Week 10: June 5, 2015

This is the final laboratory meeting of the engineering design lab. During this laboratory period the final presentation will be shown to the other members of the course, the professor, teaching assistants, fellows, and the general public. The final deliverable will also be tested on. All three testing solutions (copper, nile red, aluminum) will all be combined into one solution. This solution will be poured through the final filter system. What is expected to be extracted through the filter is clear water that is potentially consumable. The final presentation will consist of a ten minute discussion and PowerPoint followed by approximately three minutes of questions and answers.

Figure 21. A picture of the final filter previous to final deliverables in week 10. 

Week 9-10 Pictures

Figure 18. Pouring lemon juice into the mashed charcoal. 

Figure 19. Mixing the lemon juice and charcoal.  

Figure 20. The charcoal/lemon mixture after being in the oven. 

Figure 21. The final testing of the filtration system before deliverables. 

Week 9: May 29, 2015

This is the ninth meeting of the laboratory group in class. This meeting is the final in class meeting before final deliverables and presentations the following Friday, during week 10. The group's focus during this period was to run final tests using all three materials, because there is no access to these materials again until the final deliverables presentation. During the presentation, the instructor will be combining all three materials and hoping to see completely clear water fall through the filter. This means that the copper blue color, the nile red color and the aluminum fibers would all have been filtered out. The main issue that resided was still the nile red color, as it was still coming out as a pink. The filter was tested during the laboratory period and a light pink color was still filtering through. After performing more research a possible issue was that the charcoal in the filter currently was not "activated". The group researched that activation can occur using an acid and also baking in the oven at high temperatures. Because a furnace reaching thousands of degrees was not accessible, the acid was combined with the baking process. Outside of the laboratory period, lemon juice was purchased. The charcoal was baked at the highest possible temperature of 550 degrees with lemon juice mixed within it. It was baked for thirty minutes--a time that was researched to be successful. The newly 'activated' charcoal was not tested because the group had no access to nile red dye. So, the first time the activated charcoal will be tested is during the presentation. In addition to the activated charcoal, the group also reassembled the filter. More volume of each substance within the filter was added--including more charcoal, more sand, more gravel, and more cloth.

Week 8: May 22, 2015

Week 8 consisted of further testing the prototype and researching a solution for filtering the dye. The idea of using coconut oil was abandoned due additional research. Raw aloe vera that would be readily available on a tropical island is a thick oil that should be capable of capturing the dye. The aloe vera will be obtained in the upcoming week. The filter was also tested using the same conditions as the initial testing. No major alterations had been made to the filter and similar results were expected. A copper solution was poured through the filter first. Like before, the blue tint of the solution was no longer present in the collection container. The particulate solution containing glass beads was also successfully filtered out. The final test involved the nile dye solution. As expected, the red dye was not filtered, leading to a failure for this part of the performance testing. The filter was cleaned by running clear water through it for an extended period of time to get the dye out of the cloth.

Week 7: May 15, 2015

This is the seventh laboratory period for the group. This week followed the prototype testing. The new goal is to determine the issues and failures during the testing and to figure out how to create new solutions to them. The main failure was with the Nile Red organic dye. The first step in figuring out how to filter out the dye is to research it. During this laboratory period the dye was researched and solutions were discussed. It was found that the dye binds to fats and oils due to their lipid composition. The group brainstormed to determine what fats or oils if any would be present on a deserted island. Coconut oil was chosen due to its hypothetical availability and solid nature. The filter was dissected to determine where the dye had absorbed. The cloth at the bottom contained a pink tint, meaning that the cloth had saturated with the dye, causing the filter to fail. The group also discussed adding more cloth to absorb more volume of dye. It was decided that a chemical approach to this problem was the correct one. The filter was cleaned by running clear water through it for a few hours following the lab.

Week 6: Videos of pouring some of the liquids through the prototype

Video 1. Video of the prototype testing during lab period. The pink, organic dye is being poured through the filtration system. 

Video 2. Video of the prototype being tested during lab. The blue, copper dye is being poured through the filtration system. 

Week 6: Prototype Testing

Figure 12. Pouring blue copper solution through filter. 

Figure 13. Pouring the blue copper solution through filter. 

Figure 14. The color of the filtered copper solution compared to the original. 

Figure 15. The final color of the filtered copper solution. 

Figure 16. The organic solution filtering through the prototype. 

Figure 16. Final color of the organic solution after being filtered through. 

Figure 17. The final color of the aluminum coated glass spheres after being filtered through. There were no reminants yet the pink dye left over contaminated the system.