Project Clearinghouse

WaterLab 3

Sustainability Problem and Proposed Solution: 

Water scarcity and contamination are key problems environmentally and economically. This project aims to develop a deployable system for water treatment in off-grid applications to turn wastewater into potable water for combatting both of these issues.

Jump to: Contact | Project Description | Funding Sources | Metrics for Success | Results
Project Categories: 
Energy & Climate
Awareness, Education & Engagement
Waste & Recycling
Water
Project Status: 
In Progress
Project End Date: 
06/07/2019
(estimated)
Campus Organization: 
Carbon Fund
Affiliated Department, Unit or College: 
Electrical and Computer Engineering; Environmental Science; Social Sciences;
Project Location: 
On campus

Thimann Labs, SLab


Stakeholder Contacts: 
Contact NameEmail AddressDepartment
Brent Haddad
bhaddad@ucsc.edu
Soc Sci
Alexander Koran
akoran@ucsc.edu
ECE
Funding Sources: 
Carbon Fund

Project Description: 

Water treatment systems are crucial to solving society's water availability problems by bringing in additional water that can be used for landscaping, irrigation, carwashing and the like. WaterLab is a prototype for a decentralized system for treating water. The goal is to create potable water from grey water to decrease the amount of water used and supply water to areas in need of clean potable water in situations where they may have access to grey water or other potentially contaminated water. The team is working on completing an improved control system for a more streamline water filtration design by the end of Winter Quarter 2019. We also expect to have the power system implemented on the system by the same time. The mechanical power generation through Pedal-A-Watt will be developed over Spring Quarter 2019 along with system testing.

Metrics for Success: 

Our metrics will come from the power budget in comparison with the charging profile in correlation with the flow rate and water quality of the system.

Next Steps: 
The next steps for our project are testing the flow rate, power consumption and water quality of the system. We have not yet been able to send the batteries through charging/discharging cycles and test different types of water.
Result Categories: 
Infrastructure/Built Environment
Technology
Data Collection & Analysis
Results: 

We will be using the results of the water quality as our basis for the proof of concept for our prototype. This project will be considered complete if the system can successfully hold a charge from solar energy, send the water through the filter and return clean water. There will still need to be more data collected and work completed to improve the system and maintain the components.