idea, to create and transfer electricity, is simple and easy to build
and use. The water in the boiling chamber will be boiled off from the heat of the
nichrome wire. The water will boil and the steam will rise. The steam will be funneled
into a heat exchanger where it will be condensed back to water. The condensed water will
be collected and will be clean drinkable water. The heat generated in the wire and
transferred into the water will kill all possible bacteria in the water, thus prevent anyone
from getting sick. Also, by boiling the water all salt or minerals in the water will remain
in the boiling chamber. The collected water will be free of contaminants.

This idea of boiling water may seem complex because of the devices used, and many may
state that fire should just be used to boil the water. But, under most of the examples there
are no ways of making or sustaining a fire to boil the water. Thus this way uses human
energy to boil the water, making it a self sufficient device.

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Possible Solution #2

The second possible solution is to use commercially made filters to decontaminate the
water. One type of filter, as seen in figure 3, removes contaminates that cause gonorrhea
and other bacterial infections.

Figure 3
It is easy to use and can easily be put into storage for emergencies. The filter uses a
pumping action caused by the person using the device to create suction on the water. The
water travels up the hose and through the internal filter. The filtered water then comes out
the bottom of the blue tank into a collecting container.

Another commercially made filter is seen in figure 4.

Figure 4
This filter uses a micro filter which was specially designed to remove undesired bacteria
at a fast rate. It is considered very easy to use as determined by the simplicity of the
design. This filter removes bacteria, Guardia, and sediments. It uses gravity to force the
water down through a filter in the bottom and flow out the tube.

Though the two designs of commercially made filters are different, they accomplish the
same task. They both filter the water and remove any potentially harmful bacteria from
the water.

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Recommendations

The preferred method of water purification is through the use of filters. As seen in
solution #2 filters are easy to use and they are already commercially made. They remove
any potential harmful bacteria from the water, providing safe water to drink. The flaw
with filters is that they do not remove items that are soluble in water like salt. Though
they remove the bad bacteria, if used in brackish water it will not remove the salt.

As stated before, drinking salt water will dehydrate the human body faster than not
drinking any water at all. The reason is widely known and is because the salt absorbs the
water in your body. Thus, solution #2 cannot be used because the majority of natural
disaster victims who are surrounded by water are surrounded by brackish water. Brackish
water is contaminated salt water. It has more than normal sea water in it. It is
contaminated by many kinds of bacteria from dead animals and other things in the water.

From this, the best solution is solution #1. It may not be the easiest to build, or to even
use. But, it is human powered and does remove all bacteria from the water along with the
salt. The product is clean drinkable water. Though many would say that this solution is
not very efficient, it should be understood that it is the best method of removing the salt
from the water. Thus, this method should be studied more in depth and developed for
future natural disasters.

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