working title; "Bruce Pipe" Derek Hansen, Tim Grosvold
With a Global Geography project that I had researched on poor water quality and its associated health problems and as a continuation of our LED project, presented was a concept to show the affordable use of UV-C LED lighting to sterilize drinking water of potentially deadly micro-organisms and pathogens. All visible light (all the colours of the rainbow) exists in the 400nm to 700nm range, with 400nm being violet and 700nm is a deep red. Beyond the visible spectrum is Ultraviolet below 400nm and above 700nm is Infrared. The lower ultraviolet is then broken down into three main groups, UV-A 400-315nm used in "black lights" and tanning, UV-B 315-280nm beneficial for Vitamin D production, used in tanning, curing photosensitive items, and UV-C 280-100nm is short wave light, also known as germicidal UV. This is a range approaching pure light energy, x- rays, an area of light that is capable of causing cancer, but also capable of destroying the DNA of micro-organisms, pathogens and viruses making them incapable of reproducing. Peak effectiveness is at 260nm, an exposure of 2000-8000 microwatt seconds per square centimeter for a claimed %99.99 effectiveness to destroy micro-organisms, molds, bacteria, viruses and water based pathogens, rendering them harmless and incapable growth and reproduction. Proposed was a shielded PVC pipe that encases a series of UV-C LED's up a length of tube, designed to expose passing water to an exposure time of at least two seconds and at an intensity bright enough to be effective. Designed to be placed at a point of entry of water, must be run in combination of a micron water filter. The effectiveness of sterilization is dependent on the light reaching the pathogen, and any debris in water would block those rays. Because of the shortened expected life of these LEDs the pipe would be designed to be easily replaced in current household plumbing, needing a new bulb every couple of years. As with the rest of our LED designs that run on low volt, giving it the capability to run off solar cells and a battery back up, gives us the ability to run this water treatment process remotely without conventional power access. This also gives cost effective water treatment accessible anywhere it's needed, be it attached to household plumbing, remotely at a cottage or camp, could also be used in a humanitarian aid, in conjunction water purification centers that are often needed after major natural disasters. With traditional mold injection manufacturing technology, we believe manufacturing cost could be as low as a few dollars a foot to produce, and offers very healthy potential profits, with an expected product turn over ever two years. So in this and other ways the shared LED project has evolved into other interesting projects, other test builds, and request to build things from tanning bulbs, to Salt water aquarium lighting specially designed for growing coral.