19.41.00
CreatorLes made this interesting project which uses waste plastic bottles and simple 3d printed part to make a solar still that can be used as an cheap water desalinator or purifier. The water inside bottle evaporates in sun and looses salt or microorganisms and is made good for human consumption.
His idea is to use it in emergencies or developing countries without adequate access to clean water.
I would like to see further testing in realistic conditions and also the economics calculations of large(r) scale deployment. How much water can it clean or desalinate under which conditions? I messaged Les and his estimate is that it will take about dozen bottles for one person per day.
Used plastic bottles can be found even on remote uninhabited islands and DIY 3d printers are also emerging in the poorest of countries made from electronic waste.
Good project Les!
He also presents a method of ppurifyingwater without need for 3d printed parts and three (glass?) containers:
All the files and instructions can be found at:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:464463
In addition here you can see a simple solar still made from a plastic bottle and an aluminum can you can make without any machining and purify water. The video is made by Thomas Kim.
This is not a first project for water purification on small scale that uses 3d printing.
The first project that I know of is WaterMaker by Cem Schnitzler, which uses more complex and larger cone structure and industrial grade 3d printers and high tech materials.
The STL for Water Maker files can be found at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktoi0ccu25l8jjf/WaterMaker.zip
It works like this:
Here is a different still, the WaterCone that uses similar principles but it is made with traditional production methods:
