Designing a Water Purification System for a Developing Community in Algeria

Julie Walker jmwalker11@verizon.net Rebecca Wenokor rwenokor@gmail.com

Abstract
Algeria is a rapidly industrializing nation that has a large number of contaminants in its water, but has yet to develop a successful water filtration system. The goal of our project was to design a water purification system that could eliminate the main impurities mercury, bacteria, and turbidity in the Oued el Harrach, a river located in northern Algeria. Our system employs a slow sand filter to remove bacteria and turbidity and a crumb rubber filter to remove the mercury. During the filtration process, the slow sand filter develops a biological layer, also known as schmutzdecke, that filters very small bacteria from the water. The crumb rubber contains sulfur and carbon to absorb the mercury. Our design is intended for people living below the poverty line, so our design had to be cost-efficient. This meant using cheap, locally available materials and creating a sustainable design. The use of tires and sand kept the budget and the environmental impact low. To simulate what would be our actual design, we built a prototype at a smaller scale. Testing was done using dirty water that contained bacteria and turbidity. We added toluene to the water to simulate mercury because tires absorb both toluene and mercury in the same way. Our filter successfully reduced the levels of turbidity, bacteria, and toluene.

Introduction
Water contaminated with chemicals or bacteria can cause serious diseases, and in

many cases, death. Unfortunately, one in eight people, approximately 884 million people worldwide, lack access to clean drinking water. One third of these people live on less than $1 a day, and the remaining two thirds of these people live on less than $2 a day. It was our goal to develop a system that provides clean drinking water to people in this situation. Due to the current industrialization in Algeria, its rivers and other water sources are being contaminated with industrial waste. There are no purification systems in place to counteract these pollutants. The rivers are also plagued with harmful bacteria that cause diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and diphtheria. We chose to focus on a village located in the northern part of Algeria, along the Oued el Harrach. This river contains many contaminants. We chose to focus on filtering bacteria, mercury and turbidity. For this project, we collaborated with Engineers Without Borders of Rutgers University. In their design solutions, EWB looks to fit the needs of the community using inexpensive, locally available materials. The community must be able to use and maintain the project on their own once EWB has left. This often requires educating and training the people about the project. Before coming up with a design, it is important for them to build an understanding of the culture they are working with because cultural standards often provide additional restrictions for the

project. We considered the same ideals for our water purification system.

Background
The Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) recommended level for mercury in a water source is 2 parts per billion. The levels for mercury in the Oued el Harrach river were measured to be 2,000 to 3,000 parts per billion. These high levels are considered a health hazard. Mercury in quantities above the EPAs specified limit is known to potentially cause nerve, brain, and kidney damage, lung and eye irritation, skin rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, DNA damage, chromosomal damage, sperm damage, birth defects, and miscarriages. Another problem in Algerias rivers is bacterial contamination. The most common bacterial diseases in Algeria are diphtheria, hepatitis, typhoid fever, dysentery, tuberculosis, and cholera. The bacteria that cause these diseases are introduced to the water through fecal matter and sewage. These bacteria include Shigella dysenteriae, amoebas, Corynebacterium diptheriae (Figure 1), Salmonella typhi (Figure 2) and Salmonella paratyphi.

Figure 2: Salmonella typhi, the bacterium responsible for causing typhoid fever The third problem with the water in Algeria is turbidity suspended particles from sediment or organic matter in the water. It gives the water a bad taste and unappealing appearance. Turbidity does not have any major health risks, but it can determine whether the villagers will accept the water. Because the suspended particles that cause turbidity are very large in comparison with the bacteria that we are filtering out, turbidity is easily removed during the sand filtration stage. To design an effective water purification system, we needed to take into account the villages specific situation. Located in Northern Algeria, the village experiences mild temperatures and an annual monsoon season. Algeria is going through rapid industrial expansion with little regulation on factories. As such, large tanneries dump wastewater into the rivers, including the Oued el Harrach. This is the major source of mercury contamination in the water. The village is a patriarchal society. Only 7% of women in Algeria work outside the household, and these women are of high social status. Thus each family is supported by only the mans income. The average income is $110 per month, placing them

Figure 1: C. diptheriae, the bacterium responsible for causing diphtheria

well below the poverty line. Without a water purification system, the inhabitants obtain clean water primarily by purchasing bottled water, which amounts to a cost of $1 a day per household. For the 400 people in the village, that totals approximately $3000 a month. A cheaper way to get clean water could potentially provide the people a chance to rise to or above the poverty line.

Design
Designing a filter for a developing village forced us to pay attention to limitations we would not have encountered in a project in the U.S. The seasonal conditions of the region posed specific limitations on the types of water purification system that could be used. For instance, the mild temperatures and monsoon season makes the use of solar power and sunpowered pasteurization impossible. Cost limitations were also considered due to the impoverished state of our village. Materials used had to be locally available and easily bought or made. Environmental considerations were also of great importance. We did not want our system to require an energy input because the villagers would most likely get this energy by burning wood from the surrounding forests. Therefore we had to eliminate methods of water sanitation that would have been otherwise useful. Slow Sand Filter To remove turbidity and bacteria, we decided on the use of a slow sand filter as shown in Figure 3. Since Algeria is located right along the coast, there is a source of sand close to the village. If the sand along the coast is not fine enough, a sand filter can be made with sand from the Sahara desert, which takes up a good part of southern Algeria. In filtration, the water flows from the top of the filter down through various layers of sand. The layers have to have a

certain depth in order to filter all the bacteria and particles out; a minimum of 60 cm of fine sand (0.15 to 0.35 mm), 20 cm of coarse sand (greater than 0.35 mm), and 20 cm of gravel are required. It is very important to have water in the filter at all times at least a few centimeters higher than the sand, so that no air bubbles form between the grains of sand. Another essential component of the slow sand filter is a thin bio-layer called a schmutzdecke that forms on top of the fine sand. The schmutzdecke is made of harmless bacteria, fungi, protozoa and rotifera, which filter out even the smallest kinds of bacteria. The layer takes about seven days to form and must be cleaned off monthly to prevent it from getting too thick.

Figure 3: Slow Sand Filter with layers labeled Tire Filter There are various methods of removing mercury from water such as reverse osmosis, distillation, or using a granulated activated carbon filter; however, most of these processes are either dangerous, expensive, or involve the use of materials that are not available in Algeria. The ideals that EWB centers on demanded that we find a solution for removing mercury that would be more sustainable in the village in Algeria. Using a crumb rubber filter to remove mercury from the water is as effective as the other methods. Recycling tires by grinding them into crumb rubber is common, and this crumb rubber can then be implemented in water filtration. As the water flows slowly through the rubber

particles, mercury is absorbed into the ground tires, allowing the water to flow from the filter clean and drinkable. Algerias Filter The United Nations recommends 15L of water daily for each person for basic survival needs. For our village of 400 people, our filter must be able to provide 6000L of clean water each day. It consists of a cylindrical slow sand filter and a conical ground rubber filter. We calculated the dimensions of the filter using the equation for flow rate through a slow sand filtration: Flow rate = V/(A*H) Where V is the volume of water, A is the cross sectional area of the filter, and H is the time it takes to filter the water in hours. The ideal flow rate for a sand filter is 0.15 m3/m2h. Our filter needed to be at least 1m high to allow for the required heights of sand. The villagers need 6000L of water every 24 hours. Taking all of these requirements into account, we came up with the following dimensions: a radius of .728m and a height of 1.5m. At the bottom of the sand filter are layers of mesh and a metal grate to hold the sand and gravel in place while still allowing the water to exit. In order for the mercury in the water to be fully absorbed by the tires, the water needs to be in the rubber filter for several minutes. The cone shape combined with the dense packing of the rubber will slow the flow, containing the water in the filter for a long enough period of time. A PVC pipe will connect the bottom of the slow sand filter to the top of the crumb rubber filter. The water pressure will force the water through the pipe into the second filtration stage. From the tire filter, the water will flow through a small pipe to a storage tank below. There will be two separate filtration systems built in the village. While the

schmutzdecke is reforming after having been cleaned off, that filter cannot be used. With two filters, one can be in use while the other is building up a schmutzdecke for seven days. Having two filters ensures that whenever one filter is unusable the villagers still have enough purified water. The people would be educated about the process of using the filter, including maintenance and water testing. So that control over the filter is not limited to a small group of people, we would ask that one person from each family become a part of a committee in charge of the filter. These people would be taught how to remove the schmutzdecke and instructed on the process of testing the water. They can take the water to the Universit des Sciences Islamique for testing. We decided testing should be done once a month, after the schmutzdecke is removed and reforms on the filter, because a defective schmutzdecke will allow small bacteria to stay in the water. The Prototype The prototype of the water filtration system is 1/80 the capacity of the original filter that is to be in Algeria. (See Figure 4) It has the capability to filter 10 liters of water at a time. The slow sand filter component is a 100 cm tall metal cylinder with a 21 cm diameter. The slow sand filter is above the ground tire filter, a metal cone filled with crumb rubber to absorb the mercury. The cone is 25 cm tall with a radius of 19 cm. We made the metal cone using aluminum sheets, which we cut into sectors of a circle and connected to form a cone. In the place of shredded tires, we used rubber edging usually used in gardening, which is made out of recycled tires. The cone shaped design is meant to slow the descent of the water because it takes several minutes for the Mercury to be absorbed from the water. The water will flow from the sand filter directly into the tire filter, exiting

through a PVC pipe at the bottom point of the cone into a small storage container.

water purification system. We kept 1 L of the dirty water to compare to the filtered water. We then put our three water samples through tests. Figure 5: Filtered water (center) with dirty water (left) and distilled water (right)

Slow Sand Filter

Conical Crumb Rubber Filter PVC Piping Storage Bucket Figure 4: Prototype with parts labeled

Engineering Analysis
To evaluate our design, we created a sample of dirty water to mimic the water of the Oued El Harrach River. However, since we did not have immediate access to the technology in order to accurately test our design, a few changes were made. We put dirt into our water to give it a high level of turbidity. To mimic the mercury in the water, we used toluene, a chemical used in paint thinner and nail polish. Toluene is much less dangerous and much easier to acquire than mercury. Rubber absorbs toluene in the same way it absorbs mercury. For our experiment, we had a control, which was distilled water we bought from Shop Rite. We also had 6 L of dirty water, five of which we filtered through our

To check for turbidity, we just compared the appearance of the three samples, seen in figure 5. The dirty water was very cloudy and you could see a lot of suspended particles floating around in it. The distilled water was perfectly clear. The filtered water was very clear as well, although not quite as clear as the distilled water. Therefore, we concluded that our filtration system was successful in removing turbidity. Toluene has an extremely strong and unappealing odor. To test for toluene, we compared the smell of our dirty water to the filtered water. We did this in a room far away from our filter so that we would not have the smell of toluene in the room. The dirty water smelled overwhelmingly of toluene. The filtered water smelled slightly like toluene, but it was not very noticeable. We concluded that our system was adequate for filtering out toluene. In real life, the mercury levels in the Oued El Harrach are nowhere near as high as the amount of toluene that we put in our dirty water, which means the real life filter has much less to

filter out. In addition, the crumb rubber filter in Algeria is much taller, giving the water more time to filter through it. Our results in testing were not completely accurate because our design did not have a schmutzdecke. The schmutzdecke takes about seven days to develop, and we did not have seven days to let it build up. The real design that would be in Algeria will have a schmutzdecke, which means it will be more successful in removing impurities from the water than our prototype was.

Future Work
Because we had a limited time to work on our system, we concentrated solely on the purification aspect of the water problem in Algeria. If we were to actually implement this system in Algeria, we would need to find a way to transport the water from the river to the water filter 24 hours a day. We would also need to establish a water distribution system to transfer the water from the storage tank to each of the villagers homes.

are special limitations on supplies for building such a system. The village in Algeria had a problem with dangerous levels of mercury, bacteria, and turbidity in its water. The water filtration system we designed was able to successfully reduce the presence of these contaminants. We had to take the lack of available materials and money into consideration and come up with a solution that utilized Algerian resources. Because it uses a crumb rubber filter and does not require any power source, our design is also environmentally friendly. Our design is one of many types of water filters for undeveloped villages. It would not be useful in every situation, because different water sources have different problems; however, it is an example of a successful water purification design.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Christine Mau, Ishan Desai, and Engineers Without Borders, Omi Titi Osunfisan, The NJ Governor's School of Engineering and Technology (Donald M. Brown, Director, and Blase Ur, Program Coordinator), the Rutgers University School of Engineering (Dr. Yogesh Jaluria, Outgoing Interim Dean, and Dr. Thomas Farris, Dean), the NJ Governor's School Board of Overseers, Rutgers University, the Motorola Foundation, Morgan Stanley, PSEG, Silver Line Building Products, and the families of 2001-2008 program alumni for their assistance in carrying out this project.

Related Work
There is a similar water purification project by Engineers Without Borders in Thailand. Both their project and ours aim to educate the villagers in the use of the planned water filters. However, the project in Thailand involves a much larger village than the Algerian village with different contaminants in the water. While we both intend to remove bacteria from the water, the Thailand project aims to remove iron and manganese rather than mercury.

References
1. A. Gunasekara, J. Donovan and B. Xing. Ground discarded tires remove naphthalene, toluene, and mercury from water. In Elsevier Science Ltd., 2000. 2. M. Yoshida, L. Abderhaman, B. Slimani. Sediment and water contamination with mercury caused by industrial waste and

Conclusion
Clean, healthy water is important for people in every country. People in underdeveloped nations often need a way to purify their water because it is contaminated with bacteria or chemicals; however, there

wastewater in Oued El Harrach, Algeria. In the Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference of the Japan Society of Waste Management Experts, International Session in Kitakyushi, 2006. 3. O. Perales-Perez and F. Roman. Use of Waste Tire Crumb Rubber to Remove Inorganic (Arsenic, Mercury) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Species from Aqueous Solutions. In U.S.G.S., 2008. 4. M. Lahlou. Slow Sand Filtration. In Tech Brief: A National Drinking Water Clearinghouse Fact Sheet. 5. Drinking Water Treatment. In Excel Water, 2007. 6. Shigella infections dysentery. Association Microbiologists,1999. 7. EWB Research Compilation and of of bacillary Medical Preliminary

8. CIA World Fact book 9. Water Resources Guidelines by EWBUSA, 2005.