Jan 30, 2014

Matthew and I discussed the filters and where to put the plant. At first, we were thinking of putting it on the top of the structure, but then we would have to drill holes in the ceiling and hang the light like that or put the light across the structure. The light would keep the plant alive, but would block the bucket and we wouldn’t be able to pour water into our system. We decided  to put the plant into the 55 Gallon drum and put the light across there. We don’t need to pour the water into the 55 Gallon drum, so that will work very well. Matthew will run it by our professors to make sure that can be doable. He also suggested to let our contaminated water sit for a few days so the nitrates can form. Right now, there is only ammonia in the water. The nitrates, if there are any, would be in the 55 Gallon drum in the Biofilm layer.

                                                                                                               Alex

Jan 6, 2013

I went over to the LaRows' and did the water filters.  The pump in the barn works, so we can go back to using the pump water. I also glued the upper Tantalus on filter c. (The third filter)

Jan 1, 2014

 I went to dump water into the filters. Mom got the 3rd filter up and running, but the first tantalus is leaking. It needs the glue stuff. We will fill the bottom for now. I got 2 Gallons of water from the house. I had to carry one at a time as the small bucket didn't have a handle. The ice was treacherous. I made sure to put manure in the water.

                                                        Alex

November 30,2013 (How to Build the Filters by Alex)

How to build the filters

Note: This is how to build a 2 tiered system.

Needed: 8 five gallon buckets for each cascading system (4 buckets for each individual filter)

Make a hole 2 inches from the bottom on one 5 gallon bucket, this is the bottom bucket.

Drill a hole in a cap and place PVC pipe screw piece through the hole. Put a rubber washer on the screw piece. You then place a elbow( threaded on one side) on the screw part sticking out of the hole. A straight piece of PVC piping connects this to another screw piece that has the thread part sticking out of the hole on the side of the bucket

After placing the PVC contraption in the bucket, place 2 inches of gravel in the bucket. It must be enough to cover the PVC contraption.

Drill small holes on the bottom of 3 five gallon buckets

Place a screen the size of the top of the bucket in  2 of these drilled buckets.

 Place a circle of clear, plastic pipe, connected by a pipe connector, on top of the screen to hold it down. Pour 4 inches of pea gravel in one of the buckets.

For the next one, place a circle of clear, flexible pipe, connected together by a pipe connector, (the size of the bucket rim) on top of the screen to keep it from getting pulled up. You then place 3 inches of red sand in the bucket.

(Note: For the water filters, you place red sand into the sand bucket. The whey cascading filters have 3 inches of black sand in the buckets and 8 inches of Wollastonite in the other whey buckets)

Place the final bucket on top of the sand bucket for a catch bucket.

Repeat this process for the second 4 bucket system, the catch buckets is in both filters.

You now have a 2 tiered system!

Research Tasks for This Week

Just posting, for reference, the research tasks each team member has agreed to take on for this week. A question mark denotes the member has not yet responded.

Vienna: "What is the water in the Philippines contaminated with/What kind of parasites/How do parasites get into the water?"

Alex: "Why is the Philippines' water contaminated/geography of the Philippines."

Stella: ?

Harrison: All nitrate-related questions

Matthew: Flow rate research, slow sand filters vs. rapid sand filters. What is optimal flow rate for our cascading filter, as compared to standard filters.

Andrew: Continued testing for Cascading filter.

I'm also currently working on assembling more Tantaluses for both the water and whey filter systems. I'll fill everyone in with the details during my weakly update.

Matthew

10/03/13 Meeting Notes

Had a great discussion with a representative from the Department of Health. During our two-hour meeting we discussed our filter, the design, and how it compares to traditional methods of slow sand filtration. We discussed the overall effectiveness of bio-sand filters removing contaminants from water, alternate filtration systems, and contaminants in the water found in the Philippines.

We determined several things from the meeting, the most notable being that we need to determine the filter's flow rate. The flow rate must be correct for proper filtration. The optimal flow rates are unknown currently, but are dependent on the medium used.

We also discussed the problem of nitrates in drinking water in the Philippines. Nitrates come from sewage, and are a major problem as they cannot be filtered out with either our bio-sand filter or our Cascading pre-filter system. Nitrates can be treated through certain ultraviolet light systems, but such systems are expensive and not easy to replicate with our materials.

We discussed other ways to treat for nitrates, and learned that plants can drink the nitrogen compound in the water. We reasoned that we could utilize a locally available, economically useful plant in the Philippines (if we could find one) and implement it into our Cascading filter as an additional stage of pre-treatment. While this is currently still theoretical, it definitely merits further discussion.

Also discussed were testing our water, where the team can find a contaminated source of water, and if we can purposefully contaminate water with bacteria such as E. coli in order to test our filter system's effectiveness on truly contaminated water.

That's all for now. We are possibly meeting this weekend to build a couple more whey pre-filters, but this is dependent on several team member's schedules.

-Matt

9/21/13 Meeting Notes

Just a few notes from last meeting:

-Finished construction on the two whey Cascading Pre-filters.

-Tested Cascading pre-filters for overall effectiveness, obtained inconclusive results. Glued Tantalus together so that trapped air won't leak from the Tantalus while the filter is running.

-Finished assembly of experimental mini bio-sand filter. Currently plugged, even after I took it apart and rebuilt it.

-Filter schedule for October is the same as the schedule for September. I will note any further changes to the schedule on the blog.

September 8th Meeting Wrap-Up

Just some quick notes left over from yesterday's meeting that weren't brought up:

-Since I will be feeding the filter Tuesday and Thursday, I will finish construction on the second half finished pre-filter that we started yesterday.

-We are planning to work with a cheese-maker in Keeseville, who will be providing us with whey for the pre-filter. It is important to get this part of the project underway as quickly as possible because the project will be stored outside, and whey will freeze in cold temperatures.

-We will be needing more pre-filters to test the whey, as well as for further water testing. I plan to start constructing these tomorrow at my house, and will provide a progress update on this at the next meeting.

That's all for now. Until next week,

Matthew

Current Filter Schedule

For reference, here is September's schedule for filling the filter.

----

Sunday: Andrew

Monday: Stella

Tuesday: Matthew

Wednesday: Alex

Thursday: Matthew

Friday: Stella

Saturday: Andrew

----

While unlikely, note this is subject to change based on the schedules of team members. I will update this list if anything changes.

~Matthew

Testing Results May 17 2012

Thursday 19 April 2012 Late Work Night

It was a late work night. We washed lots of sand, rocks and gravel then set it out to dry for two days to ensure all the chlorine in the water dissipates. Chlorine will kill the biofilm layer in our sand filters. Michaela has plans to make a hybrid filter, using the Tantalus filters along with the simple filter

We mapped out the footprint of our MIT setup. We took a few pictures. One of the fire vehicles is broken and is infront of our set up so we have just a small space to work right now.

Friday 20 2012 Project Submission

We submitted our document showing our set up plans for the MIT EUREKA fest and our audition video.

Monday 20 February 2012

The video team met to begin editing the photos and videos and took videos of building the biosandfilter.
The accounting team submitted receipts and  balanced the budget.   
The personnel team updated the blog.
The fabrication team added water to the filter.

The Attendance: Harrison, Grace, Tianze, Alex,  and Marshall.

Saturday 18 February 2012

We rebuilt the biosand filter on Sat 18, 2012 at the Peru Fire Department. We sorted and washed the
 rocks being used in the filter.We also assembled the first biosandfilter. We also talked about removing the Ecoli  from the water.

The attendance:Caleb,Jesse,Tianze,Joshua,Liam,Matthew L.,and Grace.

VideoTelecon Meeting Notes

We had a video conference with Justin Lai. the following members were present: Josh B., Michael B., Tianze Z., Jesse M., Vienna A., Alex R., Grace S., Liam S., Gideon S., Caleb C., and Harrison., K.

Caleb gave the fabrication report and MIT asked what we planned to bring to the Eureka Fest. Also MIT asked if we can put documentation up on the web page.

Liam gave the testing report and MIT wanted us to share our progress in the blog.

Harrison did the accounting report. MIT received most of the reports, but needs the reciept from Jan 18 for Adirondack Hardware. Harrison dis not get this one.

Jesse gave the web report. MIT recommended the we put up a google map with member location and places that we are involved in.

Vienna gave the photography report. MIT said we needed more photos and videos for the website.

Alex gave the personel report.

MIT recommendations are:

• more blog entries, 
• we need to put up videos and more photos, 
• work on fundraising for Eureakfest if we need it
  think about how to display the material for the Eureakfest,
• get the system up and running and determine water flow rates. 

Matt mentioned that the team will be presenting at the Champlain Valley Science Fair on April 21, 2012. (Alex R.)

Important Dates for February

Dates for the meetings for Feb.        

Saturday, Feb 18: set up the filter at 5pm

Monday, Feb  20: video editing lesson at 3-5:30pm

Thursday, Feb 23: testing at 2:00pm

(Alex R)

Rules for the VPFD (our new location)

We went to the new place for our laboratory. It is at the Volunteer Peru Fire Department.
Here are the rules for the building.;

1. Stay in main room when you come in and during meetings. (unless you are working in the lab space.)
2. During a fire call stay seated in the main room.
3. DO NOT play with the fire equipment!
4. If we eat anything, we need to throw away our trash.    

That is it for the rules.
(Alex R.)     

What I did

I removed "What's New"  from all old posts in the blog spot. (Alex R.)

What I did

 I got the names of the members who did not want to be on the team anymore. Some were busy or not interested.