Our work with Dr. Steve Daren started in 2007, when we needed to scale up the production of our micelle-clay complex from a laboratory production to a semi-industrial scale, which was needed for constructing a pilot filter for purification of water from perchlorate. The laboratory of Steve was well equipped and shining clean. He grasped the problems immediately and gave us useful suggestions which he carried out in his laboratory. Consequently we could avoid a long process of centrifugation by a combination of decantation and a use of a Buchner funnel, and have our complex produced on time. During our encounter we were impressed with the knowledge of Steve in the area of Applied Chemistry and the accurate and prompt execution, which also projected motivation and enthusiasm to his coworkers and employees.
Our encounter with Dr Steve Daren enabled us to widen our scope and helped us significantly in succeeding with our pilot. Later on we utilized the knowledge, experience and creativity of Steve in another area. He succeeded to develop a promising process of synthesizing our surfactant. His scheme when carried out on an industrial scale will reduce the price of the surfactant, which we employ by about 40%, which can make our water purification economically appealing and relieve us from being dependent on external sources.
Sincerely,
Dr. Shlomo Nir, Professor emeritus
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Faculty of Agric., Food & Environ. Sci.,
And CTO , EnGibton Company