Liquid chromatograph

可再生能源和环境改善一直是博士开展的所有研究项目的重点。Hill， Nemati和Niu（以及他们的研究人员）在过去的几十年里。当前的可再生能源研究课题包括从木质纤维素糖生产乙醇作为液体燃料的可再生来源。世界对液体燃料的需求正在超过供应，利用废弃生物质将在未来为解决这一短缺作出重大贡献。虽然纤维素和半纤维素中的己糖可以很容易地转化为乙醇，但将戊糖转化为乙醇还需要做更多的工作。另一个重要的课题是使用廉价的微生物或生物技术清洁石油污染的水、土壤和气体。研究项目包括开发新型生物反应器来实现这些目标。研究生或暑期研究生的每次调查都需要进行数百次测量，以量化乙醇的生产、糖的使用和有毒化学物质的消失。

Renewable energy and improvement of the environment have been the focus of all research projects carried out by Drs. Hill, Nemati and Niu (and their research personnel) over the past several decades. Current renewable energy research topics include the production of ethanol from ligno-cellulosic sugars as a renewable source of liquid fuel. The world demand for liquid fuel is outstripping supplies, and the use of waste biomass will contribute significantly to solving this deficit in the future. Although the hexose sugars from cellulose and hemi-cellulose can be readily converted to ethanol, more work needs to be done to turn pentose sugars into ethanol. Another important topic is to clean petroleum contaminated waters, soils and gases using inexpensive microbial or biological technologies. Research projects include developing novel bioreactors to achieve these goals. Each investigation by a graduate student or summer research student requires hundreds of measurements to quantify the production of ethanol, use of sugars and disappearance of toxic chemicals.