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David Engle of Nexo Solutions, The
Woodlands, Texas, discusses processing natural gas at the
AFS Fall Conference. |
The
American Filtration & Separations Society held its 2012 Fall
Conference at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Philadelphia, Pa., October
15-18. The event was well attended with a diversified two-track
varied program covering a wide range of new innovations and market
trends. The focus of the conference was the timely topic of filtration,
separations and coalescing in oil and gas recovery, including fracking
and produced water, along with biotechnology and associated processes.
Many of the fracking, oil/gas and produced water industry experts
offered considerable insight from filtration media to filters along
with emerging opportunities for suppliers of filtration and separation
elements and equipment. The in-depth information into numerous inner-workings
and unmet needs was an excellent educational experience for the
uninitiated in this rapidly growing market.
Courses and Conference
Monday, October 15th began with a pre-conference Short Course day,
with courses covering the subjects: Basics in Air/Gas Filtration,
Basics in Liquid Filtration, Microporous Membrane Technology, Filtration
& Separations Eight Principal Media and Markets, and Ultrafiltration
Membrane Technology. The sessions were well attended as the AFS
Short Courses continue to draw increased following. On Monday evening,
the past AFS Chairman met once again to further develop and fine-tune
the organizations Policy and Procedure Manual.
The main conference began Tuesday, October 16,
with a plenary presentation by Antti Hakkinen from Lappeenranta
University of Technology who offered a presentation on the subject
of Design and Analysis of Filtration Experiments for those responsible
for filter media and filter device R&D/product development.
Tuesday's tracks consisted of 18 presentations covering Centrifugation,
Coalescing, Filtration Media, Nanofibers, Membranes and Liquid Filtration
on a variety of topics. Following the first full day of presentations
was an Open Corporate Sponsors meeting where Corporate Sponsors
and non-corporate sponsors learned of the progress made over the
last two years, adding new benefit activities to drive end-users
to AFS Corporate Sponsors and added emphasis in air filtration without
diminishing AFS' historic emphasis on liquid filtration. A Networking
Reception followed. As a result of the many new corporate benefits,
AFS Corporate Sponsorships have increased from 21 in 2009 to 51
in 2012.
Wednesday began with a plenary session lead by
Ron Bosch of Champion Technologies who provided detailed insight
into the topic of Desalination of Unconventional Produced Water,
which is a large and rapidly growing market in oil and gas production.
The talk was a lead-in for the day's six sessions of four presentations
each on the topics of Water Management, Pretreatment, Shale Gas
and Produced Water along with the topics of Nanofibers and Membranes
as used in specialty applications, in addition to two sessions on
the keys to successful filtration and separations in Biotechnology.
For the technologist, marketing or business development person,
Wednesday was a very special day providing in-sight and specific
detail into both emerging and existing higher-margin filtration
business platform opportunities.
The conference concluded Thursday with a plenary
presentation by Karsten Keller from DuPont on the subject of Smart
Separations in Biotechnology. Additional sessions continued on the
subjects of Biotechnology along with Filtration Media Testing and
Procedures for several new and emerging industry filtration media
coming to market.
Upcoming conferences
The AFS also announced its 2013 slate of conferences. In May, the
Society will meet for its Spring Conference in Bloomington, Minn.,
with a continuation of Advancements and Innovations in Filtration
covering a number of topics. The Fall Conference, next October in
Cincinnati, Ohio, will concentrate on Innovations in Filtration
Media and Market Applications. Both conferences will concentrate
on innovations with the AFS emphasizing leading and emerging industry
technologies. The stated objective of the AFS is to provide those
attending conferences, along with Corporate Sponsors, first-hand
and early technology awareness. Watch for further conferences notices
and topics for 2014 and 2015 before the end of the year..
The American Filtration & Separations
Society is the largest Filtration Society in the world and the
principal educator of the industry. For those interested in learning
more about AFS Corporate Sponsorship, please contact Ed Gregor
at 1-704-442-1940.
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