Water

To begin at the begining, we had to know the volume of water we will daily use in our new faculty building ?

First, we would like to have some figures on the amount of water we must gather, purify, deliver in the whole building and that is why we want to begin with a short evaluation of the quantity of water which is daily used. A paper written by Ron George (president of Plumb-Tech Design and Consulting Services LLC in Monroe, MI) “Estimating Cold Water Demand for Buildings” helped us to evaluate the volume of water consumed in the building per day.

Given this new information, we calculate that a building designed for 1 000 students and members of staff will daily need about 130 000 liters of water per day, including 15 000 liters of purified drinkable water for the kitchens. This figure was calculated taking into account an ordinary water consumption of 95 liters per day for non-resident student and the extra need of labs, kitchens, gardeners…

For more information Here

If we could copy nature's design and collect the evaporating water, we could have pure water from marshy or even contaminated soils.

As you can see, the first model of solar water plant of Stephen Salter consists of four parts: the fibre drain the water from soil as the root,the tubes transport as the tree trunk,distiller vaporize the water and release the water as the leaf ,and the container outside the distiller collect the steam and gathering them into the water tanks below. That is quite a way to mimicry what a tree is doing transpiration. However, in this approach we would need a solar-powered pump and a distiller.
The second model is much more useful as a pre-model of our design because of the big area of the condensing water container and the advantages of better solar energy sourcing situation. We can now consider to make an semi-sphere solar water plant which may be the main structure of our final building. Details need to be discussed.

Which primary function do we need?

About the topic of water, which primary function, do we need in our bulding?
We have collected 4 most significant function:
1. Gathering water: the first our goal is to drain rain water in order to reuse it.
2. Treat water: for drinking or for using water you have to purify it
3. Deliver: we have to create a system of conduits to deliver water in each part of the building
4. Cooling/heating: to regulate the temperature we need a system that furnish us both cold and hot water for the well-being of the people

All of these function can be summarized into a concept of self-sufficient building. In this case the building fluctuates up the ocean, but here in Delft we don’t have ocean for collecting water, thus we want to use rain and underground water like trees do.

To begin at the begining, we need to know how much water we need to collect to match the daily demand of the buiding...

First, we would like to have some figures on the amount of water we must gather, purify, deliver in the whole building and that is why we want to begin with a short evaluation of the quantity of water which is daily used. A paper written by Ron George (president of Plumb-Tech Design and Consulting Services LLC in Monroe, MI) “Estimating Cold Water Demand for Buildings” helped us to evaluate the volume of water consumed in the building per day.

Given this new information, we calculate that a building designed for 1 000 students and members of staff will daily need about 130 000 liters of water per day, including 15 000 liters of purified drinkable water for the kitchens. This figure was calculated taking into account an ordinary water consumption of 95 liters per day for non-resident student and the extra need of labs, kitchens, gardeners…

130 000 liters is considerable and even too much… We had a precise look on the distribution of the consumption and we also consider the fact that the figures of Mr George were supposed to represent the consumption of American students (who are not the most ecologically responsible). That is why, we also came up with another optimistic scenario in which we educate people and try to make savings. In that case, we think it is possible to use 100 000 liters of water per day.

The water needed for the entire building could hardly be provided by rainwater only, also if rain doesn't fall or drought continues for a long time, we will have a problem. Here is an idea to overcome this issue.

Potable water is used for preparing food or beverages for human consumption, for washing dishes and utensils that are used to prepare or consume food or beverages, for bathing, or for any other purpose that might result in the ingestion of water or its contact with the skin.
Non-potable water is not appropriate for human consumption, it can be used in a myriad of other applications, such as doing laundry, toilet and urinal flushing and cooling tower make up water.
From these concepts is possible to see how convenient would it be to have a separate systems inside the building for potable and non-potable purposes. Our propose is to collect water from the rain and humidity in air and give it a proper treatment to make it drinkable, at the same time we will use the waste water from the building after a proper treatment for non-potable means, having a separate distribution system for potable and non-potable water inside the building. This way the water that we would need to collect from the rain will be considerable reduced and the process treatment will be easier in both cases.

To get the water heater you can use several possible technologies, especially in the respect for the environment.
The decision to use the solar thermal energy was made taking into consideration the fact of being able to integrate this technology with others to meet the needs of the whole building.

transcript from Tuesday 15/3/11 at InterfaceFLOR

Life’s principles

Envolve to survive:
• Replicate strategies that work (parus major)
• Reshuffle information (elephant)
• Integrate the unexpected (motts)

Be resource:
• Recycle all materials (duck)
• Fit form to function (fish)
• Use multifunctionsl design
• Use low-energy processes

Integrate Development with grow:
• Combine modular and nested components
• Build from the bottom up
• Self organize

Adapt to changing conditions:
• Embody resilience through variation, redundancy & decentralisation
• Incropo0rate diversity
• Use feddback loops
• Maintain integrity through self renewal

Be locally Attuned and Responsive:
• Use readily available energy and resources
• Cultivate cooperative relationships
• Leverage cyclic processes

Use life-friendly chemistry (spider):
• Do chemistry in water
• Build selectively with a small subset of elements
• Break down products into benign constituents

Other keywords in this context
• Gravity, sunlight, water (organism): ethos, connect, emulate
• Cyclic processes
• Dynamic, non-equilibrium

The design process is a cyclic process with bilogy in it's center
Creating <> Scoping <> Evaluating --> biology

On Wednesday 20, our group made his first presentation about the main functions our water system should have. I personnaly was in charge of the function of collecting water.

Our system must have different main functions, but the first one, which is at the basis, is simply collect water. Indeed, how could students wash their hands, have a lunch or lead some experimentation in a faculty building without water?

A very rough calculus we made, based on the daily consumption of water per Capita in Holland gave us a first idea of the volume of water the structure will need per day. Then, we listed the different sources we can use. Obviously, we could plug our new faculty to an external water delivery system and do exactly the same as animals do: drink water from the sink.

Or, we could try to be cleverer and do as plants do. Looking in the sky and in the soil for the water we need. That is what we proposed: on the one hand, we could collect rainwater with a specific design for the roof and on the other hand, we could drain humidity from the ground with some kind of roots that will also ensure the stability of the structure.

Now, it remains unclear whether these sources of water will be enough to allow the building to be self-sufficient: these are just starting points for further investigations. Above all, we should notice that the gathered water still had to be purified and delivered in the structure

The most common wastewater treatment used by engineers is a water-based process. However, in nature the most efficient treatment does not happen in water, but in moist soil ecosystems on rainforest floors and on river banks. This is where organisms convert waste into cleansing humus. The humus then helps cleanse the wastewater.

The humus is like a rich organic top soil. Worms and beetles continually burrow through it and keep it open, free draining and aerobic. They maintain it in a sponge-like structure, with many kilometers of oxygenated tunnels. It is this large surface area that aerates and cleanses the wastewater as it trickles through.
By mimicking this natural process a wastewater treatment with several advantages can be design: First of all there will be no potentially smelly anaerobic septic stage, since the humus will absorb the odors. The system will have natural aeration, since it will contains oxygen-rich humus, creating the ideal environment for the Biolytic Process, worms and other biolytic organisms can draw oxygen directly from the 21% available in the air, so no mechanical aerator is needed lowering down significantly the consumption of energy.
All of these characteristics make this technology the best suited option for our wastewater treatment with an output that will be recycled into the building for non-potable purpose. This technology is also in agreement with the Life principle “Be resource efficient”.

Membrane filtration technology is emerging as the technology of choice for safe drinking water. This technology allows removing pathogens, including Cryptosporidium and Giardia cysts and oocysts, which can contaminate drinking water. Traditional membrane technologies, such as Reverse Osmosis and Nanofilters sort water impurities by size requiring high pressures and hence energy to treat water. By looking inspiration in nature we can find Aquaporins, which are selective membrane channel proteins found in the lipid bilayer of living cells that work to transport water across the cell membrane. Aquaporins accomplish this task while excluding any unwanted ions or other polar molecules, making them a perfect model for the formulation of low-energy water filtration systems.

Aquaporins operate at the thermodynamically lowest energy level for water purification. They isolate water molecules based upon electrostatic physical recognition. This means that only water molecules are allowed to pass through the aquaporin channel leading to production of truly pure water. Smaller molecules, for instance nitrates have restricted passage as their electrochemical properties do not “fit”, since the architecture of the aquaporin channel allows water molecules to pass only in single file while electrostatic tuning of the channel interior controls aquaporin selectivity against any charged species.
Currently the Company AquaZ is developing this aquaporin membrane technology for water purification, the process can be gravity-driven, so highly pure water can be obtained with a low-energy water filtration system, which is a big advantage over other membrane technologies or conventional potable water treatment as UV technology.

How does Geothermal unit work?

Abundance source of free renewable energy provides heating, cooling and hot water, thus we have to use it!
Two thirds of a typical building’s energy bill is from heating, cooling and hot water.
The rest is for lighting, appliances and other usage.
The biggest potencial for savings comes from your heating and cooling system.
An ordinary heat pump or air conditioner becomes least efficient when you need it to be the most efficient.
A geothermal unit never sees outdoor temperature fluctuations.
A geothermal unit doesn’t create heat, It simply collects and moves it.
Uses a series of underground pipes called a «loop»; The loop eliminates the need to burn fossil fuels
CLOOSED LOOPS SYSTEM
Circulate a water based solution through a series of pipes in a sealed environment.
We have three different type:
1. A vertical closed loop field is composed of pipes that run vertically in the ground. Pipe pairs in the hole are joined with a U-shaped cross connector at the bottom of the hole
2. A horizontal closed loop field is composed of pipes that run horizontally in the ground. A long horizontal trench, deeper than the frost line, is dug and U-shaped or slinky coils are placed horizontally inside the same trench.
3. A pond loop consists of coils of pipe similar to a slinky loop attached to a frame and located at the bottom of an appropriately sized pond or water source. A closed pond loop is not common because it depends on proximity to a body of water, where an open loop system is usually preferable. A pond loop may be advantageous where poor water quality precludes an open loop, or where the system heat load is small

The main advantages to using solar thermal energy respecting life’s general principles are many.

The main advantages to using solar thermal energy respecting life’s general principles are many.
The fist of these is use of available materials and energy, because it produces hot water from solar energy, without use of no more.
This type of system use a non-toxic chemistry because the fluid contain in he pipes of the collectors are absolutely harmless.
Another benefits it's that integrates development with the growth through self organized system because feed it's self.
Finally solar thermal energy has special feature to produce hot water but also electricity, even in periods of lack of primary energy source thanks to the possibility of accumulation in tanks.

Our attention has been focused on the theme of water inside the building.

Our attention has been focused on the theme of water inside the building.
On the basis of the considerations and issues posed by the entire staff, we asked ourselves the question what are the main functions of our theme.
Answer to this question were:
- To cook
- To drink
- To clean…also the building
- To flush toilet
- To heat/ to cool
As from delivery, we delved into four main aspect, taking as reference the goal to create a self-sufficient building, whit the desire not to exploit the resources outside the bulding but to use the nature with its properties and benefits.

Rainwater is a local resource we should harness to provide potable water in our building. But it is not so easy as it may seem at first sight.

A bio-inspired water system for our building should incorporate some basic life’s principles like focusing on locally available resources and be integrated in its environment. To design it cleverly, we took inspiration in a first strategy that does work in nature: collecting rainwater. As plants do under climate with intense variations of precipitation, our building should harvest rainwater through the specific design of its roof.

We looked for data available on atmospheric precipitations in Holland and found that we could consider an average height of rainfall of 70 mm per month. In fact, the height of precipitation has important variations with the period of the year, for example, it rains only about 50 mm in March but more than 140 mm in September. We must take this into account to adapt to our environment.

With a specific design of the roof that uses the lotus effect to maximize water recovery, we calculated that we should be able to gather about 2 liters of water per day and per square meter of projected area of the roof. Unfortunately, rainwater will not be enough to provide all the water the faculty will daily need: if we tried to do so with a flat circular roof for example, the radius should be 125 m!

Then, we tried to go further and decided to exploit the fact that rainwater is almost pure. Though, turning rainwater into drinking water will need few energy and no chemical products. Our idea was to design a roof that can at least provide enough water to respond to the daily demand on drinking water. We proof this realistic, indeed a flat circular roof of 50 m radius can gather each day the water we need.

Together with the shelter-structure group, we came up to a design that uses bio-inspired technologies already available in the market to address the issue of potable water.

Groundwater is a hidden resource for our system. If we make a smart use of the basements of the builiding, it should allow us to provide water to its users.

When we studied the availability of rainwater in Delft, we had a bad surprise… Even with a clever design strongly inspired by nature and the life’s principle and despite good environmental conditions, we will not be able to collect enough water to meet the demand…

Back to the observation of nature, we took once again the trees as model. Trees are able to tap water from the ground, even in deserts, using transpiration to power the circulations. We investigated in this direction to see if we can tap water from the ground through the basement of the structure. If possible, it will create an interesting win-win situation, because the basement would provide both stability and water to the structure, just like the root of the trees!

Good news with the ground water: it is really easy to tap it in Delft as the piezometric level (which is the depth at which you start finding water) is almost 0 m. It means that every hole you dig in the soil will drain water from the surroundings. Unfortunately, it is hard to make an estimation of the amount of water we could drain with our system.

Yet, we think that this use of the local resources will reduce the dependence of the future faculty of bio-based engineering on external water supply.

After considering all the aspects of water distribution, we decide to use gravity to transport the water all the way downward, to use capillary for small distance upward transport and to use a pumping unit to ensure the water supply and long distance upward transport.

As you can see in the picture, the storage unit and treatment unit are in the middle of the building and lays several floors down the top of the building. In that distance, we can use capillary array unit to supply water to the floors which is in between the top and the storage unit. Another advantage of the position of the storage unit is that we can obtain a water pressure resulting from the height of these several floors. After we collecting the rain water, the pressure is useful in the treatment process which takes place in the treatment unit.
Only with the rain water, it may be not able to offer enough water for the whole building. So we must find other kinds of water resource to make use of. Being aware of the fact underground water is rich in Holland, we decide to set a pumping unit to make use of the underground water. Here is the plan: we pull the water up to the storage unit ,do the treatment of the underground water and at last distribute the water to the floors in between the storage unit and the pumping unit by the principle of gravity.
There would be some problems in the capillary distribution system such as the efficiency of this system, the time consumption of the capillary transportation process. But capillary method is well used in nature for millions of year and it has the capability to make a difference if we can well design the structure of this kind of system. We are looking forward to the development of the approaching of capillary action.

In order to be able to treat the water is important first to consider the quality of the input. So, the first question that we could ask is “what kinds of contaminants can be found in rainwater?” which will be our main source for drinkable water.

The water in a raindrop is one of the cleanest sources of water available. However, rainwater can absorb gases such as carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide from the atmosphere. It can also capture soot and other microscopic particulates as it falls through the sky.
The principal contaminants that can be found in rainwater are debris, which includes leaves and twigs, dust and dirt, bird and animal droppings, insects, and other visible material. Although debris obviously reduces the aesthetic quality of the water, it can also pose unseen chemical and biological health threats. For example, leaves and dust can contain unseen chemical contaminants such as herbicides and pesticides. Similarly, bird and animal droppings can contain microscopic parasites, bacteria, and viruses.
Taking into account these possible sources of contamination, we can start thinking in a viable and bio-friendly solution to treat the water. A way to look inspiration in nature, will be using key words as clean, purify and filter.