AFR has successfully developed, through government and industrial support, a
number of innovative laboratory and process control instruments and software
products that are today serving industrial and academic clients throughout the
world.
AFR also performs Contract Research and Development for research institutes
and private organizations.
AFR often works on projects in collaboration with other small
businesses, large companies, national laboratories, universities, and
consultants. Many of these interactions have occurred through Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer
(STTR) projects.
AFR typically makes at least 10 presentations per year at national and
international conferences. Examples include meetings of the American
Chemical Society (ACS), Materials Research Society (MRS), American Carbon
Society, The International Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE),
International Symposium on Combustion, Pittsburgh Coal Conference,
International Conference on Coal Science, Pittsburgh Conference on
Analytical Chemistry, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE),
Air and Waste Management Association. In addition, AFR scientists have
been actively involved in organizing symposia, in the governance of
professional societies, and in standards organizations.
AFR has published more than 300 papers in conference proceedings, book
chapters, encyclopedia chapters, and referred journals. Some of these
journals include: Fuel, Energy & Fuel, Combustion & Flame, Journal
of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Biomass & Bioenergy, Journal of
Solar Process Engineering, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, Journal
of Fire Sciences, Applied Spectroscopy, Fuel Processing Technology,
Physics Review Letters, Applied Physics Letters, Bulletin of the American
Physical Society, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, Sensors,
Review of Scientific Instruments, Progress in Energy & Combustion
Science, Tappi Journal, Journal of Heat Transfer, Analytical Chemistry and
Organic Geochemistry.
AFR has considerable expertise in electronic materials and devices (EMD) and
carbon materials (carbon fibers, fullerenes, diamond, advanced carbon sorbents).
The Company has completed several projects on fabrication of IR detector devices
(bolometers) from thin films of YBaCuO and on diamond film growth, and has
pursued research on carbon fibers from lignin, carbon-based sorbents for gas
storage, and the synthesis of fullerenes.
Company History
Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. (AFR) was founded in 1980 by Dr. Peter Solomon,
Dr. David Hamblen and Ms. Sally Solomon. The initial focus was to use advanced
Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy methods to understand the
starting composition of coal, and to follow its behavior during thermal
degradation reactions (pyrolysis). The insights developed by these experimental
methods led to an advanced coal-pyrolysis model,
FG-DVC, which is now in use in
more than 50 laboratories worldwide. The model was later applied to predict the
pyrolysis behavior of lignin, biomass, and waste materials (e.g., used tires).
The FT-IR diagnostic techniques that were initially developed for
studying the reactions of coal and related materials were subsequently
extended to a wide range of applications in order to measure gas
compositions and temperatures, particle size distributions, number
densities and temperatures, and the thickness, temperature, optical
properties, and composition of thin films. Through this research, the AFR
scientists and engineers became pioneers in infrared instrumentation and
its applications, producing numerous patents and publications. Three
original products, a combination of a thermogravimetric analyzer and an
FT-IR analyzer (TG-FTIR), a simultaneous emission / transmission (E/T) FT-IR
instrument, and a bench-top emissometer system motivated AFR to create a
spin-off company, On-Line Technologies Inc.,
(On-Line). On-Line was founded in 1991, with the mission of
commercializing AFR's FT-IR technologies. AFR now is a
valued-added-reseller and custom integrator of On-Line's products. More
recently, AFR has developed significant capabilities in FT-Raman
spectroscopy for monitoring polymerization reactions and Surface-Enhanced
Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) for the analysis of DNA
and trace chemical detection (e.g., for drug discovery and development).
Commercialization
AFR's has developed a successful strategy for commercialization of advanced
technologies. The first step is to work closely with industrial strategic
partners (often starting in Phase I of technology development) to develop
technology based upon real customer needs. AFR may then seek additional
development funding from industry or government. AFR then sells its first
commercial units directly to its industrial partners and other industrial
"early adopters". A comprehensive business plan is created, and when a
technology/market combination demonstrates enough promise to exist profitably on
its own, based upon initial customer responses and business plan analysis, a
free-standing spin off firm, to make and sell products, is created. AFR
technology is transferred or licensed to that spin-off company.
For example, a number of key AFR patents were transferred to a
spin-off company partially owned by AFR shareholders. This spin-off firm, On-Line
is manufacturing and marketing gas-state sensors, wafer-state sensors (for
the semiconductor manufacturing industry), process control software, and
thin film monitors. On-Line is now a part of MKS
Instruments Corporation. An additional spin-off company was created in
2001, Real-Time Analyzers (Continuous, real-time,
trace chemical detection). TurboSense
is a potential future spin-off company.
Thermogravimetric analysis, with FT-IR analysis of the evolved products (TG-FTIR),
was developed with governmental support and ABB
Bomem, Inc. successfully
marketed instruments under license. (www.bomem.com) The company's FG-DVC
(Functional-Group, Depolymerization, Vaporization, Crosslinking) model, also
developed with government support, is a comprehensive code for predicting yields
and compositions of coal, biomass and waste pyrolysis products that is now in
use at more than 50 domestic and international laboratories. FT-IR combustion
monitoring hardware and software has been sold directly by AFR to industrial and
academic customers, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oregon
State University, ABB Combustion Engineering, Brigham Young University, Factory
Mutual Research Corp., Babcock & Wilcox, Dow Chemical USA, Air Liquide, 3M,
NASA Glenn Research Center, and Arizona State University. AFR has a close
working relationship with the University of Connecticut, and the president of
AFR serves on the industrial advisory board of UCONN's Department of Chemical
Engineering.
