AguaClara Filtration Team
The challenge for the Aguaclara Filtration Team is to design a filtration system that can reliably treat the current Aguaclara effluent water with a turbidity ranging from 5 to 10 NTU and produce water with a turbidity less than 1 NTU. The filtration technology should not require any electricity, should make minimal use of specialized components that would be difficult to acquire in remote communities, and should be easy to construct and to maintain.
Plan of Action
The Filtration Team will conduct research on existing foam/bag filtration and granular filtration technology, develop an initial filtration design, conduct experiments to validate design, and produce a final design based on experimental results. The Filtration Team is currently focusing on four possible options: multi-filtration, stacked filters, back wash well, and foam/bag filtration.
Spring 2010 Research
Siphon-aided backwash
Foam and Bag Filtration
Clear Well Filtration
The Clear Well Team's focus is to determine if a gravity driven clear well filter design is feasible technically and economically. A clear well is one of the few options that allows a filter to be cleaned without using electricity. The clear well cleans the filter by backwashing the filter with water stored at a higher elevation in the clear well.