13-Year-Old Creates Water Purifier out of Corn Cobs

The “Community Impact Award” in the 13 to 15 year-old age group at Google’s Science Fair in California was won by a brilliant 13-year-old named Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai, who created an incredible water purifier based on corn cobs. The 9th grader was awarded $10,000, and she might actually receive support from Google to build her project. In order to test her idea for the water purifier, Lalita got some corn from nearby farms and let it dry out in the sun for a month. She then removed the center of the cob and poured 50 ml of water from a kitchen drain pipe. After it ran through the cob, the water was tested for purity, but this was just the beginning of her experiment.

The water purifier itself is based on several layers: long pieces of corn cobs, small pieces of corn cobs, powdered corn cobs, activated charcoal made from corn cobs and fine sand. Water with chemical impurities was poured through these layers, and it looks like the charcoal layer was the one to absorb the most colored substances in the water. However, the long and small pieces of corn cob were very good at catching floating suspended particles, while the powdered corn cob layer absorbed gasoline waste.

Overall, the water purifier did its job admirably, which is why Lalita has been receiving plenty of positive feedback on the project.

Thank you Thespiritscience for providing us with this information.