Housed within the Collaboratory's Water Group, the Hollow Fiber Membrane Project (or HFM) is a project aimed at meeting water purification needs within the developing world.
Figure 1: The most recent Hollow Fiber Membrane Filtration System (HFM 2.1) mounted on a wooden board on a wall.
This project explores the use of hollow fiber membranes (which are essentially hollow tubes perforated with tiny holes) as a means of water purification. HFM filters do not require electricity to run, and existing water purification systems using HFM filters work well in serving smaller establishments.
Research shows that hollow fiber membranes are effective at disinfecting water, eliminating all impurities larger than .5 micron (which includes most pathogens). The latest setup (HFM 2.1) uses multiple Sawyer bucket filters attached in parallel, a sediment filter and an activated carbon filter. The system is set up such that each filter can be individually backwashed to remove impurities from the HFM filters. As a result, this system has a lifespan of at least 10 years if the HFM filters are backwashed as needed.
The HFM project is one of two projects that our site team is focusing on this summer in Nicaragua. The primary task to be accomplished for this project is to survey a church/school in Leon to determine the suitability of the HFM filtration system. The student working on this task, Toby Mea, will also take water samples to see if additional ultrafiltration of minerals is necessary.
Our site team is very excited to be partnering with Forward Edge in this endeavor, and we look forward to how our partnership will grow as we work together, serving communities in need.
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