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Rahr Water Reclamation Spectrum Water

Initiating

Group Members and Roles

Nate: Leader, Max: Organize/3D printing, Carson: Fabrication/Presentation, Zach: Documentation/Presentation, Gabe: Correspondence/Fabrication/Presentation, Collins: CAD/3D printing, Owen: Organization, Alex: Fabrication

Team Norms

  1. Everyone will show up to class/meetings on time
  2. Everyone will show thorough communication
  3. Everyone will put in equal effort

Client Background and Purpose

Rahr has been malting grains since 1847 to produce malt for beverages. In our day they produce most if not all of their product for Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. During this process they use up to 2 million gallons of water every day causing large amounts of waste. The purpose of this project is to create a water reclamation system that Rahr could use to reuse the water after the malting process.

Draft Objectives

  1. Creating a reusable system
  2. Proper use of chemicals

Key Results

  1. Irrigable Water
  2. A multistep filtration process
  3. Testable prototype

Planning

Create Agenda

Our team calendar

1st Meeting With Rahr 11/11/21

  • Confirmed our objectives lined up with Mr. Menden's
  • Confirmed our key results lined up with Mr. Menden's
  • Fed us some ideas on where to go

Current System SWOT

  • Strengths: Budget, Proximity to water, Already established
  • Weaknesses: Geographical location (temp), Gravity (pumping)
  • Opportunities: Microorganisms (Bugs), Chemical Process
  • Threats: Pollution, Costly

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Spectrum Water Gantt Chart

Executing/Going Through Design Process

Define The Problem

Our problem is to design a water reclamation system that Rahr can use to reuse water for irrigation in the area.

Brainstorm

  • Centrifuge
  • Activated charcoal, sand, gravel filter system
  • Distillation
  • Under gravel filtration
Distillation Sketch (Top Left), Underwater Gravel Filtration (Top Right), Centrifuge (Bottom)

Research

  • Water Standards: 10mg/L of nitrogen in the water at most, 0.5ppm of hydrogen sulfide makes the water smell, Phosphorus levels need to be below 0.1mg/L
  • Filtration Chemicals: Zinc, bleach, ferric chloride, citric acid
  • Possible Filters: Nano-ceramic filter, aqua quartz sand, water softener gravel

Criteria and Constraints

  • Criteria: take out all toxins (irrigable), filter out solids, least amount of waste as possible
  • Constraints: Cost, material supply, shipping, time

Explore Possibilities

Decision Matrix

Select an Approach

Final Decision: Centrifuge

Develop a Design Proposal

  1. Centrifugal force plays big role
  2. Takes 10 minutes to fully filter out
  3. Can be multi stage process if needed
  4. Same chemical process as Rahr

Model or Prototype

Used coffee filters at first
  • Filtered out small amounts of solids
  • Not very effective
Next was cheesecloth
  • Trapped most solids
  • Much more effective than a coffee filter

Evaluation

Where We Fell Short

  • Shipping errors (original filter, salad spinner size)
  • Late ordering
  • Correspondence

Where We Succeeded

  • Planning stage
  • Improvising with what we had

What We Wanted

Full System
One Centrifuge

Conclusion

Final SWOT Review

  • Strengths: Efficient, cost-effective
  • Weaknesses: Size of the spinner, budget
  • Opportunities: Vex parts, 3D printing, programming
  • Threats: Water Wranglers, the testing process

Closing

  • No final product
  • Final idea
  • Great learning opportunity
Appreciate
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