Observer Reporter
October 22, 2007
Waynesburg company has a better idea
Editorial
We saw another example last week of how Separation Design Group, a four-year-old research and development company in Waynesburg, is making a name for itself as a place for cutting-edge science and science education.
It was reported that Doug Galbraith, general manager of Separation Design Group, believes an alternative energy device he invented will be able to reduce his building's heating and air conditioning costs by a third.
The innovative heat exchange device should provide some of the electricity the company uses to run its operations at the former Curry Home in Franklin Township.
And apparently, Galbraith has other believers, because his company was awarded a $112,852 grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority as part of $11 million in grants announced by Gov. Ed Rendell for 24 projects that involve innovative, alternative and renewable energy.
What makes this grant significant, in our opinion, is that Separation Design, while employing just 11 people, demonstrates how a company of its size is becoming the future of economic growth for this region.
Last year, Separation Design became the first Greene County company to receive an Innovation Adoption grant from Innovation Works, the region's leading seed-stage investor in technology companies.
That grant, coupled with other funding, including $500,000 from the National Science Foundation, is allowing the company to develop new methods to separate gases and liquids into component parts for applications in energy, health care and other industries.
One device the company is working on will produce oxygen and nitrogen from air in a more energy-efficient manner than existing methods.
Its uses will vary from making combustion engines and fuel cells more efficient to miniaturizing portable oxygen machines for home health care.
Separation Design is indeed becoming the little company that can, and it is quite evident that its success has resulted from an infusion of money and ideas from industry, academia and government.
