Slater-Williams, Alexandria

In a study conducted by the World Health Organization WHO and United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, approximately 768 million people worldwide are not receiving sanitary drinking water suitable for consumption. The greatest levels of water contamination are within the less developed countries where individuals are unable to afford modern water treatment facilities. While there are many water treatment methods, lime softening proves to be one of the more effective approaches as it removes calcium, magnesium, arsenic, barium, beryllium, chromium, cooper, fluoride, lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel, uranium, radium, and radionuclides under the correct conditions. The US Environmental Protection Agency EPA has even defined lime softening as the best available technology BAT for removing uranium and radium. The issue with lime softening is that it is typically used for larger systems that serve whole communities. This project utilizes previous knowledge of lime softening to design a cost-efficient water clarification system with the ability to function on an individual-household basis while being powered by a solar unit. By condensing the system, we hope to make lime softening technology available for a wider spectrum of societies and expend the applications of lime softening.

A study conducted by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund, concluded that approximately 768 million people worldwide are not receiving sanitary drinking water suitable for consumption. While there are many water treatment methods, lime softening proves to be one of the more effective approaches as it removes a wide variety of harmful compounds including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium under the correct conditions. The greatest issues with lime softening on a smaller scale include the complexity of the chemistry and need for monitoring. By designing the system for groundwater sources and with a smaller capacity, this thesis hoped to reduce the level of monitoring, chemical expertise, and cost needed for operation. While promising results occurred in the removal of arsenic and total hardness, this project was unable to obtain consistent results and final water samples with pH values between the recommended standard of 6.5 to 8.