Post by Serena Ghazarian

The Design of a Modular, Off-Grid Water Purification System For our final year Chemical Engineering capstone at Toronto Metropolitan University, our team designed a fully self-sufficient water purification plant for the Kashechewan First Nation Cree community in Northern Ontario — a community that has faced persistent boil-water advisories due to water contamination. Our system is designed to deliver 600 m³ of safe drinking water per day through a multi-stage treatment process: aeration, multi-media filtration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and chlorination disinfection. All powered by an off-grid propane gas turbine with heat recovery. Beyond the core design, our work also covered: 📊 Economic & cost analysis (NPV, ROI, payback period) 🌱 Environmental impact & sustainability considerations 🏗️ Full 3D modelling of the plant layout Over the past 8 months, this project pushed me in every direction. It was challenging, eye-opening, and incredibly rewarding all at once. I walked away with stronger technical engineering skills, a deeper appreciation for real-world problem-solving, and a reminder of why engineering matters. A huge thank you to my incredible teammates Daniel Tsarvenkov, Natalie G., and Philip Tsorovas — this wouldn't have been possible without each of you. And a sincere thank you to our supervisors Dr. Hadis Zarrin (Ph.D., P.Eng.) and Dr. Simant Upreti for their invaluable guidance throughout this journey.