Water Filter Accomplishments

17 March 2013

The last water filter update introduced people involved in the work, Today we have accomplishments from the last 9 months since Nick Rozard has been home from Indonesia:

Accomplishments in Alfred, New York, USA:

  • Completed Senior Thesis with Alfred University student, Nate Halverson.
  • Nick completed an experiment set on residence time. Residence time is the amount of time that water in the filter contacts the catalyst responsible for deactivating bacteria. This study gives us a deeper understanding about how to precisely control how much time the water contacts the catalyst. The catalyst coats the surface of the pores in the filter.
  • Compared residence time vs ability to kill bacteria.
  • Developed a residence time equation, based on residence time vs bacteria, that allows us to calculate how thick to make the filter.
  • Established relationship with Dr. Tony Wren, a professor at Alfred University.
  • Started our own microbiology lab in Alfred, NY, allowing on-going microbiology work and easy access to individuals and labs at Alfred University.
  • Met weekly to support Rina, the director of water filters at SHEEP, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
  • Established a support group, consisting of Esther Buckwalter, Kristina Blank, and Morgan Kube, to support Nick in his water filter work.

Nick and Nate Halverson pausing from lab work for a photo-op


Accomplishments By SHEEP in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

  • Rina sought out local experts in microbiology where she attained proper training in techniques including basic lab techniques, sterile techniques, testing water from wells, Most Probable Number Test (MPN), and others.
  • SHEEP assisted with the first and second microbiology testing phases of Ari’s PhD. Thesis.
  • Rina started working with and training a laboratory technician, Pak Ardi.
  • Alfatoni (Toni) built a jig for holding the water filter in place on the bubble point tester, allowing SHEEP to measure the size of the largest pore in the filter.
  • Rina, Toni, Ari, and Ardi developed a testing procedure to measure how effective the test filters are at killing bacteria.
  • Rina has been meeting weekly with Nick.

Upcoming Work

Microbiology training in full swing-From Left: Indonesian Expert, Pak Toni, Pak Ardi, Pak Ari

Ongoing work in the US will concentrate on developing engineering equations for the variables that effect the safety of the filters. The residence time equation is one of the engineering equations. Once we have these equations, the goal will be to train SHEEP on these equations, and together produce a prototype.

Next week’s Post: Nate Halverson’s thesis in full and unabridged.