Wastewater contains chemicals that we don’t want to put back in the environment, so the researchers at EBI are testing new and better ways to remove these chemicals. My project’s goal is to remove chemicals from sewage while also generating hydrogen fuel! For my project, I am growing special bacteria inside a reactor. The idea is that wastewater will flow through the reactor, and the bacteria will eat the sewage and produce hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is a valuable alternative fuel to oil or natural gas because using hydrogen does not produce greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which changes the climate.
Even before becoming a Fulbright research scholar, I had always been passionate about science and the environment. I grew up in a suburb near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but my parents often took me camping and fishing, sparking my fascination with nature. In school, I took classes like AP Environmental Science, which taught me about how water systems function and about the threat humanity poses to the environment by overconsuming natural resources and creating pollution.
When I graduated from high school, I decided to go to Temple University in Phildadelphia to study bioengineering and environmental engineering. I wanted to learn how to use technology, combined with the biological tools already found in nature, to create solutions to problems.
During my time in college, I wanted to travel outside of the Philadelphia area to gain new life experiences and perspectives on the world. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and budget limitations, I had never traveled outside of North America until I was accepted to the Fulbright Germany program.
