History
Technical ingenuity has distinguished Applied Filter Technology since Paul Tower, CEO and founder, invented the first cure for siloxane buildup in 1996.
Paul was hired by a Sacramento wastewater treatment plant to root out whatever was blocking its turbines and costing the company $2 million a year in turbine exhaust catalyst replacements. An analysis of the gas showed the culprit to be siloxane — a man-made material common in consumer products like shampoo, adhesives and solvents that later forms a glass-like substance which destroys energy generation equipment.
By inventing a graphite molecular sieve that adsorbed 100 percent of the siloxane, Paul was able to restore the facility’s turbines to optimum function, enabling clean gas flow for energy generation. This high-impact achievement led to calls from other plants.
Paul set out to alleviate contaminant problems across all biogas and wastewater systems, and Applied Filter Technology was born.
Since that time, AFT has developed proprietary and patented technologies for the following core competencies:
- Consulting
- Siloxane removal
- Compression issues
- Moisture removal
- Sulfur removal
- Filtering of non-methane volatiles
- Carbon dioxide removal
- Packaged plants
- Full system processes
- Biogas testing and engineering
Now, 14 years after that first job in Sacramento, AFT has developed biogas treatment systems for hundreds of projects worldwide. The drive to innovate fuels an entrepreneurial spirit that has run through the company since Paul’s breakthrough in Sacramento, and it will remain the backbone of AFT’s approach.