Water Purification Specialists has been working with the University of Colorado in Boulder to develop a sophisticated water bottle fill station that will allow students to refill bottles with purified water for free.  It's the first of it's kind and took considerable engineering and design work but the result has been a success.

The completed system consists of several components all working together.  To purify the water and deliver to students the water follows these stages: 1 Micron Sediment Filter, KDF / Granular Activated Carbon Filter, Solid Carbon Block Filter, Reverse Osmosis Membrane, pH Adjustment, Pure Water Storage, Solid Carbon Block Filter, Ultra- Violet Sterilization, Water Chiller, Dispenser. 

The system was designed to provide the best possible drinking water to about 500 students every day while being mostly maintenance-free and easy to operate.

The first sediment filter catches the large and fine particles and keeps them out of the other filters to extend their life.

The KDF / Carbon filter neutralizes and absorbs the chlorine in the water.  KDF is a special copper-zinc media that neutralized chlorine. It is used because it has a extremely long life and greatly extends the life of the other filters. http://www.kdfft.com/

The solid Carbon block filter is a 1 micron fine carbon matrix made from coconut shell.  It will remove any residual chlorine, bad tastes, and other volatile chemicals that could be in the water.

The Reverse Osmosis Membrane is a low energy high efficiency membrane that removes, salts, fluoride, heavy metals, and minerals from the water.

The pH adjustment addes just the right amount of good minerals back into the water to enhance the flavor and give a neutral pH.

The purified water is stored in a small tank that is equipped with several float switches which signals the system to turn on and off as needed. 

After the storage the water is pumped through a final 1 micron solid carbon block filter to insure the best taste and a UV light to sterilize the water before entering the chiller and being dispensed.

We wanted to use and many "green" technologies as possible in this design so we chose carbon filters manufactured by Eco-Carb which makes one of the highest quality filter but is also the only company to manufacture activated carbon in an environmentally friendly way.  It is largely unknown but when activated carbon is made from coconut shells, the shells are burned in large pits emitting large quantities of toxins into the atmosphere.  Eco-Carb has a patented technology for capturing these gases and reusing them so this does not happen.  www.Eco-Carb.com

To achieve some of the desired features a special programmable controller was used to control the functions of the system.  One desired feature was for the system to not be too noisy.  Normal Reverse Osmosis systems of this size use a 1 HP motor with a high-pressure pump which are extremely noisy.  With the help of engineers at RO-Ultratec we were able to match their membrane with two special Aquatec booster pumps which are both very quiet and energy efficient.  For this to work the controller was programed to cause the membrane to do a small flush of the system every 30 minutes thus allowing for smaller pumps to be used.

The next set of features needed were the student interface. One concern was abuse, so the system is programmed so that there is a short delay when the fill button is pressed before water comes on.  Once on it dispensed 16oz of water and then stops.  These features will help eliminated the system being activated by someone simply walking by and pushing the button.

Lastly, as this system represents a huge reduction is plastic water bottles being discarded to the landfill or recycling plant, we wanted to show everyone the difference that is being made.  We installed a large 6 digit LED display that shows how many bottles have been saved by students refilling.  For every 16oz of water that is dispensed, the counter goes up one, but there is a 20 second delay to prevent students from pushing the button just to watch the counter go up.  To achieve all these custom operations software was written specially for this project to control the system.  With the software and the PLC (programable logic controller) the system can be adjusted and fine-tuned directly through the control panel. 

Overall the system is a big design success, now we just need to sit back and see how many bottles it saves.  

P.S. We'll update the photos once all the signs and trim are completed around the dispenser.