Insights of the Week
Chemical IIoT Webinar Wednesday, June 7, 2017 will cover activities of 3 of the top 20 chemical companies and lay out a plan to reach all 20 with IIoW (Wisdom) about all the flow and treat products and services. This includes displays of many contacts with the decision makers, details on plants and processes, and upcoming projects.
To register for this webinar click on Weekly IIoT Webinars
Huaneng is Example of Concentration of Purchasing in a Few Companies - Most of the flow and treat equipment and services for the power industry are purchased by a few companies. Huaneng Power International, Inc. is one of China's largest listed power producers with controlled generation capacity of 101,270 MW and equity-based generation capacity of 89,486 MW, so it is making decisions relative to 190,000 MW of capacity. Its power plants are located in 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. It also has a wholly-owned power company in Singapore. It is also the first Chinese company to rank in the Fortune 500. The company has shown a willingness to buy the best equipment and systems regardless of the country of origin. It purchased a forward osmosis system from Boston-based Oasys Water for its zero liquid discharge system installed at the Changxing power plant, a 1300 MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant. The 2 x 660 MW FGD systems were supplied by Wuhan Kaidi through a technology license with B&W. More details on the Chinese utilities are found in 41F Utility E-Alert.
Valve World June 20, 2l in Houston - Bob McIlvaine will be at Valve World and will be available for discussions. During the show you can reach him by cell phone at 847 226 2391. Prior to the show you can reach him at 847-784-0012 ext. 112 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com. He will also be attending the Pump Summit steering committee meeting on the 22nd. More details on the expo are found at Valve World Expo Americas
Interconnection of Knowledge and People Important for IIoT
There is consensus that the Industrial Internet of Things will bring major changes. The billions of dollars being spent to add and analyze sensors for all the valves, pumps, and processes will have a very high ROI.
Little attention is being paid to the importance of interconnecting knowledge and people. However, this Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW) will create as much opportunity for suppliers of flow and treat equipment and services as IIoT. At one level the supplier of a valve increases revenue by adding a sensor to his product. The bigger potential is use of the generated information to design a better valve for the application or to offer an annual guaranteed maintenance contract.
When products are continually sensed and the information analyzed a mass of total cost of ownership data is being generated. This knowledge will require more wisdom to make the best use of it. As cloud-based systems provide data on all the components at all the plants, there will be more global sourcing and global total cost of ownership analyses.
Sales promotion to some extent will be obsolesced by hard information about the product generated by IIoT. Other internet developments will also contribute to a new marketing environment. The coming generation of decision makers is already accustomed to internet based decision making and electronic interconnection.
The availability of data about plants, projects, and people through the Internet will allow suppliers to conduct business with potential purchasers through web based meetings following a whole series of electronic interchanges.
The trend toward global sourcing combined with the growing size of the largest purchasers will result in decision making for most products by a few hundred or at most a few thousand people. Information about these people and access to them is provided by multiple routes including LinkedIn.
Access to these people is only the first step. With IIoT and IIoW the customer will be a much more sophisticated buyer and will be much more likely to buy based on lowest total cost of ownership than in the past.
The grand strategy is laid out in N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M. This continually updated service analyzes the markets and strategies for 15 different industries, for many processes within those industries, and for the flow and treat components and services. This strategic analysis is complimented by a number of specific reports with markets and strategies as listed in MARKETS.
The need for internet information on plants and projects is addressed in DATABASES.
The interconnection with people is facilitated by PEOPLE. This compliments personal interconnection through LinkedIn.
The total cost of ownership evaluations is facilitated by DECISIONS.
This week McIlvaine is focusing on IIoT in the chemical industry. The top 20 chemical companies are identified. The IIoT programs, plants, projects and other relevant data for BASF, Dow and Covestro are also provided. You can register for this webinar at Weekly IIoT Webinars
McIlvaine also provides consulting and IIoT based marketing programs as explained in the
4 Lane Knowledge Bridge to the End User and Detailed Forecasting of Markets, Prospects and Projects
If you would like to discuss these services with Bob McIlvaine you can reach him at 847-784-0012 ext. 112 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
Cross Flow Membrane Market is Changing
The market for cross flow membrane equipment and consumables will be changing and evolving faster in the next decade than in the past few decades. This is the forecast in N020 RO, UF, MF World Market.
This change will be a combination of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and improved technology. IIoT will create the equivalent of millions of continually updated total cost of ownership analyses which in turn will guide developers to better cross flow processes and hardware.
For example, ceramic ultrafiltration and microfiltration membranes are more costly than their polymeric counterparts. Continuous improvement in the design is leading to higher performing and longer-lived ceramic membranes. When sensors are reporting the comparative performance at each installation, the value of improvements will be quickly communicated.
Forward osmosis is another example of a technology which can be better evaluated as the performance of each installation is continually monitored. The power industry in China is using forward osmosis in at least one zero liquid discharge system. The continuous sensing of components and analysis of transmitted data will provide many insights on improving the components in the very large and growing ZLD market in China.
Some of the biggest changes in the industry will be in the way cross flow equipment and replacement modules are marketed. The present market is $11.2 billion worldwide. Of this total $1 billion is already purchased as part of IIoT and Remote O&M. This IIoT and remote O&M segment will grow to $2.5 billion by 2024 according to McIlvaine forecasts.
This segment includes smart products and the revenues from the sensors and software. But it also includes new routes to market. Third parties will be making purchasing decisions which were formerly made by the end user. Some of the purchases will be made by comprehensive IIoT providers such as Accenture. Others will be made by collaboration among suppliers. Some of these collaborations will be intra-company.
One of these intra-company efforts is being undertaken by Danaher. Pall, Hach, and Chemtreat are all divisions of Danaher. Pall provides the membrane equipment and replacement modules. Hach measures the performance of the membranes and Chemtreat provides the chemicals and process knowledge to make the systems cost effective. Danaher will be in a position to provide remote O&M and annual contracts to membrane operators.
Suez now has a huge intra-company collaboration opportunity with the acquisition of GE Water. Suez is already remotely monitoring and operating water and wastewater facilities from a center in France. GE brings the extensive supply of chemicals and process knowledge as well as filtration knowledge in many industrial applications. This will allow Suez to duplicate in the process industries what it is already doing for municipalities.
Membrane suppliers will need to choose a path in the new IIoT era. They can be content to supply products at a discount to an aggregator or they can take a more proactive role through collaboration. For more information on the cross flow membrane market click on N020 RO, UF, MF World Market.
More information on IIoT may be found at N031 Industrial IoT and Remote Monitoring

Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com