Multi-Layer Water Filtration: Testing Home Made Mycofiltration and Activated Charcoal vs. Store-bought Water Filter

Overview

2.1 billion people do not have access to clean, safe water. Depending on my findings, I am hopeful this research will help a lot of people gain confidence in creating their own filters. I created and tested several multi-layered water filters to compare their effectiveness against a store-bought filter. My hypothesis was that my homemade water filter with activated charcoal and mycelium would do as well as, if not better than, a simple store-bought filter. I added different layers to my DIY filters, including activated charcoal and mushroom mycelium, to see which filter had the biggest effect in cleaning debris and organisms from my control water. I found many things in my control water, like protozoa, algae, detritus worms, freshwater crustaceans, silt (dirt), bacteria, and even some Giardia parasites. After completing my project, here were my findings. The filter with mushroom mycelium and activated charcoal, along with materials like moss, cotton, and sand, worked the best. I know this because when I looked at the finished samples under my microscope, they looked much cleaner than the other filters. The Brita filter worked the least efficiently, which leads me to believe that my data supports my hypothesis more than I expected.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Environmental Engineering (Junior Division) · Entry J-11-38

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Environmental Engineering projects
• CSEF Environmental Engineering projects
• Every CSEF 2026 project