I am a member of the Scottish Contaminated Land Form, Inter Laboratory Testing Subgroup and  act as co-ordinator of its program to test and develop analytical methods for contaminated land samples. I am working with the Analytical Section of Nobel Enterprises at Ardeer, Stevenston in the evaluation of microwave digestion methods and Inductively Coupled Optical Emission Spectroscopy for the measurement of metals in contaminated land samples and plant material.
Other interests centre on the development of automated colorimetric and ion chromatography methods for environmental material. I have also been involved in an EC program of inter laboratory testing and the certification of reference soil materials for extractable metals analysis.

I am working with members of the Glasgow Marine Technology Centre in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Glasgow University in a study of the anti-biofouling properties of quaternary ammonium surfactants using a combination of field and laboratory experimentation.

A large EU funded project in collaboration with the University of Nottinghamc and CPL Laboratories in UK and HUNOSA and INCAR in Spain  has been investigating the remediation of sites historically contaminated by waste products of the coal and coal gas industries. Within the project we have been investigating the phytoremediation of soils contaminated by indivdual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and coal tars using a range of grass and legume species. A combination  of laboratory, greenhouse and field studies are used to study the degradation of the PAHs. 

I have extended my interests in animal wastes and nutrient ( nitrogen and phosphate) behaviour in agricultural soils and water to studies of the remediation of metal contaminated sites. Low cost, temporary,  remediation of contaminated sites often requires the establishment of a vegetation cover and nitrogen and phosphorus supply are frequently limiting factors. Recent work has concentrated on nitrogen availability in chromium contamiated sites which are extensive in the Glasgow area.
 

Contaminated leachate or groundwater is often a feature of contaminated sites. As part of the low cost philosophy, waste products are being investigated as cheap adsorbants for metals in contaminated water. Tree bark  has been used successfully as an adsorbant for Cr(III) and particularly Cr(VI) in leachates from Chromium contaminated sites.
Another aspect of this work has been studies of the biological clean up of nitrogen contaminated groundwater using grass, willow, algae and reeds to immobilise the nitrogen as biomass.

S Sawata, T H Flowers and H J Duncan (1998)  Removal of organochlorine contaminants from waste water using UV light and hydrogen peroxide.  Consoil '98, Sixth International FZK/TNO conference on contaminated soil, May 1998. Pages 549 - 559

M J Smith, T H Flowers, A C S Parr, M J Cowling and T Hodgkeiss (2000). Salinity and temperature effects on the release of Benzalkonium Chloride from hydrogel material.
Polymers & Polymer Composites 8 101 - 105.

I D Pulford, T H Flowers, M C Jarvis and I Nagyova (2001). Analytical Methods - Overview. In Ed. Pulford  I D (ed)  Environmental Analytical Chemistry, Matej Bel University, Branska Bystrica, Slovakia pp 25 - 45.

H J Duncan, T H Flowers, F.Karbasi And J.Stewart (2001) Nitrogen turnover on a chromium contaminated site.  Environmental Geochemistry and Health 23 301-305.

P Kuban and T H Flowers (2001) On-line preconcentration for the chromatographic determination of chlorophenolic and phenolic compounds in environmental samples using electrochemical detection. Analytica Chimica Acta  437: 115-122  

P Kuban and T H Flowers (2001) Ion chromatographic determination of the decomposition products of Tecnazene solution irradiated by ultraviolet light. Inorganic and organic anions. 
J. gri. Food Chem. 49 2848-2852.

N J Wilby, I D Pulford and T H Flowers (2001) Tissue nutrient signatures predict herbaceous-wetland community responses to nutrient availability.
New Phytologist 152 463 - 481

M J Smith, T H Flowers, M J Cowling and H J Duncan (2002) Method for the measurement of the diffusion coefficient of benzalkonium chloride. Water Research 36 1423 - 1428

P Kuban  and T H Flowers (2002) Determination of nitroaromatic photodecomposition products of tecnazene using liquid chromatography with amperometric detection. Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications  67 1181 - 1192.

M J Smith, T H Flowers, M J Cowling and H J Duncan (2003) Release studies of benzalkonium chloride from hydrogel in a freshwater environment. Journal of Environmental Monitoring 5  359 - 362.

Mohammad Amin and T H Flowers (2004). Evaluation of Kjeldahl digestion methods. Journal of Research (science) 15(2) 159-179

Mohammad Amin and T H Flowers (2004). Effect of temperature on nitrification and mineralisation in soil.  Journal of Research (science) 15(2) 211-217

 Pulford I D and Flowers T H (2006) Environmental chemistry at a glance. Blackwell publishing. Oxford UK.

 Smith M J, T H Flowers, Duncan HJ and Alder J (2006) Effects of polycyclic hydrocarbons on germination and subsequent growth of grasses and legumes in freshly contaminated soil and soil with aged PAH residues. Environmental Pollution 141 519-525.

 Alem MAS, Oteef MDY, Flowers TH, et al. (2006) Production of tyrosol by Candida albicans biofilms and its role in quorum sensing and biofilm development. Eukaryotic Cell 5 (10): 1770-1779.

Waldron S,  Flowers H, Arlaud C, Bryant, McFarlane S  (2009) The significance of organic carbon and nutrient export from peatland-dominated landscapes subject to disturbance, a stoichiometric perspective BIOGEOSCIENCES     6 (3)    363-374.

D Lockington,   H Flowers,   D Young, D Yorston (2009) Ensuring accuracy of intravitreal antibiotics and the need for training.   Br J Ophthalmol  2009; 93 1126.