An LSU professor has been chosen as the first researcher in residence at the BASF Sustainable Living Laboratory where he will work to create a portable water filtration system that uses sunlight in order to provide clean drinking water in developing countries.
Kevin McPeak, an assistant professor in the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering, will work with a research group to develop the disinfection process that could be used in countries where energy-intensive methods are simply not feasible, LSU says in a news release.
“Solving water scarcity concerns amid growing demand is central to BASF’s commitment to sustainability,” says Charlene Warren-Wall, sustainability director of BASF North America, in a statement. “Dr. McPeak’s dedication to building water purification systems using visible light could bring much needed access to many populations in water-stressed geographies.”
Traditional methods for purifying water with solar power almost exclusively use ultraviolet light, which makes up only 5% of the solar spectrum, whereas visible light constitutes more than 40% of the solar spectrum, according to the news release.
The research would also help the more than 1 billion people worldwide estimated to be without clean drinking water, LSU says.
“This opportunity to create chemistry with BASF elevates the chances of this research becoming a real solution to providing safe drinking water globally,” McPeak says in a statement. “There is great synergy between BASF’s sustainability mission—to make the best use of available resources—and our use of visible light from the sun to disinfect water.”
The lab will open this fall in the Patrick F. Taylor College of Engineering building and is funded by a $1 million donation from BASF.
