Stem-202 Group Project 1

Participants: Mary Klezer, Trent Grabau, Isaiah Baptiste
Course: STEM Scholars’ Research Lab II, STEM-202-HN01
Professor: Jane Jones
Assignment Title: Multi-Layer Filtration System to Remove Fluoride and Other Contaminants

Assignment Details

Fluoride in excessive amounts has been known to cause many  health problems including fluorosis. To prevent problems such as this we  created  a water filters to remove fluoride from the water. We decided to collect water from 4 different sources to test the accuracy of our filter, We collected water from Baltimore City (BC), South Carroll High School (SCHS), distilled water,(DW) and we created an artificial source of fluoride by adding mouthwash and toothpaste to distilled water. We built separate water filtration systems for each of our water sources to ensure there was no contamination of our filter. Inside each system, we have a sediment bag, cotton balls, charcoal pouches, and porous carbon sheets. After we run water through our built system and tested that water as well.

Application

We conducted 4 independent trials for each of our four distinct water sources. The graph above displays the average fluoride concentrations for each water source, both before and post-filtration. The results indicate that our multi-layer filtration system effectively removed all measurable fluoride from the water. Across all test, the fluoride levels consistently fell below the detectable range, demonstrating our system’s reliability.

Results/Conclusions

What did we learn? We put a significant amount of time researching how to build effective water filters. This included researching each component to identify the ideal quantities and types needed to determine the most optimal combination of materials for building the filtration systems. As a group with limited experience in chemistry, reaching out to professors at Carroll was an extremely valuable resource. In addition to research, a lot of time went into the actual filtration process. Each trial took approximately 20 minutes from the start to finish, and we ran multiple trails back-to-back. This required strong organization and time management skills.    If we had more time to work on this project, we would test the durability of our water filter. We would see how many gallons of water it can purify before its effectiveness began to decline. Understanding the filter’s long-term performance would allow us to make more precise improvements and adjustments as needed.

Challenges and Successes

One of the main challenges we faced during this project was not being able to achieve the exact conditions we were aiming for. While our local water sources contained dangerous amounts of fluoride, our experiment did not result in consistently high fluoride levels. Therefore, we artificially contaminated distilled water with an entire tube of toothpaste to simulate high concentrations of fluoride. We left the toothpaste and allowed it to dissolve over the course of a week.

Another obstacle we faced early into the project was the charcoal in our filter was turning the water black. We adjusted the amount of charcoal used in the system which resolved the problem and improved water clarity. We had to carefully follow procedures during each test and repeat each test to confirm accurate measurements.