According to the World Health Organisation, more than 1.5 billion people around the world are adversely affected by unclean water, with one child dying every 90 seconds as a result. With these harrowing numbers, the issue of developing filtering and sanitation systems for clean drinking water has become a key concern for governments and humanitarian organisations around the world.

Three students at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have developed an innovative water filtering system that has the potential to save countless lives around the world.They came up with the idea of developing their water filter after visiting the village of Rema in Ethiopia and witnessing first-hand how people would resort to drinking water that was not safe for consumption.

With the research findings of MIT, the team of NYUAD students did what engineers do best, they came up with a design plan to incorporate the xylem into an actual water filter system. Plants have two different types of transport tissue — xylem that transports water and solutes from the roots to the leaves of xylem and phloem that transports nutrients to different parts of the plant.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released a research paper that said you can you use the material from the branch of a tree — you cut off the branch, peel off the bulk of it and what you are left with is the xylem. These vessels are also connected to one another through nano-pores, basically very small holes. The holes are so small that bacteria cannot pass through them, so only pure water gets filtered out. So their task as engineers was to come up with a design to use one in which they could actually put the xylem to use, and one that would be very easy and simple to use by anyone.

In Ethiopia, they saw that the villagers were using jerrycans to transport fuel, so they decided to use that instead of creating a completely new holding tank or bottle. They came up with a two-piece design. One is a piece that is permanently attached to the jerrycan, and the other piece carries the xylem. There also faced a lot of challenges to get this right, the complications allowed them to innovate-like getting the correct size to attach, and making sure the water did not leak. In the end, they got it right and used 3D printing for the attached materials.

The expensive components could have solved all their problems but they stuck within the cost constraints they set for themselves. With the water filter now designed and complete, the team is currently getting it patented, and hopes to have it out sometime next year after further tests. This product uses a natural resource and can be used on a practical scale. A lot of resources are devoted to getting filtration systems in rural and isolated places and this costs a lot of money, but with this water filter,they can use the material from a tree and reduce costs.

source-www.gulfnews.com