Calvin College Senior Design Project 2013‐14 Team 06: CLEAR H2O Executive Summary Project Description Team six will create a water filter component that will enable current point‐of‐use (POU) filters to remove arsenic and effectively communicate filter exhaustion. Team Members The team consists of four engineering students in the civil and environmental concentration. All team members have already completed or are currently taking an environmental engineering course that is directly related to the material this project covers. Pictures of the team members can be seen below. Lucas Timmer, CvE Project Manager Jesse Short, CvE Client Relations Grant Mathews, CvE Production Manager Steve Taplin, CvE Team Editor 1 Team Management The following list describes the roles given to different members of the team. Roles were assigned based on teammates’ strengths and weaknesses. The roles were also designed to encourage the delegation of tasks evenly and efficiently. Hitherto, these roles have proved an effective means to ensure quick and professional delivery of all submittals. 
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Client Relations: Team Manager: Team Editor: Production Manager: Lab Team #1: 
Lab Team #2: Provides general correspondence between client and team. Provides general correspondence between team members and advisor. Facilitates project meetings and assigns tasks to the team members. Ensures professionalism in all submitted and presented work. Leads prototype production efforts. Consists of (2) members that conduct laboratory work together.  Grant Mathews  Lucas Timmer Consists of (2) members that conduct laboratory work together.  Jesse Short  Steve Taplin Project Need There are many developing countries that do not possess the financial stability to provide their citizens with safe drinking water. POU water filters help these people filter their own water in a fast, efficient manner. However, current POU filters do not sufficiently filter inorganic material, particularly Arsenic. The presence of Arsenic poses health threats to many regions, and eliminating this contaminant through the usage of a POU filter would provide a way for many individuals to obtain safe drinking water. Project Requirements The filter module must remove the targeted contaminants below the levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The recommended level for arsenic concentrations has been set by the WHO at ten parts per billion. In addition, the team’s client has mandated that the filter clearly communicate when it is no longer removing arsenic from water. The communication method implemented must be simple and unmistakable in its meaning. Project Objectives The primary objectives for the filter enhancement concern the following features:  Size  Ease of use  Cost  Filtration Rate Point‐of‐Use water filters are beneficial compared to other filtration systems because they are portable, easy to maintain and use, economical, and productive. It is important to the client and to team six that the enhancement for current POU water filters embodies the traits listed above. Although there are no firm constraints in place for the features described, engineering judgment will be used to determine whether the designed enhancement fulfills these primary objectives. 2 Another important consideration is that the filter module must rely solely on the head of the system to provide enough pressure for the water to filter through the enhancement and the existing module. This objective ensures simplicity and allows the filter to run constantly, without any form of energy input. In addition, team six would also like to avoid the use of chemical additives as a means to remove contaminants from the water. Chemical additives are not currently used in conjunction with POU bucket filters and adding them would increase the complexity of the current systems. Moreover, without proper training the chemical additive could create hazardous scenarios for the user. Project Milestones and Deadlines The following table provides a list of project milestones and the anticipated completion dates for those milestones. Milestone Begin Lab Testing Team Budget Complete Lab Testing Final Project Proposal and Feasibility Study Complete Prototype Complete Prototype Testing Final Presentation Final Report Deadline 11/06/13 11/08/13 12/06/13 12/12/13 03/06/14 04/24/14 05/07/14 05/16/14 Current Progress Team six has made significant progress towards beginning initial lab testing. A list of media selected for this testing has been developed. The table below details the media selected for testing. Media Chemical Designation Solution (Engineered/Natural) GFH® Aqua‐Bind® Bayoxide® E33 Hematite MetSorb™ Iron Oxide Metal Oxide Composite Iron Oxide Iron Oxide Titanium Oxide Engineered Engineered Engineered Natural Engineered In addition to selecting the media for initial testing, team six has also established a lab location and begun development of a lab plan for initial testing. A meeting with the Environmental Health and Safety officers at Calvin College has also been established to determine what should be done with the hazardous waste generated by the team’s experiments, as well as to establish an appropriate safety procedure to be followed throughout lab testing. 3 Potential Difficulties There are difficulties that have already presented themselves to team six and the team anticipates that there will be more to come. The list below contains items that the team believes may be potential problems in the upcoming months. 
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Cost effectiveness of solution Simplicity of solution, particularly in communicating exhaustion Size of filter enhancement Effectiveness of solution under varying conditions, i.e. different pH’s, different temperatures, etc. As previously stated, team six has already faced difficulties and has overcome them quickly and effectively. The team is confident that arduous research and effective communication between teammates will provide solutions to these potential difficulties. 4