Sana Hashim
Portfolio of Research done in Partnership with SAFE Water Now, Inc.
The Problem
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Our Solution
Our Experiments
Our Impact
During the process of creating hand made water filters, SWaN dries their ceramic filters outside where weather conditions like rain or humidity can slow down the drying.
We wanted to find a practical and sustainable way to dry the pots faster with lower variability so SWaN can estimate the number of filters they can make in a given period of time.
From the data collected, we found that the most effective absorbent was Sea Salt. Sea Salt is a great absorbent that easily removes moisture from the air surrounding the filters. In Tanzania, Sea salt is fairly inexpensive and accommodates the needs of SWaN. We recommend that SWaN buys sea salt locally or gathers it from the nearest body of salt water. After salt is used as an absorbent, it is possible to reuse the salt by adding more water and boiling it again. This gives SWAN a faster, sustainable drying process for the least amount of money and labor.
We simulated SWaN's process by creating our own small scale ceramic pots. To try and dry the pots faster, we chose to experiment with absorbents - substances that absorb water - because they can be easily positioned around the clay filters to aid in the drying process.
We tested the following absorbents:
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Sand
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Sawdust
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Charcoal
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Sea Salt
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Coffee Grounds
We measured the effectiveness of these absorbents by taking daily weight measurements to estimate the drying rate.
Our experiment with sea salt showed a 15% reduction in drying rate of the ceramic pots. This means that if SWaN implements our should be able to create 15% more pots than before in the same time period. This can mean more access for families who need safe drinking water. Here's an example that shows the impact of our solution. For every 20 filters created now, our solution can lead to 23 filters being created in the same time. This leads to 3 additional families gaining access for every one of these time periods!
Before:
With our solution:
Filters created
Families with access
