ECU researcher develops automated reactor

(Feb. 19, 2001)   —   Dr. Paul Gemperline, a member of the ECU Chemistry Department, has been working with H&A Scientific, Inc., a Greenville small business firm, to develop a new laboratory scale four-station automated reactor with fiber-optic spectroscopic monitoring.

The innovative new instrument estimates the composition of materials and products using novel mathematical resolution techniques developed by Gemperline at ECU. The ECU scientist says “by comparing multiple lab-scale batch reactions, the new instrument allows development scientists in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries to quickly determine process conditions with better yields, faster reaction times and lower material and energy costs.

H&A Scientific, an ECU small business partner, is conducting final testing on the instrument. It has named the device IntelliForm. Marketing and sales will begin later this spring.

Research projects aimed at developing innovative batch control algorithms using prototype instruments are continuing with Gemperline and his students along with scientists at GlaxoSmithKline, Oklahoma State University and the Measurement and Control Engineering Center (MCEC) at the University of Tennessee.

The MCEC and the National Science Foundation Small-Firm Collaborative Research and Development Program provided partial funding for the project.

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