Student of the Issue: John Romano

For the past year and a half Romano has been doing a study on harsh chemicals in the water. He has designed a straw that will filter the water and destroy these harsh chemicals.

Student+of+the+Issue%3A+John+Romano

John Romano has done a study for the past year and a half on harsh chemicals found in water on Malvern’s campus. These chemicals can be very harmful to humans. A straw he has designed will hopefully filter and destroy some of these harsh chemicals. 

“I was taking the Social Entrepreneurship class taught by Mr. Rogai, Mr. Moore, Mrs. Kenworthey, and Dr. Quinn. Our project was centralized around purifying water. We were looking into filtration systems during the construction of the CSI,” Romano said.

John used the construction of the new building to jump-start his research and get a look into the Malvern filtration system. He was looking into the construction of the now building in 2019. 

“There’s a lot of harmful chemicals in the water that I don’t think many students are aware of because the water is filtered once it reaches the drinking fountains. It doesn’t affect us as much other than it’s sitting in the water systems and harmful to humans and animals,” Romano said.

Many chemicals can be harmful to humans and animals if the water is not filtered correctly. These chemicals are in the water and we do not know why they are there. 

“After the class, I decided to continue the project because I thought it was interesting, and now it’s a year later and I am working on an invention,” Romano said. 

After the class ended Romano took his research to the next level and continued to work on a filtration device. 

“I started to create this straw that works like a normal straw until you put it in water or other substances that have certain chemicals. The straw can destroy and detect any harmful chemicals. There are strips on the side of the straw that change different colors for chemicals like, led, bromide, nitrates, etc,” Romano said.

Romano is still waiting on getting a straw to work with but he hopes he can get his design patent.

“COVID affected my research because I had to stop testing the water because Malvern was closed, from a period of April to July I was unable to conduct any research,” Romano said. 

As always, COVID hindered Romano’s research, but it did not stop him; he continued his research and is working on a patent for his straw.