NEWS RELEASE August 2018
The Challenge of Choosing the Best Coal Fired Power Plant Air Pollution Control Technologies
Join us on Wednesday August 22 to discuss a program that both helps suppliers demonstrate that they have the lowest total cost of ownership solutions and help end users pick the best systems and components. Registration details are shown below
The EU is making difficult choices regarding mercury control technologies to meet new 2021 limits. Asian power plants are retrofitting air pollution control equipment as well as investing many billions of dollars in APC for the new plants.
What assurance does the purchaser have that he is buying the products with the lowest total cost of ownership (LTCO)? Did he choose the right process? Did he choose the right components for that process? The McIlvaine Company began assisting coal plants make the best choices with multi thousand page loose leaf manuals which were continually updated. One set covered electrostatic precipitators, another covered fabric filters. One set covered monitoring. The set covering FGD was later expanded to also include DeNOX.
With the arrival of the digital age McIlvaine began supplying these services in a digital format but with the same goal which was to supply the four knowledge needs: Alerts, Answers, Analysis, and Advancement. These are included in 44I Coal Fired Power Plant Decisions. As the digital age matured McIlvaine developed a whole new service N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M. We are now looking at a post digital Age where the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW) empowers IIoT. One of the results will be a whole new approach to helping purchasers select processes and systems with the LTCO.
With remote monitoring and IIoW the information about the cost of ownership of power plant air pollution control is soaring. The nozzle, bag, catalyst or other component supplier with the lower total cost of ownership (TCO) will have a much greater right-to-win than the competitor with a better position in the market. The air pollution control (APC) company spending more on R&D and less on positioning will ultimately prevail. The APC company interested in sharing rather than concealing knowledge will have the advantage.
If an APC company has the lowest total cost of ownership (LTCO) for a particular application it should encourage transparency and maximum interconnection of all the people and knowledge resources relative to that application. This includes information about competitor products.
The goal for the APC company is to continually provide lowest total cost of ownership validation (LTCOV). This means it must convince purchasers that it has a TCO lower than competitors. So the more that is known about competitors or about alternative solutions the better. This assertion is easily justified for high performance components or consumables. The supplier of a filter bag which lasts three years compared to only two years for the competition will benefit from maximum dissemination of this information.
The assertion is more challenging when it comes to systems. In fact it seems that the more that is known about the success of a system design the more likely it is that some imitator in the next country to pass stringent regulations will start with a license and soon become a competitor. There are two related ways the supplier of systems can avoid this fate.
- Participate in the operation and maintenance of each system through remote monitoring and use of subject matter ultra-experts (SME’s with access and use of decision systems in the area of expertise)
- Accelerate R&D and continually improve the TCO of the design
W.L Gore has pioneered a new mercury removal technology with much lower TCO for coal fired plants where the right combination of regulations, coal being burned and type of SO2 scrubber exist. Innovative use of catalytic filtration could result in big TCO reductions. McIlvaine conducted nine hours of webinars with 80 people for BHE. The consensus was that a new combination of existing technologies integrated into a hybrid system would save BHE hundreds of millions of dollars for NOx control at two plants. The industry accidently found the perfect way to use air pollution control systems in power plants to generate a rare earths feed stock.
A system supplier with modest additional R&D can offer a very attractive TCO option with this two stage scrubber approach.
Remote monitoring and operational support can greatly lower the TCO. MHPS, Doosan, GE and others are already demonstrating this. Their success is continually covered in the McIlvaine IIoT and Remote O&M newsletter which is included in in 44I Coal Fired Power Plant Decisions.
Lowest Total Cost of Ownership Validation (LTCOV) necessitates providing as much information about the industry, process, product, and competitive alternatives as possible. The supplier must convince the purchaser that the supplier’s product is the LTCO option. This can occur only with the interconnection of the relevant knowledge and people.
The supplier with the LTCO for components and consumables in various APC applications can and should justify the expense necessary to validate his LTCO where the application has enough revenue potential to justify a modest expense. The challenge is to keep the expense modest. The can be achieved with the McIlvaine Decisions Program.
The total cost of ownership (TCO) for APC product X can be precisely or approximately determined in a continuing process. Half the steps are already taken in the Decision Guides. The other half (green) need to be taken by the Product X supplier.
LTCOV can be determined for each product in Coal fired Power Generation APC which is part of the Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM).
The LTCOV process is continuous. If the product expected life is 6 months but recent experience shows 9 months this information can be posted in the Decision Guide. Formal precise white papers can be complemented by qualitative validation initiatives or in many cases the qualitative or approximate LTCOV has to substitute for a precise quantitative evaluation.
It is ideal where a precise quantitative LTCOV can be produced. However, for sales purposes if one can show that the LTCO is lower than alternatives then that is sufficient. Let’s say Product X has replaced a product which lasted six months. Product X has now been in service eight months and is still working well. Regardless of how much longer X lasts it is clearly the LTCO choice if price and performance of the two products are equal. Ultimately depending on the life, the price for Product X can be raised and it will still be the LTCO choice
How can suppliers participate?
- Obtain access to the Coal fired Power Plants Decisions
- Determine which process guides fall into the SOM e.g. nozzles in the supplier’s scope may be used in dry scrubber slurry injection, wet scrubber slurry injection, ammonia injection, activated carbon injection, mist eliminator wash water cleaning and others.
- Determine which existing product guides within this process are in your SOM scope e,g. nozzle product guide.
- Provide background data such as case histories, articles and presentations which will help ascertain that your product has the LTCOV. Also provide information for the monthly newsletters e.g. FGD & DeNOx to continually provide new background data 3ABC FGD and DeNOx Knowledge Systems or if Product X is a filter bag 1ABC Fabric Filter or if it is a measurement device 9ABC Air Pollution Monitoring and Sampling Knowledge Systems (new title is IIoT and Remote O&M.
- Prepare the LTCO analysis for posting to the 44I Coal Fired Power Plant Decisions
- Use the networking in the Decision Guide to provide validation of the LTCO.
- Provide all relevant technical and sales people with access to the Decision Guides and LTCOV.
- Encourage input and assistance from niche experts throughout the corporation.
- When making presentations to customers make sure they have access to the Decision Guides as well as the LTCOV. (the fact that competitor information is displayed is a plus because it demonstrates that your TCO is the lowest).
- In preparing quotations for specific customers expand the LTCOV from Tier 1 which is not site specific to Tier 2 which takes into account site specific variables such as electricity cost, water availability, local regulations etc.
- Provide a direct marketing program using LTCOV to all customers in SOM with an annual purchase potential in excess of the amount needed to justify the sales expense
The business program is discussed at www.mcilvainecompany.com
It all starts with 44I Coal Fired Power Plant Decisions which is only a $1600/yr investment
Join us on Wednesday August 22 at 10:AM to discuss this opportunity. To register Click here to Register for the Webinars
