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Portable Zipper Bag Water Purifier!
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Yeon Jin (Daisy) Yang!
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Western Academy of Beijing!
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Beijing, China!
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Table of Contents!

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Abstract!

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Introduction!

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Goal of the Project!

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Experiment!

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Materials!

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Diagram!

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Method!

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Discussions!

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Conclusion!

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References!

Abstract!
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Clean, safe drinking water is scarce; today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing
world don't have access to it. (Global Water Shortage: Water Scarcity) People across the world
has been trying to address the water crises issue, creating numerous amounts of water purifiers
that do create the resulting product, but is inconvenient in many other ways including size,
weight, and storage. This research paper introduces a new invention, a portable zipper bag
water purifier, that could meet the needs of a greater audience due to its portability and
inexpensiveness.It describes the systems included in the makings of the purifier, as well as the
materials and diagrams of the purifier as well. The paper initiates a new approach to help us
gain a closer step in providing potable water to anyone in need, with the increase in qualities
such as portability and inexpensiveness.!

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Introduction!
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Water is the sustaining essential of life; human beings cannot live without water for less
than 3 days at most, as our bodies are 65% full of water (Binns, How Long Can a Person
Survive Without Water?). However, despite the importance, around 1/3 of the whole human
population suffers from the deficiency of clean, and safe drinking water. The water crises
prominent in our planet has brought many of our attentions to the making of potable water; thus,
there exists a number of water purifiers on the market. Nonetheless, they all share a few
qualities together: they are mostly heavy and bulky in size, are non-portable, and inconvenient
to use; these make it hard for both the ones in the water crises as well as the ones who visit to
jeopardized countries to employ to obtain safe drinking water. To address these issues, I have
come up with an idea of a portable zipper bag water purifier, which is not only small and light in
size, but also inexpensive in making as well as for buying (in the future, if possible). This
invention utilizes the revere osmosis system procedure, as well as the multi-layering filter
system along with the use of ultraviolet light to make unsanitary water sanitary.!

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Goal of the Project!
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The ongoing crises regarding the purity of water as well as the price of the water purifiers
propelled me to investigate whether there could be a portable and low-cost water purifier, one
that could also be employed in various situations, either overseas or at home. The purpose of
this invention was to create a water purifier that was portable, small in size, less in weight, while
all the time actually working to filter out unsanitary water. This inexpensive purifier could also
serve as a savior for those in water crises, as it can both store substantial amounts of water to
help them get lifes necessity. Fresh water is needed throughout the planet, and by instigating
this project with the end product in mind, I created a portable water purifier that functioned and
presented no pressure of cost or size upon the user.

Experiment!

In order to carry out the idea, I decided to employ some different types of filtering first to see
which one worked the best. There were the options of distillation, carbon absorption, ion
exchange, cloth filtering, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet radiation, as well as microporous basic
filtration (Different Water Filteration Methods Explained). However, upon research, I decided to
employ the combination of the processes of reverse osmosis and ultraviolet radiation. Reverse
osmosis refers to the usage of semipermeable membrane to remove larger particles from water
to make it drinkable; an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pressure, which removes
many types of molecules and ions from solutions such as water. Through this, the solute is
retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and the pure solvent, in this case the purified
water, passes onto the other side. (Reverse Osmosis) The diagram below (Figure 1) shows
the structure of the actual, commercialized reverse osmosis system. Reverse osmosis is
efficacious to the making of potable water as it removes most of the heavy metals and other
deleterious elements, as shown in the image below (Figure 2). It also made sense for me to
implement this design and process for my portable water purifier idea as it can be replicated
without much storage or space. (How Do Reverse Osmosis Filter Systems Work & What Do
They Do?)!

Figure 1. Diagram of a Reverse Osmosis Membrane!

Figure 2. Typical Rejection Characteristics

of R.O Membranes!

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In order to replicate the whole system of the reverse osmosis but in less-expensive terms so
that the water purifier could be accessible to everyone, I decided to incorporate the method of
the multi-layering filter consisting of zeolite, carbon and ceramic balls to take place of the prefilters present in the commercialized systems. The most commonly used pre-filters are the
sediment filters as well as the carbon filters, which help to remove sand, silt, dirt, chlorine and
other supposed negative substances; with this in mind, I resolved to use the multi-layered
filtering system. (How Do Specific Water Purification Methods Work?)!

The next step was to find a container for this process to occur. Thinking of the importability of
most of the containers for common water purifiers, I decided to search for something
inexpensive as well as easily portable. Thus, I came upon the conclusion of making a BPA
(bisphenol A)-free zipper bag water purifier. (Safety and Plastics)!

As I found out that the reverse osmosis method did not remove particles smaller than 0.001
microns, I decided to attach a ultraviolet lamp to the water purifier to help kill even the smallest
of bacterias or other harmful substances. (Ultraviolet (UV) Purification Systems)!
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Acrylic container
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Membrane
Zipper Bag

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Materials!

- Zipper Bag (850 ml)!

- Valve!
- Reverse Flowing
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Preventing Valve!
Membrane!
Stainless mesh!
Ultraviolet Lamp!
Plastic hose!
Zeolite!
Ceramic balls!
Carbon filter!
Acrylic pieces!

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Diagram!
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Stainless
steel mesh

Valve

Carbon
Filter

Method!
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Cut a hole in the zipper bag for the valve to attach.!

Attach the valve to the bottom of the zipper bag, away from the actual zip.!
Connect the plastic hose with the valve.!
Make the filter container for the by putting together the acrylic pieces together.!
Organize the zeolite (shown by rock-like substances), ceramic balls (white balls) and the
carbon filter (black felt strips), putting the membrane (gray strips) in between each layer.!
6. Attach the stainless steel mesh on top and on the bottom of the openings of the acrylic
container.!
7. Connect the reverse flowing preventing valve to the bottom of the filter container.!
8. Place the filter container in the zipper bag and adjust so that it is below the halfway point of
the zipper bag.!
9. Attach the ultraviolet lamp below the zipper bag, the light facing the bottom of the acrylic
filter container.!
10. Set it upright.!

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Step 1:!!

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Step 7:!!

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Steps 5,6:!

Step 8:!

Step 9:!!

Step 10:

Discussions!

Although I have not been able to test this model due to it being in its earliest stage of
development (only a model so far) as well as being a prototype, due to the existent data and
success of the filtration methods mentioned above, I am positive that this prototype will work in
terms of purifying water. All the better, its small size and decreased weight will also help others
who are traveling to other countries with poor water quality to be assured that they will be
provided with the safe drinking water that might be well needed. If to be commercialized and put
to practical use, it would need permission and an agreement contract from a safety
administration such as the FDA (Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America).!

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Conclusion!
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The portable zipper bag water purifier is still a prototype; however, it is a reliable model that
could be used in the future as a easy-to-use, lightweight, and portable purifier. With the
technology dependent on reverse osmosis, the multi-layering sediment filtering as well as the
ultraviolet lamp, the unsanitary water will be purified by the end of the treatment, taking care of
the heavy metals, bacteria, disinfectants and other harmful solutes. In addition, a BPA and
Dioxin-free zipper bag will not cause any harmful effects to the water either as BPA and Dioxin
can affect the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children (Zeratsky). It
still has a long way to go towards commercialization, however, the model could be redesigned
to match with the publics interest; and through this idea and invention, I hope that the water
crises that is prevalent throughout the world especially in third-world countries have a chance of
being debilitated in effect as well as save thousands of lives.

References!

Binns, Corey. "How Long Can a Person Survive Without Water?" LiveScience. TechMedia !
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Network, 30 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.!

"Different Water Filtration Methods Explained." Different Water Filtration Methods. N.p., n.d. !
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Web. 11 Feb. 2015.!

"Global Water Shortage: Water Scarcity & The Importance of Water." The Water Project. N.p., !
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n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.!

"How Do Reverse Osmosis Filter Systems Work & What Do They Do?" How Reverse Osmosis !
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Water Filter Systems Work and What They Do. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.!

"How Do Specific Water Purification Methods Work?" Water Purification Steps FAQ. N.p., n.d. !
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Web. 20 Feb. 2015.!

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"Reverse Osmosis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.!
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"Safety & Plastics." Safety and Plastics. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.!
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"Ultraviolet (UV) Purification Systems." Ultraviolet Light Water Purification Systems and ! !
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Replacement Parts. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.!

Zeratsky, Katherine. "Nutrition and Healthy Eating." What Is BPA? N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.