Porvair Regulatory News (PRV)

23 Apr 2009 07:00



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 23 April 2009

Porvair plc

(The "Company")

New aluminum cast house filter wins environmental achievement award

Porvair today announces that its Metals Filtration division, SELEE Corporation, will receive the American Ceramic Society Corporate Environmental Achievement Award for the development of CS-X™, its next generation aluminum cast house filter.

The Award, which will be received by SELEE at the American Ceramic Society Annual Meeting on 27 October 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA USA, has been given to honor SELEE's outstanding environmental achievement in the field of ceramics by making a significant improvement to a ceramic product. SELEE's product, the CS-X™ filter, is a significant advance on phosphate-bonded alumina (PBA) ceramic foam filters.

SELEE's newly introduced CS-X™ filter is a drop-in replacement for the PBA ceramic foam filter, which has been the industry standard for the past 30 years. This new filter is formulated without phosphates and without refractory ceramic fibers. It is the removal of phosphates that offers the greatest environmental and safety benefit. In certain conditions, phosphate-bonded alumina filters can react and release phosphine gas, which if inhaled, can have adverse health effects. 

While phosphates have been widely used in aluminum filtration since the 1970s, it was only in 2006 that the phosphine gas risk became known. SELEE reacted quickly, informing its customers of the risks involved, amending health and safety recommendations, and launching a research effort to develop an alternative. The result is the CS-X™ filter introduced in 2008. In the first 9 months of availability, over 50 customers have converted to this new filter producing over 750,000 tons of market critical alloys. SELEE expects to see its customer base converted by year-end. As Watt Jackson, SELEE vice president of Sales & Marketing, notes, "We are seeing new customer conversions to CS-X™ on a weekly basis. Cast house managers understand the environmental and safety benefits of the new filter formulation and they are also achieving better metal quality, ergonomic benefits, and lower overall costs. Not surprisingly, they are switching quickly".

Mark Morse, SELEE President, remarks: "SELEE Corporation is extremely honored to be recognized by The American Ceramic Society for this significant achievement that will benefit our customers and the entire aluminum industry community."

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  Notes to Editors

Porvair is a group of specialist filtration and environmental technology businesses. Its products are used in a range of niche filtration markets, and are derived from its expertise in the development and manufacture of porous and microporous ceramics, metals, plastics and carbons.