The pioneering work of Promethean Particles, a global leader in the development and manufacture of high-specification nanoparticles for industry, has been rewarded with a top accolade at the prestigious Collaborate to Innovate Awards.
Promethean and its partners were named winners in the Manufacturing Technology category for its novel SHYMAN (sustainable hydrothermal manufacturing of nanomaterials) process. Designed to address key challenges in the future development of nanotechnology, it offers an alternative route to manufacture and unique opportunities for the synthesis of high quality nanoparticles and their formulation.
“We are obviously thrilled to have been recognised by the judging panel and honoured with this much sought-after technical award,” said Laurie Geldenhuys, CEO at Promethean Particles. “The award is testament to the incredible amount of time and effort that our research and development team have put into scaling up our production technology during the SHYMAN project, and I am just delighted for everyone involved that their hard work has been rewarded by peers.”
Judged by a panel of leading UK engineers, the Collaborate to Innovate Awards provide insight into the trends and technologies that are defining modern engineering, while highlighting the collaboration between industry and academia to solve fundamental problems across a variety of sectors.
SHYMAN adopts a unique approach to continuous hydrothermal synthesis, delivering numerous benefits to the manufacturing process for nanoparticles and enabling full scalability. Prof Ed Lester, Technical Director at Promethean, explained: “Continuous hydrothermal synthesis is a relatively new technology and offers a viable alternative to existing production methods.
“Historically, new methods and processes for developing nanomaterials have been difficult to implement due to challenges in material quality, scale up, formulation and the cost of production.
“Working with 17 partners around Europe, the SHYMAN project demonstrated how continuous hydrothermal synthesis can be scalable, sustainable and cost effective, while ensuring stability, reproducibility and consistency for every application,” said Prof Lester.
“This award underlines the impact that disruptive technologies like ours can have on the future of manufacturing, as well as the importance of collaboration within the industry to drive forward change and innovation.”
Promethean has created the world’s largest multi-ton scale nanoparticle manufacturing plant, which has seen manufacturing capability increase from 1 ton per year to more than 1,000 tonnes, to support development of the technology and nano-enabled applications.