Water Treatment Chemicals will generate Large IIoW Revenues
There is a tier of knowledge requirements which greatly impact water treatment
revenues. The lowest level involves commodity chemicals which are sold without
any unique knowledge about the industries or processes where the chemicals will
be used.
The highest level would involve knowledge of evolving processes and the
potential water parameters that need to be addressed.
Level two would involve this knowledge for processes as they presently exist.
Level three would involve proprietary chemicals for generic processes like
cooling tower recycle.
The top level requires a high degree of industry knowledge that would probably
come from a niche expert. The WTC company will have the highest knowledge of the
proprietary chemicals to meet the water parameters of paper making or ultrapure
water. The question is: Where does
the knowledge best reside? How much should the water treatment chemical company
have in house? How much should be provided by outside niche experts?
Alternatively, to what extent should the WTC company rely on collaboration.
An example is Andritz in paper making. Should Andritz have more knowledge about
the right treatment chemical and provide that to the WTC company or should the
WTC company talk on equal footing relative to the combined performance of
equipment and chemicals?
Danaher has a powerful combination with the Pall equipment, the Hach
instrumentation and the Chemtreat chemicals. They can function at the highest
levels with information from Pall about membrane processes. How is this
knowledge going to be conveyed? There are four knowledge needs:
Alerts, Answers, Analysis and Advancement. These needs can be conveyed by
printed data posted on an internet site along with recordings. Analysis
includes white papers and on line discussions. The alerts can come with blogs or
formal Alerts.
How does IIoW provide the interconnection to the various resources? There is a
distinction between connection and interconnection. Connection connotes
communication between two parties. Interconnection connotes communication
between multiple parties. IIoW needs to interconnect people with relevant
printed data and other digital tools but also with other people.
An operator within a large multi-divisional end user needs to communicate with
engineering and maintenance as well as people in other divisions. He needs to
also interconnect with suppliers, consultants and research institutions. A
salesman for a supplier company needs all the above connections plus
collaboration with other suppliers. People in a large end user company need to
connect with people in other divisions of the same company, suppliers with end
users in all the divisions and regulatory agencies, consulting companies and
research, educational institutions with each other. Most importantly all the
individuals need connection to niche experts. There needs to be niche experts on
the process developments, the water parameters for existing processes, the best
chemical mix to meet the water parameters from a technology aspect but also
experts on the total lowest cost options. The best chemical might be too
expensive but an alternative may be the best economic choice.
The Water Treatment Chemicals Role in IIoT webinar is slated for Wednesday, May
10, 2017 at 10:00 AM. You can register at:
Weekly IIoT Webinars. We will be
addressing ways that WTC companies can boost revenues by developing and
marketing IIoT tools and also providing the subject matter expertise.
McIlvaine believes that this expertise should be provided as part of an entire
interconnected wisdom network. In fact, the revenue potential for WTC companies
is greater in IIoW to enhance IIoT than in the IIoT itself. WTC companies are
already selling wisdom. They understand customer processes to a much greater
extent than the suppliers of most products. Their margins are already heavily
weighted to the value of the knowledge they are leveraging.
Gas Turbines:
Attemperators continue to be the biggest headache for HRSG operators. This is
one subject which we are addressing in our
Gas Turbine Decisions Insights. You
can see the latest update addressing this challenge at link to
Gas
Turbine Decisions Update Sample.
This service is free of charge to GTCC operators and is available to
others at:
Gas
Turbine and Reciprocating Engine Decisions
Valves:
McIlvaine will be attending Valve World June 20-21 in Houston and will look
forward to meeting with suppliers and end users.
In the meantime, IVS is holding its Valve Summit with lots of very good papers
on valve issues. McIlvaine can attest to this based on attendance at the first
IVS Forum in 2015 in Bergamo, Italy. For more information on IVS click on:
Industrial Valve Summit. The chairman, Maurizio
Brancaleoni of the IVS conference is a former AUMA employee and has created a
very valuable forum.
There are also papers of equal quality on actuators. In some cases, the actuator
will cost more than the valve. McIlvaine is gathering information on the
actuator activities in IIoT. AUMA is one company highly focused on IIoT.
We continue to add to the high performance
Valve Decision Guide The recent additions have
been several articles on Valves for IIoT written by McIlvaine for Valve
World Americas and for Valve World
(printed). The latest article to appear next month in the printed edition will
be on Rising Stem Ball Valve Options and Uses.
Pumps:
McIlvaine will be part of the steering committee for the next Pump
Summit. An organizational meeting will be held June 22nd in Houston.
The Pump Summit will be held in the summer of 2018 in Houston.
For more information click on:
Pump Summit Americas 2018
McIlvaine is routinely examining specific pump markets in considerable detail.
For example, the mining slurry pump market has been determined for each type of
ore based on compilation of pipeline lengths, slurry flows and other parameters.
The Pump Report provides only total mining revenue forecasts for each country,
since copper, bauxite and many other ores are concentrated in certain countries,
the further segmentation is desirable.
Pumps World Market
Scrubber/Adsorber Markets:
The growth markets in this area are waste incineration, mining, odor
control and inorganic chemical manufacturing.
The gray area in the market definition is absorption. The absorption segment
used for air pollution control is included in the Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter
World Markets
report but the mass transfer activities in the chemical industry and other
industries where mass transfer absorption is part of the manufacture of a
product is not included. However, the IIoT potential to monitor and control both
production and air pollution from one remote control center will encourage
suppliers to be involved in both. Already the suppliers of spray nozzles,
packings, linings, pumps and fans for both APC and process applications are the
same.
Sedimentation/Centrifugation:
The recent webinars on IIoT have covered this subject in various ways.
One webinar was directly on sedimentation and centrifugation opportunities. It
was also covered in our water and wastewater webinar from the perspective of
remote monitoring of centrifuges and to adjust polymer doses to optimize cake
dryness. Monitoring of the level control for clarifiers is now also being done
remotely. For more information click on:
Sedimentation and Centrifugation World Markets
Liquid Filtration:
The recent webinar on filtration chronicled the increasing use of remote
monitoring to determine filter health. The potential to supply all the filters
for a plant based on remote monitoring and control will be increasingly
attractive as IIoT and Remote O&M expands. The acquisition of Clarcor by Parker
Hannifin benefits from the Clarcor Total Solutions Division. This division has
revenues close to $100 million based on offering all the filters for a plant,
whether they are made by Clarcor or a competitor. The cost saving from the
administration alone is attractive to operators. For more information click on:
Liquid Filtration and Media World Markets
Fabric Filters:
BWF now has a 4-meter-long ceramic candle. One of the concerns about
ceramic filters has been the 3-meter height. The potential to remove acid gases,
NOx and particulate in one device creates a big opportunity for this
technology. For more information click on:
World Fabric Filter and Element Market
FGD:
In our last FGD newsletter we listed a large number of ammonia scrubbing
systems installed by JNEP. Most are on coal-fired industrial boilers. The
potential to sell ammonium sulfate as a byproduct is attractive. As the gypsum
wall board market becomes saturated, the attractiveness of systems to make
sulfuric acid, fertilizer and other sulfur products becomes more attractive.
Combined heat and power is also very attractive due to doubling of energy
efficiency. Combining byproduct steam with sulfur by products should be
increasingly attractive in developing countries where industrial coal-fired
capacity is increasing. For more information on FGD World Markets click on:
FGD
Market and Strategies
All the projects are tracked in the
Utility Tracking System
Flow Control and Treatment is One Market
The movement of air, water, gases and non-aqueous liquids is closely tied to the
treatment of those liquids. Treatment includes heat transfer, separation,
filtration and reaction.
The advent of IIoT will provide a strong link to the range of flow and treat
products. With remote operation and monitoring all flow and treat operations can
be remotely controlled. When a process change or adjustment is needed it is very
likely to be a valve adjustment to reduce or increase flow. Variable speed pumps
will be increasingly used in the future for better remote control, but also to
reduce energy consumption. In the IIoT era manual valves will be replaced with
actuated valves which are connected to the remote-control center.
IIoT will create major changes in the way flow and treat products are marketed.
Third parties will be buying many of the products. Flow and treat product
suppliers will need to change their sales approach to reach these new customers.
In the IIoT era sales will be based on proven lowest total cost of ownership.
The feedback on the performance of the existing products will be the
equivalent of white papers informing buyers of the true performance of the
product. The digital world of IIoT will make the local salesman less important.
It will allow the supplier to leverage the knowledge of the company experts who
will have more direct contact with the buyers. Global sourcing and contracts for
all the flow and treatment components will be more common.
Many companies are positioning themselves for the IIoT era. Danaher will be
leveraging the activities of the Pall filter group, the Hach monitoring
division, and the Chemtreat treatment chemicals. The cleanliness of a Pall
filter will be assured by feedback on the pressure drop and other parameters
with Hach instruments. Chemtreat desalination chemicals will then be varied to
assure that the membrane surface cleanliness is maintained.
Suez has purchased GE Water, so it can now operate wastewater plants and control
them remotely from its French control center. It can add more of the GE Betz
chemicals as needed. It can also control all the Degremont and GE filters and
clarifiers in the plants through one cloud platform.
The acquisition of the Pentair valve division by Emerson is now complete. This
created the world's largest valve company to be integrated with the pumps and
extensive IIoT software and hardware offered by Emerson.
The market for all flow and treat products is $350 billion per year. Of this
total $35 billion is already in the IIoT and Remote O&M category. Over the next
ten years this segment will be growing at 13% per year compounded starting with
$4.5 billion next year. For more information on Flow and Treat markets click on
Air/Gas/Water/Fluid Treatment and Control: World Market.
Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com