My water filtration journey
For the past couple of weeks, my freshman class and I have been studying water filters and the possibilities for water filtration. During our classes and research, I was really into it because of the fact that I had done this before. I instantly knew that building the actual filter would probably be easier this time because of my previous experience. This journey also made me think about the Flint Water Crisis and how I could potentially make a filter to ensure safe drinking water for myself and community.
After discussion with my class, I started to form a hypothesis. Making a filter with activated carbon would make the PH level of the water between 6.3 and 7 which is base or average.
Materials that I used:
- 2 liter bottle
- knife
- cup of distilled water
- cup of your dirty water
- PH tester
- large gravel
- small gravel
- sand
- activated carbon
- rough side of a sponge
-coffee filter
There were many steps involved with building the filter, testing it and getting my results. The first step, for the filter I was making, was to cut the bottle in half. I cut it in half to ensure that there was enough room to put all of the ingredients into the bottle. Next, I took the half of the bottle with the cap, and poked small holes in the cap so that the water had a place to go into the bottom half of the filter which also serves as a cup for drinking after filtration. After that, I unscrewed the cap and put the coffee filter on the spout and screwed it back on. I did this to ensure that before leaking into the second half of the bottle, the water didn't have any rocks, sand or any other filtration ingredients in it. The next step was to put the ingredients in layers. I put the large gravel in first, then the small gravel, then some sand, and after that the activated carbon, and then another layer of sand. After the last layer of sand, I cut the rough side from the sponge into smaller strips and put those at the top for extra filtration. After all of that my filter was complete. The layers that I used are similar to groundwater filtration, which is why I chose this method. Groundwater filtration is just the way that water is filtered underneath the ground. My layered method is similar to that of the ground filter.
Before filtration, my water looked and smelled horrible. It had particles floating around in it, it was really cloudy, and it had an odor that smelled like grass. I tested the PH of the water before filtration and it came out to be 6.7 which is really good for dirty water. After filtration my water still looked really cloudy, but it didn't have particles floating around and it did not have that grassy odor. I was really surprised by that but was even more surprised by the fact that the PH level was worse and more acidic. It turned out to be 5.1 which is really acidic. In short, my filter made my water more acidic than it was before.
I then decided to try and find the concentration of the PH levels of my water, before and after filtration. We did a lot of things to prepare us for this endeavor, but first we learned about PH and the concentration of PH. The main way to find the PH level of water is to use a PH tester. This is the method that I used to measure the PH of my water, which measured at a 6.7 and a 5.1. Trying to find the concentration of PH is where things start to get a little tricky. There is actually a formula for finding the concentration of PH. The formula is PH equals negative log H plus ion concentration (PH=-log[H+ion concentration]). To use this formula effectively you must take 10 and Square it by the negative version of the original level of PH.
Materials that I used:
 |
| JH. Water filter. (2018) |
- knife
- cup of distilled water
- cup of your dirty water
- PH tester
- large gravel
- small gravel
- sand
- activated carbon
- rough side of a sponge
-coffee filter
There were many steps involved with building the filter, testing it and getting my results. The first step, for the filter I was making, was to cut the bottle in half. I cut it in half to ensure that there was enough room to put all of the ingredients into the bottle. Next, I took the half of the bottle with the cap, and poked small holes in the cap so that the water had a place to go into the bottom half of the filter which also serves as a cup for drinking after filtration. After that, I unscrewed the cap and put the coffee filter on the spout and screwed it back on. I did this to ensure that before leaking into the second half of the bottle, the water didn't have any rocks, sand or any other filtration ingredients in it. The next step was to put the ingredients in layers. I put the large gravel in first, then the small gravel, then some sand, and after that the activated carbon, and then another layer of sand. After the last layer of sand, I cut the rough side from the sponge into smaller strips and put those at the top for extra filtration. After all of that my filter was complete. The layers that I used are similar to groundwater filtration, which is why I chose this method. Groundwater filtration is just the way that water is filtered underneath the ground. My layered method is similar to that of the ground filter.
 |
| JH. Dirty water. (2018) |
Before filtration, my water looked and smelled horrible. It had particles floating around in it, it was really cloudy, and it had an odor that smelled like grass. I tested the PH of the water before filtration and it came out to be 6.7 which is really good for dirty water. After filtration my water still looked really cloudy, but it didn't have particles floating around and it did not have that grassy odor. I was really surprised by that but was even more surprised by the fact that the PH level was worse and more acidic. It turned out to be 5.1 which is really acidic. In short, my filter made my water more acidic than it was before.
 |
| JH. PH scale. (2018) |
I then decided to try and find the concentration of the PH levels of my water, before and after filtration. We did a lot of things to prepare us for this endeavor, but first we learned about PH and the concentration of PH. The main way to find the PH level of water is to use a PH tester. This is the method that I used to measure the PH of my water, which measured at a 6.7 and a 5.1. Trying to find the concentration of PH is where things start to get a little tricky. There is actually a formula for finding the concentration of PH. The formula is PH equals negative log H plus ion concentration (PH=-log[H+ion concentration]). To use this formula effectively you must take 10 and Square it by the negative version of the original level of PH.
 |
| JH. Concentration notes. (2018) |
In conclusion, my hypothesis was proven wrong. The activated carbon did not give my filtered water a base PH. If I were to do this project again, I would change not only the presence of the activated carbon, but some of the ingredients too. I would also perhaps change the temperature of the water, and also put more than one coffee filter in the cap. There are many ways to make this project better, and next time I intend to create a water filter that does make the water's PH base. This was a really fun project to conduct and I look forward to doing this again!
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