If you need clean water, find a few old chip packets. That’s what four Adelaide uni students did last year, and it won them an environmental award. More importantly, it could save lives.
As an engineering project at the University of Adelaide, Michael Watchman, Harrison Evans, Mark Padovan and Anthony Liew set out to design an affordable water treatment system for use in remote areas.
“We wanted something where we could provide design guidelines and let the local communities build and install their own systems using readily available materials that could be easily maintained and replaced,” said supervisor Dr Cristian Birzer.
The system uses UVA radiation direct from the sun to kill pathogens in the water in a continuous feed facility. The students first built one using high-quality materials then downsized to a more rudimentary model using plywood, glass tube and high-density polyethylene plastic sheeting coated with metalised plastic.
They trialled various reflectants and found the inside of foil chip packets was as good as anything. The total system cost $67, and can treat close to 40 litres in four hours.