Building on the success of previous years, a record number of delegates from seven different countries attended the latest Filtration Society two-day technical meeting. Held at the Ramada Hotel in Chester, UK in October, Filter Media 5 was the fifth international event focused on filter media and combined a training session, conference and exhibition.

Professor Richard Wakeman and Dr Steven Tarleton, co-authors of ‘The Dictionary of Filtration and Separation‘, presented a short course on the opening day. This introduced both seasoned scientists and newcomers to the latest developments in filter media.

"In addition to the quality technical content, one of the reasons for the popularity of the training course is that it is very time efficient, taking  delegates away from the office or laboratory for just one day," said Dr Graham Rideal, science correspondent and former chairman of The Filtration Society, and CEO of Whitehouse Scientific.

The main conference featured presentations from EP Minerals, Outotec, Colbond bv, Filtration Solutions, Porex Filtration, GKD - Geb, Palas GmbH and Whitehouse Scientific and covered a wide range of novel filter media and performance testing methods.  Abstracts are available on The Filtration Society website www.filtsoc.org.uk  with a complete bound set  of notes offered for purchase.                                                                            

The second day of Filter Media 5 also featured the very popular ‘Technology Burst' from the exhibitors:  G Bopp, Croft Services, Helapet, Palas GmbH, Ralph G Wilson, TSI, and Whitehouse Scientific. Most companies delivered a 10-minute poster of their products, which was very well received.

"After the resounding success of Filter Media 5 we are now looking forward to the 2012 meetings," said Dr Rideal. "The current schedule includes a range of filtration related conferences culminating in the main event of the year: Filter Testing and Characterisation in October. Such is the interest in this topic that the event will now be over 3 days and will be open to anyone involved in the subject"

Founded in London in 1964, the Filtration Society is a charitable organisation and throughout its tenure has forged equally strong links with industry and academia. Its primary objectives are to promote research and development, transfer existing technologies into new applications, and to advance the fields of filtration and separation. www.filtsoc.org.uk 

Whitehouse Scientific produces precision glass microspheres for calibration and is the world's leading manufacturer of single-shot glass microsphere standards. www.whitehousescientific.com