Polypipe Terrain sponsors SoPHE Young Engineers Award 2018

Polypipe Terrain are proud sponsors of the Society of Public Health Engineers (SoPHE) Young Engineers Award for the 10th year in a row. The award is presented to the winners annually, in November, at the Society of Public Health Engineer’s dinner in London.  The aim of the award is to provide a focus on the next generation of engineers within the field of public health engineering.

Based on generating ideas to meet problems in water challenged areas around the world, the award focuses on bringing teams of young engineers together to come up with a solution to a particular challenge. This year's challenge is around finding a solution to a water filtration issue. 

For the past few years, Caminos de Agua has been working to develop a media-based filtration system to remove arsenic and fluoride from groundwater. To do so, they have developed low-cost technical filtration media made of cow bone char for fluoride removal and is now working to develop a similar media for arsenic. Both media are granular and are sieved to a standard 8 x 30 mesh.

The Problem

When bought new, the filtration system components are quite expensive. To keep costs low, they plan to design a gravity driven system and, based on the different filtration media’s properties, each will have a different sized container. The media will have to be changed every 3 to 6 months and therefore the cartridges will need to be opened quite regularly.

The Challenge

Design a refillable cartridge that is openable with commonly available, reasonably priced tools. These containers need to be refillable, air and water-tight, and cannot allow the media to exit with the water. They also need to connect, in-line, with commonly available parts, to other filter cartridges.

How to enter

Form a team of up to 3 people aged 18-35. Demonstrate your idea with a two to five minute video or a poster. For full details on how to enter click here