Project

Contaminated water poses a threat to health in a lot of countries. A group of people from the local chapter Darmstadt of Ingenieure ohne Grenzen e.V. (Engineers without borders Germany) has developed a system, that can decontaminate water.

According to the world health organization, an approximate 800 million people all over the world have no access to clean water. This project aims to develop a system, that can treat water for a household using only solar energy.

Within the project a solar water disinfection system was designed, modelled and laid out. It can be built with locally available materials and is easy to operate. A publication on the technology of the system and the background of the development process can be found here. So far, test plants have been built in Darmstadt and Tanzania and their long-term functionality is now being tested.

In the current project phase it is ensured that the device will function in the long term. For this purpose, a test device in Darmstadt is being characterized more precisely. The needed measurement technology was developed in cooperation with the TU in spring and summer 2020. In spring 2021, a second test device will be built next to the existing one in Darmstadt. The test devices in Darmstadt will support the acquisition and evaluation of long-term data. In addition, they will serve to further develop the technical aspects of the facility and support communication with project partners in Tanzania. In this way, technical improvements can be tested directly and quantified in terms of their efficiency.

We tried to give an overview of the system, as well as giving more detailed information on technical and biological aspects. If you’ve still got questions, please check our FAQs.