Water Purification Help?*

[mf2010]

In my science fair I want to test Distillation, Microporous Membrane Filtration and Ultrafiltration to see which one better purifies water on its own. I have about a $25 budget and I don't know what I need to get for materials or how to experiment. Help!

http://www.h2ro.com/_Solutio2.htm#Ancho ... rous-35882

Thank you.

[deleted-71827]

Hi!
There are definitely websites that will sell these products, but I do not think it will be realistic to try and obtain all these membranes within your budget. For example, I think GE Osmonics sells membranes:

http://www.osmolabstore.com/OsmoLabPage ... e&1&1&1022

In addition, many of the websites require that you buy these membranes in bulk, so what I would suggest is that perhaps you can ask your science teacher to order it for you through the school's established lab supply, or to find a local university that might allow you to use some of their equipment. Science project materials can really be quite expensive sometimes!

In terms of a methodology, I would keep in mind that you must make sure everything is standardized. What I mean by this is that your procedure might include using the same amount of water being filtered for each type of filtration so that you can easily compare which method will be the most effective. The procedure itself will not require you to do all of the filtrations at the same time, so you can definitely focus on one type at a time. All you will have to is measure how much water you was filtered vs. how much water was present in the beginning of each experiment and you can take these results and either make a table or a graph depending on what you prefer.

Hope this helps!

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

Just to add to the prior expert’s answer, Science Buddies has a related project on water purification that appears to fit your budget, though it is not exactly the same idea as you have:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p030.shtml

Best regards,


Barrett L Tomlinson

[mf2010]

Thanks.

Say I wanted to do microfiltration, what would I need to purchase? Like, if I did microfiltration vs. distillation. And what water would be the reactant? And what would I use to test its purity?

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

Here is a master’s thesis on a field study of a ceramic micro filtration system for use by residents of Bolivia. It includes some details on the ceramic filters, their source and cost, and the utility/practicality of the design of a water system for household use by poor people depending on raw surface waters for housejold use. It may be of use to you as background research and for practical experimental design.

http://www.unc.edu/~joebrown/diss.pdf

Here is an overview of water treatment methods in Australia. Good general background but not of much use in specifics of micro filtration:

http://www.wqra.com.au/crc_archive/cons ... mersp9.htm

Here is a book that describes micro filtration and ultra filtration, including how filters are made and tested:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ak5xhF ... ts&f=false

Unfortunately I have no more information to give on this project, so unless other experts on the Ask an Expert panel can add to this, you are on your own past this point. As far as I know Science Buddies has not developed a project that answers the question you have posed and I do not have personal expertise in this area.

This sounds like a project with potentially high social value (see the thesis cited above) which could be very important, so I encourage you to perservere, but past this point I do not think I can help. Good luck!

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson

[mf2010]

Okay, thank you!