Molecular Environmental Engineering Laboratory

Our starting point is to understand natural environment including soil, water and air and how human-made interventions influence the natural processes. Our effort is aimed at the  sustainability of environment, natural or human-made, through teaching and research.

The laboratory focuses two major aspects of environmental research: a) Soil and groundwater pollution and b) Aquatic ecology. The former concerns contaminant fate and transport in the soil and groundwater environment with the focal point on the processes at the molecular level. Issues related to general environmental problems such as soil and groundwater remediation, wastewater and solid waste management and recycling, emergency groundwater supply systems, contaminated soil clean up methods, etc. are also investigated.

The latter investigates water quality management and nutrient dynamics in freshwater ecosystems (ponds, lakes and rivers), periphyton ecology and exploitation, biological wastewater treatments, fish-environment relationships, impacts of land-based activities on the aquatic environment and biota, environmental impacts of shrimp farming in south Asia, interpretation of ecological processes using principal component analysis statistical tool and modelling of freshwater ecosystems.

Laboratory facilities include: Gas Chromatograph (GC), Ion Chromatograph (IC), High Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC), Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR) and other basic water quality testing equipments.

Faculty Members

KOMATSU Toshiko

Professor

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     Komatsu Toshiko

B.Sc. (1969), D. Eng. (1987), Hiroshima Univ.; Research Associate, Hiroshima Univ. (1969-91); Visiting Scholar, Univ. of California at Davis (1988-89); Associate Professor, Hiroshima Univ. (1992-2002); Adjunct Professor, Hiroshima Univ. (2002-03); Professor, Saitama Univ. (2002-)

Field of Research: Transport and sorption of pesticides and volatile organic chemicals in soil; Colloidal facilitated transport of contaminants in soil and ground water; Contaminated soil clean-up methods; Emergency ground water supply systems; Wastewater and solid waste treatment and recycling