LATROBE, PA – The results of a Saint Vincent College professor’s groundbreaking research into how electrodes crafted from stale bread can aid with water desalination recently were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Dr. Adam Wood, assistant professor of engineering in the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing, is using bread to create carbon electrons, which when charged by a power source can remove salt and other minerals from low-salinity water. The process could someday lead to an effective, accessible and less expensive way of purifying drinking water.
Wood is assisted on his project by engineering graduate students David Bujdos of the University of Pennsylvania and Zachary Kuzel of the University of Pittsburgh. Bujdos, C’24, of Munhall, and Kuzel, C’22, of Pittsburgh, are Saint Vincent alumni.
Last year, Wood received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund his research. The article detailing the project’s findings was published in Royal Society Open Science in February.
“Publishing our work is one of the highlights of my career,” Wood said. “None of this would have been possible without my former students, David Bujdos and Zachary Kuzel. They demonstrate the high caliber of students that Saint Vincent College produces.”
Chartered in the 1660s, the Royal Society is the United Kingdom’s national science academy and the oldest scientific academy in the world. It's a fellowship of distinguished scientists from many fields—including engineering, medicine and science—who promote excellence and encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.
Wood’s research also has been featured by techxplore.com, Popular Mechanics and New Scientist.
David Bujdos, C’24, and Dr. Adam Wood (right) working on their research project in the lab at the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion on the Saint Vincent College campus.
