NEWS RELEASE May 2017
Water Treatment Chemical Companies will play a Leading Role in IIoT and Remote O&M
Water treatment chemical (WTC) companies presently derive substantial profit from their process knowledge. This asset will be leveraged in the new world of IIoT to create double digit profit growth for those who seize the opportunity. The profit increase will include:
- Higher margins per pound of chemicals sold
- Broader sales penetration
- Global sourcing opportunities
- Feedback leading to faster product development and more profitable products
- Ancillary IIoT related products and services
- Reduced travel and sales expense
Water treatment chemicals companies have traditionally been selling a combination of knowledge and product. Sales engineers have fulfilled a service and advisory role. The value added has been process knowledge and the ability to provide the right mix of chemicals.
Specific Opportunities
IIoT and Remote O&M can be viewed in terms of a pyramid of bits of data.
But in terms of profitability, wisdom and knowledge will be even more important than the information and data. WTC companies can leverage this in their core WTC and non-core businesses to add revenues of $30 billion in 2025.
| Water Treatment Chemical IIoW Empowered IIoT Opportunity | ||
|
CATEGORY |
2025 REVENUE ($ BILLIONS) |
PERCENT |
| Conventional Treatment Chemical Revenue |
39 |
2.8 |
| IIoT Supplemental Opportunity | 30 | 2.2 |
| Sub Total | 69 | 5 |
| Total Specialty Chemical | 1400 | 100 |
The $69 billion is only 5% of the specialty chemical opportunity. For companies such as Suez the larger opportunity is measured in tens of billions of dollars. In the McIlvaine IIoT and wastewater webinar the power of the combination of GE Water with Suez remote monitoring and operation of water and wastewater treatment facilities was demonstrated.
BASF has an opportunity even larger than that of Suez. In the broadest sense, it is investing heavily in sustainability. As a result, BASF can offer clients improved “sustainability” and not just higher profits. (McIlvaine has developed a simple metric to measure sustainability based on individual life quality impacts ((Sustainability Universal Rating System). BASF can leverage its IIoT efforts in its manufacturing plants with its WTC IIoT efforts.
The core market includes chemicals to treat water, wastewater, steam and slurries.
Pulp and Paper Making is a unique market for many treatment companies. Water treatment chemicals are part of a larger category labelled specialty chemicals or performance chemicals. The market for this broader category is $1 trillion per year. Large players include Dow Chemical, BASF, Bayer, INEOS Group and DuPont.
The IIoT and Remote O&M market for these major chemical companies is huge. This effort can be combined with the IIoT efforts at their manufacturing plants. BASF has taken a further step and offers industrial wastewater treatment as a service in an area surrounding one of its German plants.
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