NSF International, The PublicHealth and Safety Company, is anot-for-profit, non-governmentalorganization, that develops stan-dards, certifies products, and isinvolved in education and risk-man-agement for public health and safety.

Contact:Watts Premier Inc, 1725 W.Williams Drive,C-20, Phoenix,AZ 85027, USA.Tel: +1 623931 1977, Fax: +1 623 931 0191.

Improved proteindetectionVivascience AG of Hanover,Germany, has introduced a newVivapure Anti-HSA Kit forremoving albumin from humanserum.

It is based on unique Anti-HSAantibody fragments coupled tocross-linked agarose for achievinghigh albumin binding capacities.The company claims that in con-trast to traditional dye-based lig-ands, specific removal of over 95%human albumin from a humansample is achieved without includ-ing significant amounts of otherserum or plasma proteins.

According to Vivascience, thisprocedure improves the resolutionand detection of lower abundancesample proteins by electrophore-sis, chromatography and massspectrometry.

The Vivapure Anti-HSA Kit forhuman albumin depletion containsAnti-HSA affinity-resin, centrifugalcolumns (which can be filled indi-vidually with the required amountof Anti-HSA resin), micro-cen-trifuge tubes and binding buffer forpreparing 12 serum samples. Thespin column format allows a singlesample to be processed in 20 min-utes, says the company.

Vivascience AG is a subsidiary ofSartorius AG, which is based inGoettingen, Germany. Originallyfounded as Vivascience Ltd inStonehouse, UK, the biotechnologycompany employs 80 people at foursubsidiaries in Germany, USA, UK,and France.

Contact:Vivascience AG, Feodor-Lynen-Strasse21, 30625 Hannover, Germany. Tel: +49511 524 8750, Fax: +49 511 524 87519,Email: info@vivascience.com.

PolyporeInternationalseeks IPOPolypore International Inc ofCharlotte, North Carolina, USA,is planning to raise up to US$345million through an initial publicoffering (IPO) of common stock.

The company has filed for anIPO with the US Securities andExchange Commission, and saysthat net proceeds will be used toreduce debt, including part of thesenior subordinated notes issued bysubsidiary Polypore Inc. The com-pany intends to list its stock on theNew York Stock Exchange underthe symbol ‘PLY’.

Polypore makes polymer-basedmembranes used in separation andfiltration processes. The company,which employs 2000 worldwide,markets its products to the powerstorage, health-care, electronics andspeciality technology industries.

In fiscal 2003, Polypore generat-ed revenue totalling US$441.1 mil-lion and net income of US$45.3million. During December 1999,the company acquired the Celgardlithium battery separator and sepa-ration membrane business ofCelanese AG. To expand its pres-ence in the health-care and speciali-ty filtration markets, it acquiredGerman corporation MembranaGmbH in February 2002.

The company's internationaloperations are based in Wuppertal,Germany.

Contact:Polypore International Inc, 13800 S. LakesDrive, Charlotte, NC 28273, USA.Tel: +1704 588 5310, Fax: +1 704 587 8585.

GE distributesProton EnergySystems' productsProton Energy Systems Inc, asubsidiary of Distributed EnergySystems Corp, and a manufactur-er of the membrane-based Hogenon-site hydrogen generator, hassigned a distribution agreementwith GE Supply, a business unitof General Electric Co.

The 36-month agreementappoints GE as a non-exclusive dis-tributor of Proton's products for theelectric power-generating industrythroughout the world, excludingcertain European countries.

Proton Energy Systems Incdesigns, develops and manufac-tures proton exchange membrane(PEM), electrochemical productswhich it employs in hydrogen-generating devices and in regener-ative fuel cell systems that func-tion as power-generating andenergy storage devices. The Hogenhydrogen generators producehydrogen from electricity andwater in a clean and efficientprocess using its proprietary PEMtechnology.

Contact:Proton Energy Systems Inc, 10Technology Drive, Wallingford, CT06492, USA. Tel: +1 203 678 2000,Fax: +1 203 949 8016,Email: pes@protonenergy.com.

Millipore'srevenues riseMillipore Corp of Billerica,Massachusetts, USA, postedstrong results for its second quar-ter ended 30 June 2004.

The company's sales rose by14% to US$225 million, com-pared with the equivalent period ayear earlier. In local currencyterms, revenue growth was 11%.Second-quarter earnings wereUS$0.57 per share, up 24% fromUS$0.46 per share in the secondquarter of 2003.

Fran Lunger, Millipore's ChiefExecutive Officer, said: "Our sec-ond quarter matched our strongfirst-quarter performance, withgrowth in all geographic regionsand markets."

Of particular note, he says, is thebiotechnology market revenuegrowth of 21% in local currencyterms. Life sciences grew 9% inlocal currency terms, comparedwith the corresponding period of2003, while other bioscienceachieved 5% growth.

Contact:Millipore Corp, 290 Concord Road,Billerica, MA 01821, USA. Tel: +1 978715 4321, Fax: +1 781 533 3110.

NEWS

4Membrane Technology August 2004

I n B r i e fZenon tops list of best 50‘Corporate Citizens’ in CanadaZenon Environmental Inc has been ranked for a second time asCanada's top ‘Corporate Citizen’ byCorporate Knights, a business pub-lication that addresses corporateresponsibility. Companies werescored across seven categories. Thecategories are Environment, Inter-national Stakeholder Relations/Human Rights, Product Safety andBusiness Practices, CommunityRelations, and Employee Relations/Diversity in the Workplace, Cor-porate Governance and FinancialPerformance.

SDTC announces funding forclean technology projectsThe board of directors of Sustain-able Development TechnologyCanada (SDTC) has approved, inprinciple, funding for 11 cleantechnology projects — an invest-ment totalling C$32.4 million.These projects are also supported byan additional investment of C$95.6million from other private and pub-lic sources. One project involves thedevelopment of membrane tech-nology that has the potential toreduce the overall cost of ethanolproduction. It is led by Gen-XPower Corp of Alberta, Calgary.Consortium members are KatzenInternational Inc, University ofCalgary, Virtual Materials GroupInc and Natural Resources Canada.

FDA approves medicationdelivery deviceA new electronic nebulizer devel-oped by PARI Aerosol ResearchInstitute PARI's, has beenapproved by the US Food andDrug Administration (FDA).eFlow is a small, silent, aerosoldevice that takes liquid medica-tions and generates a dense aerosolthat can be inhaled into the lungs.At the core of the device is a stainless steel membrane that con-tains 4000 laser drilled holes.Laser drilling provides the flexibil-ity to customize particle size, toensure reproducibility, and main-tain a high output rate with small-er particles. The perforated mem-brane is vibrated at a highfrequency in a resonant ‘bending’mode which yields a high outputrate for particles.