Date of Award

6-13-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2019

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Gaetano Restivo

Second Advisor

Walter Yuen

Abstract

The lack of access to clean drinking water remains one of the largest issues still facing humanity. The Pedal 4 Purification is a product that addresses this need by utilizing pre-existing bicycle infrastructure and local freshwater sources to allow people to purify their own drinking water on a daily basis. Attachable to any standard bicycle, the Pedal 4 Purification product consists of pump, purification, cart and adjustable kickstand subsystems that allow the operator to pump, purify and transport 40L of potable water. Pedaling at the reasonable rate of 60 rpm will provide the optimal flow rate of 1.54L/min through the filter. At this rate, it would take the operator 26 minutes to provide enough drinking water to satiate 20 people for the day. As a result of the drastic reduction in the time and effort it takes for individuals to obtain drinking water, target communities will have more free time allowing them to focus on other pressing issues. Use of the Pedal 4 Purification product results in a 266% increase in user time savings as well as 54 times the amount of water collected per minute of user exertion compared to traditional methods. The Pedal 4 Purification team travelled to San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala to manufacture the entire device at Maya Pedal, an NGO that creates ‘bicimaquinas’ to help provide its local community members with basic human resource infrastructure. After the manufacturing process was complete, the team and Maya Pedal workers drove to the highland community of Patzun to implement the design and instruct the local people about how to use it. User feedback was noted after the successful implementation in the developing community of Patzun.

Download

Share

COinS