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FORT COLLINS, Colo., August 2, 2013—Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (NasdaqGM:AEIS) today announced a partnership with Symbios Technologies LLC, a leading developer of water and energy technologies, to support the development of Symbios’ Tubular Plasma Reactor™ (TPR) for water treatment, with the Advanced Energy (AE) Pinnacle Plus+ pulsed-DC power supply. Symbios was recently awarded a prestigious Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance the TPR for improving the economic and environmental impact of domestic oil and gas extraction.

Under the two-year agreement, AE will provide power supply equipment, technical support and on-site assistance to Symbios for integrating AE’s Pinnacle Plus+ power supply with the Symbios TPR. The purpose of this integration is to optimize power delivery, control, data logging and plasma discharge for the most efficient decontamination of water. Symbios is providing access to R&D and engineering data, as well commercial sales opportunities. The agreement enhances AE’s leadership position in power-conversion technologies, which include solar energy and power-delivery systems for thin-film plasma manufacturing.

Yuval Wasserman, president of AE Thin Films, said, "This agreement demonstrates our continued commitment to advance our thin-film and industrial technologies in new markets by making available our comprehensive, technologically differentiated DC power product line. Symbios Technologies’ TPR product represents a new way to generate plasma for the benefit of cleaner water and more cost-effective energy production. We are proud to be able to bring leading innovation in plasma power conversion to Symbios and their NSF-supported commercialization project.”

The patent-pending Symbios TPR is an innovative approach to eliminating organic pollutants and microorganisms from water by implementing low-power, distributed electrolytic technology. The TPR minimizes the need for chlorine and other chemicals, and can reduce costs of key steps in treating oil and gas wastewaters by 95%. It can also reduce demand for fresh water used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and ease transportation, regulatory and cost issues associated with using chemical oxidants and biocides, while preventing well contamination and equipment corrosion.

“We are excited to partner with Advanced Energy to leverage their depth of experience developing power sources for plasma processes,” said Symbios president and CEO Justin Bzdek. “Symbios’ non-chemical plasma water-treatment system is a potential game-changer in oil and gas wastewater remediation, and could make possible widespread recycling of fracking wastewaters, versus the predominant practice of deep well disposal. Strengthened by the partnership with AE, our technologies also will enable exciting new research and commercial expansion in the power generation, biorefining, pharmaceutical, food and beverage markets.”

“We recognize that the National Science Foundation has a highly selective due diligence process, which makes these awards highly competitive,” continued Mr. Bzdek. “We are honored to be chosen as a recipient by the NSF. The credit for this success goes to our very talented technical and commercialization teams, and to commercial partners such as Advanced Energy.” The NSF’s SBIR program has a sharp focus on identifying companies with the technology and strong teams to bring products and technologies to commercialization that could have a transformational societal impact.
 

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