Michelle Cheng, August Longo, Briana Vidal
Abstract
The Fluoride subteam seeks to develop and sustainable, inexpensive fluoride removal system for implementation in upcoming AguaClara plants located in India. After earning an EPA Phase II grant for last semester’s fluoride removal reactor, the current subteam hopes to develop a better method of fluoride purification by partnering with the CSFBR subteam and researching the effectiveness of reactors in series versus a single reactor system. At the beginning of the semester, the subteam identified potential issues with floc buildup at the bottom of the apparatus. Thus, a smoothly sloping bottom insert was incorporated into the single system reactor for all comparison experiments. The subteam then analyzed the effectiveness of fluoride removal in a significantly shorter reactor. It was determined that although a shorter reactor would reduce fabrication cost, the lack of sufficient space for floc blanket formation yielded impotable water. After performing a series of side-by-side experiments, some data has been collected to compare functionality between the single reactor system and the CSFBR subteam’s reactor in series, the results are not yet conclusive. In future semesters, more comparable data needs to be collected to draw concrete final conclusion as to which system is more effective.
