| Jackson, Tenn. - While many college students used the summer to
catch up on sleep, earn extra money or take vacations, two 51ÉçÇø students spent
eight weeks conducting research for Petroferm, Inc., and its subsidiary company, Lambent,
a specialty chemical company based out of Florida. Senior Stefan Antoniou and junior
Cathie Scarbrough, both chemistry majors, each received $3,500 stipends for the research
and worked in conjunction with Dr. Charles Baldwin, O.P. and Evalyn Hammons professor of
pre-medical studies at Union. All research costs were covered by Petroferm through a
$9,500 grant to the department of chemistry and physics at the university. |
Senior Stefan Antoniou and junior Cathie Scarbrough spent their summer
working on a research project for Petroferm. |
Antoniou and Scarbrough conducted 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:
Dr. Charles Baldwin, O.P. and Evalyn Hammons professor of pre-medical
studies, leads the research team. |
- industrial cleaning agents for circuit boards in applications in heart pacemakers,
aircraft instrumentation and automotive applications;
- petroleum-related products to increase oil production rates and reduce gas pollutant
emissions, for instance, and;
- specialty chemicals used in personal care, textile manufacturing, printing and other
industries.
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Surface-active agents, Baldwin said, are things people use all the time, in products
like toothpaste and cleaning solutions. They help lower the surface tension in those
products, increasing their mobility and fluidity, so cleaning agents, for instance, can
get into small crevices and be more effective.
The study was divided into three phases:
- Phase I, which was reviewed on July 16, reporting results, feedback and the planning of
Phase II of the research;
- Phase II, which brought Petroferm CEO Michael Hayes, Lambent President Tony O'Lenick and
technical director Nelson Prieto to Union's campus Oct. 7 for its review and planning of
Phase III and
- Phase III, which Antoniou, Scarbrough and Baldwin are working on now and will probably
continue through the end of the semester, Baldwin said.
Hayes, a 1974 Union graduate, also requested that Baldwin and the students continue to
do work for Petroferm next year on a parallel project. Union became involved in the
project through Hayes. Baldwin said Hayes began talking with him one or two years ago
about the project, with the results of the study benefitting Petroferm.
| Hayes, a Scotts Hill, Tenn., native, received his degree in chemical
physics in three years at Union and went on to earn his doctorate from the University of
Texas. Since then, Hayes has spoken at Union chapels and also was a finalist in the 1987
U.S. Inventor of the Year Award program for work related to alternative energy systems. He
was renominated in 1988 as Inventor of the Year for work on non-ozone-depleting
substitutes for CFC solvents. |
Scarbrough performs an experiment in her research for 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. Baldwin said Petroferm, in addition to its Fernandina Beach, Fla.,
location, purchased other plants this year in Skokie, Ill., and Norcross, Ga., which now
belong to Lambent.
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