Company achieves milestone in industrial-scale polymer production monitoring

Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies Inc.  (APMT; New Orleans, LA) announces that its automatic continuous online monitoring of polymer reactions (ACOMP) technology for industrial-scale polymer production monitoring has been installed and operating in a polymer facility since fall 2014. During the first 18 months after installation, it “has achieved over 97% availability,” said APMT Chief Technical Officer Mike Drenski.

ACOMP technology was developed through R&D and lab use over 17 years with more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and a suite of patents from Professor Wayne F. Reed’s group at Tulane University’s Center for Polymer Reaction Monitoring and Characterization (PolyRMC). This marks the first time the technology has been used for Industrial reactor monitoring and control.

As Clare Goldsberry wrote in PlasticsToday earlier this year, “the commercialization of this technology allows polymer producers to monitor fundamental polymer properties continuously during the manufacturing process, enabling more efficient control over the quality of the product and the use of production, feedstock and energy inputs.”

“The cost and environmental benefits are derived from real-time analysis of macromolecular properties of the polymer during synthesis,” CEO Alex Reed told PlasticsToday. “Having this information online allows manufacturers tighter control over the process, which enables them to reduce cycle time and off-spec production. Both of these can significantly impact profitability and sustainability. Our initial work has been in specialty chemical batch and semi-batch applications, but we are also working on some developments for continuous processes,” said Reed.

Having demonstrated reliable industrial-scale operation, the company is actively engaged with several manufacturers assessing new, high-value applications for the technology,” added Reed, who was recently named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the manufacturing/industry category.

This work was supported in part by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.