Local company’s new air filtering technology puts it on cutting edge

COPPER MOUNTAIN — John Finley teaches all three disciplines, snowboarding skiing and telemarking, at Copper Mountain on the weekends. But that’s not the only way he’s versatile.

Finley founded MemPro Ceramics Corporation in 2001 at Copper Mountain, and the
company has a product development office in Ohio. Tuesday, it won the 2007 NorTech Innovation Award.

NorTech is northeast Ohio’s leading technology-based economic development organization. It hosts the annual Innovation Awards to honor individuals, companies and organizations producing innovative products and processes in northeast Ohio. MemPro Ceramics earned the award for its ceramic nanofiber catalyzing filter concept.

Now stay with me here, readers. You’re familiar with ceramic, so I know I didn’t lose you there. A nano is a very small thing — in fact, it would take 1,000 of Finley’s nanofibers to equal the thickness of one strand of hair. Nanofibers capture and filter undesirable particles while removing gaseous pollutants from the environment. A catalyst, as you probably know, helps chemical reactions along, and, obviously, a filter can be used to clean up liquids or gases.

MemPro Ceramics combines polymer (a compound formed by small molecules) processing with ceramic production to create new filtration technology using the ceramic nanofibers.

What makes MemPro Ceramics’ product — the ceramic nanofiber catalyzing filter concept (there, wasn’t that better the second time around?) — unique is that it not only filters hot gases, but also uses a catalyst in the fibers.

How does this concern you? Well, many power plants are coal fired, which is a dirty process that results in carbon and oxides of nitrogen released into the air. This creates acid rain. MemPro Ceramics is working with a large power company — the name of which will be divulged in early December once the deal gels — to define specific products for that industry, meaning cleaner air for everyone.

The innovation will dramatically reduce the costs of using catalysts in the production of pharmaceutical and biotech products, fine and bulk chemicals, as well as food and beverages, Finley said.

The filters also will become the basis for a broad range of new products for the automotive, energy, advanced materials, petrochemical and life science industries. In fact, the market potential for the brands — FilterHot, Soot Grabber , MaxoSurface — is several billion dollars, Finley said.

The company is working with global industries on marketing and distribution agreements and plans to begin manufacturing sample-size quantities early next year.
MemPro Ceramics has 63 investors, 25 of whom are Coloradans and about a dozen of whom are Summit County locals. Finley has been in the filtration industry since the 1980s and had a dream to start a company using ceramic materials for filtration. He began MemPro as a liquid filtration company.

The catalyzing filter concept has been developed in collaboration with The University of Akron. A professor, who also is Finley’s friend, invited him to collaborate on ceramic nanofibers, and MemPro Ceramics then made a deal to acquire the technology from The University of Akron.

NorTech selected this year’s Innovation Award winners based on the theme “breakthrough innovation,” or technologies that could dramatically impact a specific industry or market. Seven companies in northeast Ohio, with inventions in a variety of technical fields, won honors.

“At the turn of the century, northeast Ohio was a primary location for entrepreneurs, industrialists, and inventors. So it’s important for our region to continue that legacy of innovation to remain globally competitive in today’s marketplace,” said Dorothy Baunach, president and CEO of NorTech. “That’s why NorTech celebrates our region’s innovators and their accomplishments — to encourage and foster a ripe environment for technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

<i>Kimberly Nicoletti can be reached at (970) 668-4651 or at knicoletti@summitdaily.com.</i>