Welcome to Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. (AFR), a privately
owned small business, founded in 1980, that supplies contract research,
product development and analytical services to corporate research centers,
research institutes, and government laboratories.
AFR’s initial work employed advanced Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR)
spectroscopy methods to understand the starting composition and reaction
behavior of fuels. These diagnostic techniques were subsequently extended
to a wide range of applications, including the measurement of gas
compositions and temperatures, particle size distributions, and the
thickness, temperature, optical properties, and composition of thin films.
Through this research, AFR scientists and engineers became pioneers in
infrared instrumentation and its applications, producing numerous patents
and publications.
AFR has diversified into a range of
technologies and applications through the addition of leading researchers
in a broad range of technical areas, including: gas turbine
instrumentation, spectroscopy, carbon materials, distributed energy
generation, alternative fuels, hydrogen generation and storage,
waste-to-energy conversion, coal and biomass fuels, mercury control,
radiation detection, robotic vision, electronic materials and testing
devices, and image analysis. Applications include: defense, homeland
security, energy, aerospace, chemical, semiconductor, pharmaceutical,
biotech, fuel cells, medical and educational software.
AFR has had significant prior
commercialization experience resulting from its involvement in the Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. These include the
direct sale of products, licensing, and the creation of spin-off
companies. The first spin-off activity included the creation of On-Line
Technologies, Inc. (OLT) in 1991. OLT specialized in the development and
marketing of FT-IR based process monitoring equipment for the
semiconductor industry and environmental applications. It was purchased by
MKS Instruments in 2001 and is now called the
On-Line Products
Group. The second spin-off was
Real-Time
Analyzers, Inc., which was created in 2001 to develop, manufacture,
and market FT-Raman Instruments for process monitoring and homeland
security applications. In early 2006, AFR created its
ImTelligence business
unit to focus on advanced image analysis technologies, including
video-centric radiation detection for homeland security applications.
Pre-commercial business units have been established for gas turbine
monitoring (TurboSense), alternative energy (Next
Generation Energy), and technology enhanced science education (Science
in Motion).
AFR was a winner of the coveted Small
Business Administration's 2000 Tibbetts Award for commercialization of
innovative technologies, and, since 1994, AFR has been a four-time winner of
the R&D 100 Award, for developing one of the 100 most technologically
significant new products of the year. AFR today supplies its services to
leading industrial and academic clients throughout the world. AFR's
core competencies include: R&D Services,
Clean Energy & Carbon Materials,
Energy Consulting,
Combustion Monitoring & Control, and
Electronic Materials.
