Biological Impact on Energy, Fuel and Carbon Cycles
Biological organisms have enormous impact on global energy systems. Biological
organisms store solar energy, generate and convert fuels, and are a huge input
into global carbon cycles which must be understood if climate change models
are to be used with any success. Our interests include:
enzymatic conversion of biofuels
rapid microfluidic analysis of cellular processes in species with
significant impact on the global carbon cycle
biohydrogen generation
Kirby BJ,
Reichmuth DS, Renzi RF, Shepodd TJ,
Wiedenman BJ "Microfluidic routing of aqueous and
organic flows at high pressure: Fabrication and
characterization of integrated polymer microvalve elements,"
Lab on a Chip5:184-190 (2005).
doi
pdf
text
Control of picoliter volumes in porous media (click here for source), applicable to
high-pressure separations or catalytic energy conversion (FOV: ~600 microns).
Pressure pulses at right cause a fluoropolymer switch to open, injecting sample fluid (green)
along a high-surface area microchannel. Channel widths in this movie are ~40 microns.
Place mouse on image to animate.
