Petroferm Picks Union for Cutting Edge Research

Two Union University students senior Stefan Antoniou and junior Cathie Scarbrough, have been the lead student researchers in a project funded by Petroferm, Inc., and its subsidiary company, Lambent Technologies.

Antoniou and Scarbrough con-ducted a study in an attempt to put silicon and carbon together to produce better surface-active agents for Petroferm’s products, which include the following: industrial cleaning agents for circuit boards in applications in heart pacemakers, care textile manufacturing, printing and other industries.

Surface-active agents, Baldwin says, are things people use all the time, in products like toothpaste and cleaning solutions.

Union became involved in the project through Hayes. Baldwin say Hayes began talking with him one or two years ago about the project, with the results of the study benefiting Petroferm.

Petroferm serves oil manufacturers and other oil industries by cleaning oil tankers and microchips and also hauls off the waste. It then turns the waste into usable and sellable surface-active agents. Petroferm, in addition to its Fernandina Beach, Fla. location, recently purchased plants in Skokie, Ill., and Norcross, Ga.