David is also doing an experiment to see if the waste water, once fermented, can produce fertiliser for farm and garden use. Just steps away from David's laboratory is a small-scale, fully functional pulp mill called the pentose pilot plant, run entirely by computers. In this miniature alcohol plant, David can actually ferment a sample of waste water with a yeast strain and, in a hands-on way, see how much alcohol is produced. As the mill's only microbiologist, David is often asked questions about biological materials that build up in the mill's equipment. But success on the job depends on other skills, he adds.
Determination is very important.
Companies expect employees to identify and solve problems. To find out what is happening in the mill, David talks to everyone he meets from supervisors and mill operators to lab technicians. Each of these people knows something valuable about the mill and how it works, David says. By listening to them, he understands more about how to keep the mill running efficiently. In his laboratory, David usually gets help from two or three assistants.