August 2015 - Power Air Quality Insights 220

Sales calls, advertising and exhibiting by air, gas, liquid, water flow control and equipment suppliers are all predicated on certain assumptions relative to the identity of the decision maker for the product being sold. McIlvaine analyses in N064 Air/Gas/Water/Fluid Treatment and Control: World Market show that there is a continuing shift in responsibility. The following trends are clear:

· The divide between how decisions are made on commodity vs. engineered products widens,

· Decisions for a specific engineered product are concentrated in fewer individuals,

· The total number of decision makers increases due to the increasing number of product categories which are purchased,

· The challenge to assimilate the needed knowledge to make buying decisions continues to grow.

Commodity vs. Engineered Products: Decisions on commodity products continue to be made by the purchasing department. They are concerned about reliability of supply and cost, but rarely need input from other departments. On the other hand, the complexity of engineered product and particularly those which can impact the company’s quality control are likely to be made with greater input from engineering and operating management and less on purchasing.

Purchasing people expect to be reactive and respond to seller inputs. So direct sales contact, sales leads and similar tools gain in importance. Those making decisions on engineered products tend to be proactive and now tend to make decisions over longer time spans. Gone are the days when the foreign delegation would attend the Tri Annual ACHEMA fair and have to make major decisions on the spot. These decisions are now forged over time and from a number of sources. The supplier who waits for the sales lead or formal specification is in difficulty.

Concentration of decision making in fewer individuals. Growth of large companies and the trend toward internationalization result in key product decisions being made by a few individuals. An engineer at Intel may make high efficiency filter selections for semiconductor facilities throughout the world. A valve expert at Petrobas will make key decisions about severe service valves which may influence the selection of hundreds of thousands of valves per year.

Another factor in the continuing concentration of decision making is the rapidly growing amount of knowledge which may be relevant to the decision. Niche experts are needed to keep up with this knowledge explosion.

Increasing numbers of decision makers. The knowledge explosion dictates that pump and valve decisions be made by separate individuals. The specialist on subsea valves will not be involved in decisions on valves for LNG plants. The engineer making scrubber decisions for EON will not be making the decisions on products to upgrade precipitator transformer rectifier sets.

With more and more decision makers each influencing greater numbers of purchasing decisions, it becomes a major challenge for suppliers to reach the right person at the right time. Understanding of the inner workings of the target companies becomes more important than obtaining the specification for the latest project. If the expert does not already have you on the “short” list, early access to a specification is not valuable.

Face-to-face discussions diminish in importance. A new generation of decision makers who is constantly communicating digitally has less time for face-to-face discussions and is relying on alternatives for critical decisions. Personal relationships will always be important but they are now complemented by many other communication tools.

Greater reliance on life cycle cost rather than initial price. In the past it has been difficult to make life cycle cost comparisons between competitive products. The access to reliable comparisons is resulting is increasing use of this tool.

The challenge to assimilate needed knowledge. Knowledge continues to expand and the human brain does not. The purchaser must now rely on niche experts who can keep up with the latest developments. The seller has to create new routes to supply the niche expertise. The local sales representative cannot deliver it and the customer cannot supply it. Sellers who effectively address this need have a substantial advantage.

The responsibility shifts dictate new approaches to the market. McIlvaine has created a unique new route to market with free decision systems for operator and owners. They include:

SunEdison Closes $390 Million of Financing for 300 Megawatt Wind Farm in Texas

SunEdison, Inc. announced that it has closed financing and begun construction on one of its largest wind farms to date, the 300-megawatt (MW) South Plains II wind farm in Floyd County, Texas.

The wind farm is expected to generate approximately 1,200 gigawatt-hours of energy each year, enough to power more than 90,000 Texas homes.

Citi provided the construction loan facilities for the project and BHE Renewables, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, in partnership with Citi, will invest in the tax equity.

The project is being built by Mortenson Construction, one of the nation's top wind farm builders; and the wind turbines are being supplied by Vestas.

Hewlett-Packard plans to purchase 112 megawatts of the wind farm's capacity to power 100 percent of its Texas-based data centers as part of the company's sustainable cloud initiative. The remaining 188 MW capacity will be sold to an affiliate of Citi.

Construction is targeted for completion in 2016. Operation and maintenance of the wind power plants will be performed by SunEdison Services, which provides global asset management, monitoring and reporting services.

SkyPower Awarded 200 MW of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Projects in the State of Telangana, India

SkyPower announced that it has been awarded 200 MW in the Telangana, India solar competitive tender process. This 200 MW award from Telangana is in addition to the 150 MW of projects awarded to SkyPower in the State of Madhya Pradesh in July, for a total of 350 MW. Once built, the projects from both states are anticipated to be in excess of 400 MW of solar nameplate capacity.

SkyPower considers India to be one of the key solar markets in the world that holds tremendous growth potential as is evident by the Government's commitment to rapidly increasing the country's electrification rate and helping to support and foster the growth of what clearly is a trillion dollar industry.

KYOCERA Solar Lights Up Arco Metropolitano, Brazil's Largest Solar-Powered Highway

Kyocera Corporation and Kyocera Solar, Inc. announced that Kyocera is completing Brazil’s largest highway solar-lighting project on the Arco Metropolitano do Rio de Janeiro, a highway project connecting the five main highways crossing Rio de Janeiro. Slightly more than half of the 145-kilometer highway will be lit at night by stand-alone solar streetlights powered by Kyocera solar modules, installed by Soter over the last two years with funding from the Rio de Janeiro State Government.

This enormous transportation initiative is helping to streamline transit logistics, improve traffic and reduce importing costs throughout the region — especially for industries such as petrochemicals, which export from the Port of Itaguaí. Improved transportation is expected to stimulate economic growth in this rural region, which was not easily accessible in the past.

The 3.2MW (DC) solar lighting project encompasses more than 4,300 solar-powered, free-standing streetlights, which are expected to produce 2.8 GWh of solar energy per year.

“From preliminary reports, the Brazilian government expects Arco Metropolitano to provide 16,000 jobs to the region and generate US$90 million in tax revenue from sales tax generated at the municipal and federal levels, while bringing together parts of the country that were not easily accessible before,” said Sergio Beninca, President of Kyocera Solar do Brasil.

ContourGlobal and the Republic of Armenia Announce Purchase of the Vorotan Hydroelectric Facility

ContourGlobal and the Republic of Armenia announced the completion of the acquisition of the Vorotan hydroelectric facility, a series of three individual power plants with a total electrical capacity of 405 MW on the Vorotan River in southern Armenia.

ContourGlobal also announced that the International Finance Corporation ("IFC"), a member of the World Bank Group, has acquired a 20% interest in ContourGlobal Hydro Cascade to help acquire, operate, and rehabilitate the Vorotan Hydropower Cascade. The project aims to enhance electricity supply reliability and strengthen the country's power sector.

The acquisition represents the largest single U.S. private investment in Armenia's history and the first U.S. investment in Armenia's energy sector. The Vorotan Hydro Cascade accounts for roughly 15% of the installed capacity of Armenia's electricity system and provides sufficient energy to power 250,000 homes.

Under the terms of the agreement, ContourGlobal Hydro Cascade will own and operate the three hydroelectric facilities located on the Vorotan River and will supply power to the Armenian grid under a long-term power purchase agreement. ContourGlobal will invest more than € 50 million over the next six years in a refurbishment program to modernize the plants and improve their operational performance, safety, reliability and efficiency. ContourGlobal expects the modernization to create 150 near-term jobs in addition to the 150 long-term technicians employed at the plants.

The acquisition will contribute to ContourGlobal's renewable energy portfolio, which currently comprises approximately 1000 MW of hydro, wind, solar and biogas production in Latin America, Europe and Africa.

SCRA announced the successful completion of the Landfill Gas- to-Hydrogen project, which was conducted at the BMW Manufacturing Company's Spartanburg facility. “BMW was happy to facilitate the trial conversion of landfill gas into renewable hydrogen”

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-supported project explored the economic and technical feasibility of converting landfill gas into hydrogen of sufficient purity to power fuel cell vehicles, including material handling equipment. BMW’s facility currently operates a fleet of more than 350 pieces of material handling equipment across the 5.6 million square foot production facility, all powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

SCRA and the DOE conceived the project based on the department’s broad interest in examining biogas sources that could be used to generate renewable hydrogen, and BMW's interest in exploring whether landfill gas-sourced hydrogen could provide the company an on-site hydrogen production capability. BMW currently procures its hydrogen from a large industrial gas supplier.

The first phase of the Landfill Gas-to-Hydrogen Project showed that a viable business case can be made for large scale operation. The second phase of the project confirmed that commercially-available technologies are available to recover fuel cell-quality hydrogen from a landfill gas source. As the final step in the project, several of BMW’s material handling equipment units were fueled with hydrogen from the project equipment with no detectable difference in performance compared to that achieved when fueled by the existing delivered hydrogen at BMW.

The Landfill Gas-to-Hydrogen project team was led by SCRA, with technical support from the Gas Technology Institute and Ameresco, Inc. DOE provided both technical support and half of the funding for the $1.3 million project. Additional funding for the project was provided by BMW, SCRA, the Blue Moon Foundation, Urban Renewable Hydrogen and the Columbia Fuel Cell Collaborative.

“Total Solutions” is the Hot Topic Hour on August 20, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. CST

Owners of plants with air pollution challenges are increasingly looking for suppliers who will provide a “Total Solution.” In the broadest sense this can be the determination of how to meet the emission goals followed by a turnkey installation with operational and maintenance support. The webinar at 10:00 a.m. CST will provide owners with options that are available and the advantages of each.

Martin Schroter, Senior Manager of Business Development at Duerr Systems, Inc.

Bill Gretta, Vice-president, Power Plant Solutions Division of Eneractive Solutions

Nathan White, Director, Business Development, SCR/DeNO_x Catalyst & Technology at Haldor Topsoe, Inc.

Mike Gregory, Business Development, Capital Equipment at Industrial Accessories Company/IAC

Michael James Widico, Vice-President, Business Development at KC Cottrell, Inc.

Stewart McKenzie, Sales & Marketing Manager, Environmental Division, Lechler, Inc.

Josh Lemaire, Vice-president, Business Development and Marketing for Montrose Environmental Group, Inc. and Erick Mirabella, Vice President, Business Development and Marketing for Montrose Air Quality Services

John Albritton, Regional Sales Manager at Paragon Airheater Technologies, Inc.

Tom Van Remmen, Vice-president, Global Sales and Marketing at Verantis Environmental Solutions Group

Steve Feeney, Manager National Sales, Aftermarkets at Babcock & Wilcox Power Generating Group

Jeff Williams, Director, Advanced Control Solutions at Emerson Process Management, Power & Water Solutions

Regis D'Angelo, Manager, Sales and Marketing at MET Marsulex Environmental Technologies

Factor	Example
Complex systems with multiple control steps	Coal-fired boilers, cement kilns, chemical processes
Valuable final product recovery	Precious metal mining
Valuable process product recovery	Refinery catalyst, solvents in chemical and surface treatment
Difficult compliance with air permit	Many industries in many countries where even start up and shut down emissions are important
Safety	Explosive gases
Health	Semiconductor toxic fumes
Potential for air pollution control system to negatively impact operations	Many industries
Lack of skilled personnel within the plant	Continuous trend
Success of remote monitoring	Applicable to all pollutants and operating parameters
Ability of suppliers to provide a lower cost alternative	Reduction of repairs, downtime, energy consumption, etc.

Options	Example
Preliminary system design	CECO offers CFD modeling and design for rolling mill fume control including the important industrial ventilation ductwork to reduce air volume
Turnkey system with unique combination of pollution control devices	MEGTEC sewage sludge incineration systems with oxidizer, scrubber and wet precipitator. Trimer supplies PM_2.5^, NO_x reduction and acid gas capture in one device
Turnkey system with total operational control	FLS offers this option for cement kilns
System and reagent integration	Dürr and ClearChem supply pulverized limestone injection in the furnace followed by a catalytic filter
BOO and byproduct sales	MET offers this system to convert SO₂ to ammonium sulfate fertilizer
Remote monitoring of operations	Many examples
Guaranteed cost bag replacement program	Supplier monitors operations and replaces bags as needed at a fixed yearly cost
Routine service programs	Replace all parts in system, regular inspections, continuous remote monitoring

The webinar will be free of charge to both suppliers and plant owners. McIlvaine will be compiling a Decision Guide with assistance from the suppliers over the next five weeks. Those with information on Total Solutions which they would like to share should contact Bob McIlvaine at: rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com 847-784-0012 ext. 112.

· Chinese Lenders lead Team to finance 300 MW Zambian Coal-fired Power Plant

· Gemma Power Systems Enters into an EPC Agreement with Exelon for 200 MW Peaking Power Plant at West Medway

· Stadtwerke Kiel, Kraftanlagen München and GE are building 190 MW Cogeneration Power Plant in Germany

· Ansaldo to convert 6^th of October Power Plant to Combined Cycle (Egypt)

· Deal to build UK Nuclear Power Plant (Hinkley Point C) should be finalized within Weeks

· OEMs, EPCs and Consultants will account for Flow Control and Treatment Purchases of $68 Billion in 2015

· Catalysts were a Major Focus at the August 6 McIlvaine Hot Topic Hour Discussion of GT Exhaust Systems

On Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. Central time, McIlvaine hosts a 90 minute web meeting on important energy and pollution control subjects. These Webinars are free of charge to owner/operators of the plants. They are also free to McIlvaine Subscribers of Power Plant Air Quality Decisions and Utility Tracking System. The cost for others is $300.00 per webinar.

See below for information on upcoming Hot Topic Hours. We welcome your input relative to suggested additions.

DATE	SUBJECT	DESCRIPTION
August 20, 2015	Total Solution Options	More Information