AFS 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

May 19-22 , 2008
Valley Forge, PA

Attendees Applaud 21st Annual Conference

The American Filtration and Separation Society (AFS) held its’ 21st Annual Conference with an outstanding program at the Radisson Valley Forge Hotel in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The conference and exhibition was held May 19-22.  

The Technical Conference was a showcase of cutting edge technology and research. The conference was divided into three tracks, Emerging Technology, Fundamentals and Applications, and Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

With over 80 technical presentations there was an abundance of knowledge shared.

The conference opened with two interesting plenary presentations. Dr. Wallace Leung, (President, Advantech Engineering and Director, Research Institute of Innovative Products and Technologies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) spoke on “Centrifugal Separations in Biotechnology”.

Mr. Ken Sutherland, (Managing Director of Northdoe Ltd.) presented a talk on “The International Market for Filtration Equipment, It’s Trends and Drivers.”

Two more plenary presentations were given on Wednesday. Prof. Luuk van der Wielen, (University of Delft) spoke on “ABC of Bioseparations – Avoiding Bioseparation Costs” and Dr. William  D. Provine, (Manager, DuPont Biofuels) gave a presentation on “DuPont Innovation in Support of Biofuels”.

The Tuesday Awards lunch is always a highlight of the AFS conference. At this lunch AFS recognizes outstanding individuals in the field of filtration and separations and individuals that have donated much of their time to as volunteers in service to the AFS.

Lively discussion filled the conference as students answered questions at the Student poster competition on Tuesday afternoon. Scholarships where presented to the top student poster presentations. At the conclusion of the poster competition the discussion continued at the evening networking reception.

The AFS Annual Conference is the leading technical forum for providing technological issues and information pertinent to the needs of the filtration and separation industry. Held only once a year, dozens of technical papers are presented providing filtration and separation professionals unique inside access to research and findings.

The information generated at this conference is critical to all those interested in improving filtration and separation systems to better serve their industry and community. It is through the integration of viewpoints and needs of all stakeholders in the filtration and separation industry that solutions for the real world are found.

Proceedings from the 2008 Annual Conference can be purchased by contacting the AFS office, 612-861-1277.

Next year’s annual conference will be located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will  be held the week of May 4-7, 2009. Save those dates. The call for papers is already available. If you are interested in exhibiting a tabletop contact the AFS office.

Conference Sponsors

What do AFS Conference Attendees Say!

“AFS conferences are great venues to learn, network and present new ideas. Attendees have a real interest in the industry. The society blends business and technical backgrounds through a clear focus on the industry and science of filtration and separations. If you want to stay current with the leading edge of the industry, AFS conferences are essential to attend.”
John Finley, MemPro Ceramics Corp.

“Since I started my professional career in the separations field in 2001 I am a constant attendee of the AFS annual conference. I have benefited from my attendance in many ways, from getting aware of the newest developments in the separations area to making a lot of new valuable contacts and friends. Also the opportunity to present my own latest work helped me to generate interest and to get extremely valuable feedback, which was very beneficial for my research work. Thank you AFS.”
Benjamin Fuchs, Dupont

"As part of our efforts to become more connected within the industry, I am pleased to report our attendance at the Orlando meeting has helped us to get closer to this goal. We found the presentations to be informative, the networking beneficial and the weather wasn't so bad either! We look forward to reaping the benefits now and in the future."
Julie Nelson, W.L. Gore & Associates

"Besides the interesting technical information I got, I have benefited mostly from the AFS conference by means of networking with other attendees. Having the opportunity to meet the experts in the field of solid-liquid separation, and to discuss with them our own particular problems we are daily dealing with in the field, was of high value to me. Thanks! "
Bart Peeters, Monsanto

Summary of Sessions

Emerging Technologies, organized by Technical Co-chair Dr. Wenping Li – Agrilectric Research
(wenpingl@agrilectric.com)

The Emerging Technology track featured a variety of novel filtration and separation technologies in both air/gas and liquid areas. Highlights of the program included filter media from nonwoven to Nano, to catalytic Nano; novel filtration equipment, and process development and applications, advances in Engine Emission filtration, and updates and development of new testing methods and standards.

With a focus on advances to be encouraged and thier industrial contribution to be explored, the "Emerging Technology" track presented a special session, "Technology Transfer and Advances at National Laboratories". The session featured presentations from National Energy Technology Laboratories, and an expert panel which provided collaborative research opportunities and available technical services.

Fundamentals and Applications, organized by Technical Co-chair Dr. Hooman Tafreshi - Virginia Commonwealth University (htafreshi@vcu.edu)

The Fundamental and Applications track provided the conference participants with the fundamental science of filtration and separation relevant to industrial applications as well as the most recent developments in the field.The presentations fell into two major categories of gas-phase filtration and liquid-phase filtration/separation. The talks in the gas-phase filtration dealt mostly with coalescence filtration, two-scale flow modeling, nanofiber and HEPA filtration modeling and experiment.

The talks in the liquid-phase filtration/separation included hydro cyclones, liquid-liquid separation, carbon fiber filters, and particles/droplets/bubles separtion in different applications such as the oil and gas industry. The presentations were a blend of academic and upstream industrial research from leading universities and industries around the globe.

Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, organized by Technical Co-chair Dr. Benjamin C. Fuchs – Senior Research Engineer, DuET (DuPont Engineering Research and Technology), DuPont - Experimental Station (benjamin.c.fuchs@usa.dupont.com)

This was the first annual AFS conference that dedicated one full track to "Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing." This track discussed topics from pretreatment bioseparation, biofuels, selective separation to important aspects for pharmaceutical processing and was accompanied by excellent and internationally recognized keynote speakers from across the world, representing academia as well as industry.

This track followed the trends, challenges and opportunities in a growth industry, including the striving for increased yield and a reduction in the number of unit operations to make downstream processing more efficient. Presentations included lab-scale studies as well as industrial scale case studies.

Click here for Conference Program with Abstracts