Ghana - Solar Water Purifier

The project I've been working on with 5 other students was a solar water purifier. Clean water is a huge problem in Ghana. Many people get water out of rivers that are polluted really bad. Apparently the law in Ghana that regulates dumping waste into waterways states that as long as you dump a lower concentration of waste than what is already in the water that is ok. So as long as you dump less that the person above you or dilute the waste, you are fine. Not a very good strategy if you ask me.

After about 5 versions of our project over 8 months, we designed a solar collector that can purify a fixed volume of water. The idea behind this method of purification is that if water is heated to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, the water will be sterilized and free of bacteria. On a sunny day our project can sterilize 0.5 liter of water in about 20 minutes.


Basically it is a fiberglass dish lined with mylar (a very reflective material) that focuses the suns rays to a single point, the focal point, much like a satellite dish. A bottle of water is them suspended by a stand at the focal point where it is heated by the focused suns rays. In the picture above I'm trying to locate the focal point by feeling where the air is the hottest (trust me, it gets VERY hot at the focal point) and adjusting the bottle to that point. Another more artistic picture of me doing tests on our project.

It was interesting, when we were making the dish at the shop, many of the guys that work there had never seen fiberglass before. They were fascinated by these 3 girls that were making a fiberglass dish. It was pretty fun to see.

Our project is going to be used in a town called Tarkwa. There is a big gold mine there that does a lot of civil service projects for the surrounding village. They built a very nice school for the children there and want to use our project to provide clean water for the children. Our project was very well received. We took 2 units that we made and they want to make about 20 more! The good thing about implementing the project there is that our project was given to an engineer who is in charge of the civil service projects. He understands how it works and has the skills and resources to maintain and reproduce our project which helps make it sustainable.

At the end of the year we were really close to getting a constant flow purification system working. This would actually be a better system because no one has to change the water every 30 minutes, it would be able run on it's own all day. There's going to be another BYU group continuing our project next year, so hopefully they'll be able to get that up and running! Here's a picture of the portion of our team that went to Ghana: Jennifer, Wendy and I.

Ghana!

I've finally gotten around to blogging about my trip to Ghana now that I'm back from Washington and have all our pictures! I went to Ghana after graduation with an Engineers Without Borders group from BYU. I've been in a class for EWB where we've worked on humanitarian engineering projects for people in Ghana and Peru. The projects we took to Ghana were a windmill, a solar water purification unit (my project), and a biofilter toilet a group has been working on with an engineer there. I have a lot of cool pictures and stories from the trip, so to eliminate a really long post I'm going to put individual posts about different things over the next few days. I hope you all enjoy it!

Graduation

At the end of April I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Business Management. I know this post is late but I've been in Ghana for the last 2 weeks (more about my trip to follow in the next few days). I graduated with honors (Cum Laude) and as a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. It is so weird to be done. Many times during my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years it seemed so long and never ending, I thought it would never end. Even after the graduation ceremony, I really didn't hit me that I had graduated because I still had to go to Ghana for Engineers Without Borders.

Graduation is as much an accomplishment for me as it is for Tim. He's had to put up with my stress, complaining, and frustration for 2.5 years. I couldn't have asked for a better support system, and to his credit I got my best grades after we got married!


My parents were also able to come to see me graduate and I am so thankful for their support as well. When I was growing up my parents always emphasized the importance of an education and encouraged us to do well in school. Without their support and encouragement I probably wouldn't be the studious individual I am today!


My older brother Kevin also graduated with a Bachelor's of Art's degree in Communications with an advertising emphasis. Kevin's mission put him a few years behind in school, which is why we graduated at the same time. It was so special to be able to share the day with him.


During my Senior year I guess I was in denial that I would actually be finishing college soon and leaving my surroundings at BYU that I had become so comfortable with. Chemical Engineering is a small major (about 50 graduates this year), so I've had all of my classes with the same people for the last 2.5 years. We've all become very close during that time and I'm sad to see us all going our separate ways, but am excited to see where life takes us all. There are some incredibly intelligent, talented, funny, and wonderful people, I am pleased to call them my friends. Here's the BYU Chemical Engineering Class of 2009.


Now that I'm graduated and in the real world, I'll be working as a Chemical Engineer for Rio Tinto at one of their Kennecott Utah Copper plants. I start on June 8.

First Post!

In an effort to stay in contact with my friends when we graduate, I have caved an joined the world of blogging. I really enjoy looking at people's blogs, seeing their pictures, and reading all the fun things they are up to, so I hope that some of you enjoy reading about Tim and my lives. Come back and visit soon! Here's a nice picture of Tim and I in Hawaii over Christmas.