WFI 2021 Press Release

Waterloo Filtration Institute 2021 Annual Conference – A Resounding Success!! The Waterloo Filtration Institute 2021 Annual Conference (WFI 2021) was held online, December 7-8, 2021, with over 200 attendees from different countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. The theme was Post Pandemic / Future Clean Air and Water Solutions. 16 globally leading experts from academia and the industry presented the latest developments associated with clean air and water solutions in the following four sessions: 1. Market Dynamics and Mega Trends after COVID-19 2. Novel Clean Air Solutions for Public Health 3. Emerging Technologies in Water Filtration 4. New Techniques in Product Evaluation

The two-day conference was Chaired by Christine Sun (WFI), Jay Forcucci (Cerex Advanced Fabrics), and Richard Lydon, The Filtration Society (UK). Bob Mcilvaine (The Mcilvaine Company), Thomas Caesar (Freudenberg Filtration Technologies), Thomas Peters (Dr.-Ing. Peters Consulting), and Swarna Agarwal (Parker Hannifin) moderated the four sessions where they served as the session chairs. Once again, our sincere thanks to all the 16 distinguished speakers for their outstanding support and fantastic live presentations at WFI 2021. Sean O’Reilly, AAF Flanders, USA You-Zhi Tang, Canada CleanTech Capital, Canada Bob Mcilvaine, The Mcilvaine Company, USA Tyler Smith, Johnson Controls, USA ​Thomas Caesar, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies, Germany Christof Asbach, Institute of Energy and Environmental Technology, Germany Zhengwei Long, HVAC Engineering, Tianjin University, China Ellie Amirnasr, qlair, USA Jochen Kallenberg, Dryden Aqua, Switzerland Kuo-lun (Allan) Tung, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Peter Fiske, National Alliance for Water Innovation, USA Antti Häkkinen, LUT University, Finland ​Sarah Smit, Nelson Laboratories, LLC, USA Al Vatine, LMS Technologies, Inc., USA Nicolas Petillon, IFTS, France Miao Li, Cummins Filtration, USA

The WFI 2021 Annual Conference Proceedings & Video Recordings are now available on-demand HERE. Product of the Year Awards The awards were presented and announced by Mitch McCreary, Director of Marketing (WFI). He acknowledged the record number of nominations received from around the globe and introduced the critical criteria used by our panel of experts in the Award Committee. 9 out of 25 very competitive nominees were awarded in 4 different categories.

Product of the Year: AAF/Flanders (USA) – AstroPure (Air Purifier) and Parker Hannifin (USA) – Medium duty Diesel Fuel media used with medium-duty trucks diesel fuel coalescing.

Innovative Products of the Year: Dryden Aqua (Switzerland) – AFM; Hollingsworth and Vose (USA) – Trupor Membranes; Aimwell (Australia) – AYO face mask, and TSI (USA) – TSI (8150) online face mask tester.

Emerging Technologies of the Year: Molymem Ltd (UK), a new spin-out company from the University of Manchester for an innovative nano-coating for next-generation membranes, and Tiangong University in conjunction with Tianshengyuan Glass Microfiber Technology Co., LTD (China) for Novel Hi-Temp Filter Media.

Innovative Idea of the Year: Corsi- Rosenthal box (USA) as a DIY MERV 13 filter for Pandemic air filter needs.

Students of The Year The conference ended with CFSS 2021 Certification Ceremony on December 8, 2021. It was hosted by Christine Sun, President of WFI. 18 out of 42 students in the CFSS 2021 class successfully passed the exam and were certified as CFSSs. Among them, two students who achieved the most received the Student of the Year award:

Tianle You, Graduate Student of South China University Technology, China

J. Bart Sistrunk, Commercial Director of SWM International, USA “It is an honor to have the opportunity to have taken these courses” –Tainle You “It’s important for all to continue to grow and learn with a top-notched training program such as the WFI CFSS program.” – Bart Sistrunk Register for the CFSS 2022 Class Now for a 10% WFI 2021 Event Discount until Dec. 31, 2021 Some Comments from Conference Attendees “Very rich content Congratulations” – Michael Wong, Secretary-General, Hong Kong Nonwovens Association “Great Speakers much more evolved over last year” – Paul Marold, COO Buckman “Thanks for inviting me as a speaker to such a distinguished event” – Jochen Kallenberg, Director of Water Treatment, Dryden Aqua We here at Waterloo Filtration Institute want to thank all of our speakers, panelists, committee members, moderators, and chairs for contributing to this very successful annual conference and our CFSS 2021 education program. Thank you all for your participation.

We Wish You All a Very Happy Holiday Season!!!