Development of a Water Purification Device Singatha Gcinamina Xaba Department of Mechanical and Industrial Technology University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa 217021068@student.uj.ac.za Lagouge Kwanda TartibuDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Technology University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa ltartibu@uj.ac.za Peter Madindwa Mashinini Department of Mechanical and Industrial Technology University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa mmashinini@uj.ac.za Abstract—The world is faced with a decrease in freshwater supply and current water infrastructure is under strain to supply drinkable water. Some of the most recent designs for portable purification devices are not able to purify all the different classes of impurities. This paper presents the development of a water purification device. To achieve this, the proposed solution will purify water from a wider range of impurities including pathogens, heavy metal and volatile organic compounds. The proposed design is portable, modular, ecology-friendly and a low-cost power-consuming design. Stainless steel is the selected material for the design due to its high food grade approval. Purification is based on boiling and heat exchanger systems. It incorporates an inlet filter, activated carbon filter and outlet bio-sand filter to purify contaminated water. The research found the design to be theoretically able to remove the 4 types of impurities it was designed to. Computational Fluid Dynamics was used to conduct investigations on the effectiveness of the heat exchanger and was found to be effective. Keywords—design, portable water purification systems, volatile organic compounds, heat exchanger, activated carbon filter, bio- sand filter I. INTRODUCTION In general, ‘water’ is an inorganic, odourless, transparent, tasteless, and nearly colourless chemical substance that is the major constituent of the Earth’s hydrosphere and serves as a fluid of most living organisms. There is a higher demand for water due to increasing and competing uses of water, such as in manufacturing, agriculture, health, and other sectors, which are put forward as the main reasons for requiring water purification systems. The United Nations World Water Development report defines water as a chemical substance that is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to a central oxygen atom via a covalent bond [1]. According to South Africa’s Water Research Commission, water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water to produce water quality for a specific goal [2]. This report will focus on portable water purification. The proposed design is a solution to help address dwindling levels of drinkable water as a result of an increase in pollution against a decrease in available freshwater. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 2.2 billion people without high-quality drinking water in 2017 [3]. Primary factors adversely affecting potable water are a drastic increase in unpredictable climate change, water scarcity, population growth, urbanization, and demographic changes. South Africa has a physical stress level between 25 – 70% which shows the severity and urgency of the need to innovate on both small-scale (portable) and large-scale water solutions. A large body of work is available in the literature for portable water purification systems. Unfortunately, this information is unfocused and not easily accessible. This paper aims to propose a portable water purification device. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS This section will discuss waterborne pathogens and other impurities, and portable water purifies. Waterborne Pathogens and Other Impurities Drinking contaminated water exposes people to disease- causing organisms. Common pathogens found in drinking water are protozoa, bacteria, and viruses. • Protozoa: These are living microorganisms that live in cells and tissues of people, animals, and the environment [4]. A protozoan cyst is an infectious form of protozoan parasites typically passed in the faeces with a highly condensed cytoplasm [5]. Conversely, protozoan oocysts are hardy, and thick-walled stages of the life cycle of coccidian parasites shed in the faeces of people infected with parasites. Cysts and oocysts are resistant to normal residual chlorine levels, but there are devices capable of removing 1-micron particles such as microfiltration or ultraviolet (UV) disinfection [6]. • Bacteria: Bacteria are biological cells constituting a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Normal levels of chlorine are not able to kill bacteria. Microfiltration and UV removes a majority of bacteria. Bacterial spores are formed during adverse environmental conditions [7]. • Viruses: A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. A virus is the most abundant biological entity in an aquatic environment [8]. Normal chlorine levels and chemical disinfection can kill viruses. Sizes of 0.01 microns water filtration kill viruses [9]. Other impurities include heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The following section gives clarity on their composition: • Heavy metals: These are naturally extracted from various ores such as sulphides of iron, mercury, cadmium, lead, 65 2022 IEEE 13th International Conference on Mechanical and Intelligent Manufacturing Technologies 978-1-6654-8400-8/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE 2022 IEEE 13th International Conference on Mechanical and Intelligent Manufacturing Technologies (ICMIMT) | 978-1-6654-8400-8/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICMIMT55556.2022.9845284 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Johannesburg. Downloaded on November 21,2022 at 10:24:47 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.