h2woo - water well cleaning kit

7/27/2019 H2WOO - Water Well Cleaning Kit

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Pro-Youth Association

H2WOO - Water Well CleaningKitAnca Pricop


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Context

The problem addressed by this project is thatwhile Romania is a member of EU, only 16%of its rural drinking water sources are safe touse.

Also Romania rural economy was affected in2011 by E. coli infection of cucumbers, withan estimated local impact of 9 mil. euro forJune 2011 alone.


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Context Commercial water filtering devices are

expensive or very difficult to use. The offer isquite large but all present several drawbacks: Cheaper solutions process relatively small volumes

rural areas require large volumes for foodproduction;

Processing large volumes is expensive ruralareas are usually poorer and government

investments are limited; Some cleaning methods use chemical or

biological products with considerableenvironmental impact.


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Idea

We propose a filtration device based on

microbial fuel cells and slow sand, easy to

install and maintain, low cost, to improve

water quality through filtration andinactivation of both biological and chemical

agents in a non-polluting, non-toxic,

autonomous way.The kit will include an instruction manual and

several kit versions depending on the

locally available materials.


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Idea

Small amount investments in bio-compatiblefiltration and monitoring devices, such asmicrobial fuel cells, could have helped save

at least 550 mil. euro in agriculturaldamages, more than 20 mil. euro fortreatments and prevented at least 19confirmed deaths.


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How it works ?

The proposed solution is a kit for filtering andmonitoring water from water wells, having twocomponents:

1. A comprehensive instruction manual onhow to build the filter and/or monitoringdevice. The manual will include detailedinstructions on how to choose materials and

items, on how to find equivalent parts, on howusing different types of filtering agents impactthe impurities, on the factors that influence thesafety of water etc.


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How it works ?

2. A variable set of items required to

complete the filtering/monitoring device. The

kit should be flexible enough in providing onlythe items not available locally, in order to

minimize the overall costs. At its minimum, the

kit includes a contaminant detection kit based

on microbial fuel cells.


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How it works ?

A microbial fuel cells is a device thatconverts chemical energy to electricalenergy by the reaction of

microorganisms.

Bacteria needs energy to survive, in thesame way that humans needs food to live.

However, this extensive treatment isjustified by the electricity produced whilecleaning the wastewater.


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Key benefits

There is a variety of products on the

market for water filtration. Through our

solution we will have the followingadvantages:

1. The product is cheap and uses locally

available materials;2. It's easy to make and it comes with a

comprehensive guide;


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Key benefits

3. Allows chemical and biological

decontamination; all chemical

decontamination devices are expensive;

the needed components for chemicalcleaning are already in water, we're just

providing the right environment;

4. It is self-powering and is monitoring atthe same time water quality;


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Key benefits

5. It is organic - in balance with the entire

environment.

6.Through the performance of microbial fuel

cells we can produce electricity directly

from wastewater.


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Key benefits

But power energy is just the secondarybenefit. First of all we want to clean the

wastewater. MFCs clean wastewater in

an energy efficient way. That is wherethe real benefit is.


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Final thoughts

As a prospective we can apply this idea inall the developing countries throughreligious missions, locally non-

governmental and governmentalorganization directly involved with thepotential customers. They will help usmake some campaigns for informing the

people about this device and teachingthem how to use it.


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Partners

Our partners are: the University of

Bucharest 3Nano-SAE Research Center -

providing scientific support and the Gorj

Local County Council County, DeltaCultural Foundation, C4C Association -

from which we will use their infrastructure

to extend our reach.

h2woo - water well cleaning kit

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