NEWS RELEASE April 2024
Continuous Solid Liquid Separation is a $20 Billion Market
Continuous filtration and separation involves products that can be cleaned. This includes centrifuges, filter presses belt filters, clarifiers, dissolved air flotation, and similar devices. The two main goals are either purification of liquids or recovery of solids. In both cases the product may be valuable, or it may be a function of waste treatment.
These devices are typically employed to remove particles from one to 200 µm. Smaller particles are removed in reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and microfiltration systems. Particles larger than 200 µm are re-removed by screens and other devices.
There is also a $20 billon cartridge filter market which is treated separately. Cartridges are not cleanable and therefore used when the particulate loading is low. Taste and odor can be impacted by addition of diatomaceous earth or activated carbon.
The filtration devices are separated by their ability to obtain dry solids, for example in municipal wastewater treatment. Belt filter presses can bring the solids content up to 20% or so. Centrifuges can raise the solid content to 30%. Filter presses can raise the solids to a much higher level, the choice depends on how these sludges are going to be disposed. If the sludge is going to an incinerator, the drier, the solids, the more efficient the process will be.
There are two types of centrifuges, disk and decanter. The decanter centrifuges are a workhorse in wastewater treatment, but both types are heavily used in food processing. Alfa Laval and GEA are both large centrifuge manufacturers. But their primary revenue comes from food and chemical processing plants in which the centrifuges play a key role.
Minerals processing is essentially a series of separation steps using centrifuges clarifiers, and filters along with dryers and other process equipment. Mining is a $300 million market. Gold, lithium and copper extraction involve a series of filtration and separation processes.
This market is very international. Some of the biggest producers of ores are small countries such as Chile for copper and Australia for lithium, etc.
Food processing is also distributed around the world without regard to the GDP of the countries in which the products are produced. For example, Brazil and India would be major cane sugar producers.
The market is distinguished by a large number of unique applications such as in the food and chemical industries. Each application requires its own value proposition. A filter for chocolate is unique because of the viscosity. It has to be pursued separately. Unique designs are required. Filter presses capture the product from many liquids in the chemical industry, but each is a unique application impacted by corrosion, particle characteristics and other factors. The opportunities should be addressed separately.
The continuous solid-liquid separation market can be viewed as a $20 billion combination of stars in the filtration galaxy. It includes hundred-million-dollar planets with $10 million moons. Each $10 million moon opportunity deserves its own value proposition. For example, the filter presses for copper mining in chili provide a very unique set of factors on which decisions will be made.
The $20 billion continuous filtration market includes stars representing, mining, chemicals, petrochemicals, food, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, municipal water, and municipal wastewater. The Mcilvaine Company contends that the most profitable market is an aggregation of the moons which can generate 30% EBITA and 40% market share.
The solid liquid separation market
The market for this equipment has been segmented by the individual products, each of which needs to be addressed separately and has a potential different growth rate. The present market is $26 billion and will grow to between $31 billion and $42 billion in 2034.
Companies are market leaders in one or two segments. make large profits in one product area and others make large profits and other product areas, Alfa Laval and GEA are market leaders in centrifuges.
Andritz is a participant in the largest number of individual product areas.
The lunar landings for products in specific markets and locations have to be strategically analyzed. For example, to succeeded in FGD in India you need to be successful with NTPC.
The use of dissolved air, flotation results in recovery of paper and the avoidance of virgin product.
For success in the municipal wastewater treatment industry in the United States attention has to be paid to the consulting engineers, who are many cases making the decisions.
The Galactic strategy depends on the details such as the equivalent of lunar landings for the smaller opportunities.
A $1 million order may not be worthwhile pursuing in its own right, but if it can lead to successful installations and use by larger companies, it is a successful strategy.
Another opportunity is in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, where a lemon can be turned into lemonade, single use centrifuges and fillers, are being used for bio, bio pharmaceuticals, particularly cell and gene therapy. An alternative is to supply a duplicate centrifuge or filter. One can be cleaned while the other is in operation.
Most companies are either in the solid liquid separation or they're in filtration with throwaway type filters.
One company that has expanded into the solid liquid separation is the filtration group with the acquisition of Amafilter.
The needs in municipal wastewater treatment are changing. The amount of municipal waste that is being used for fertilizer is being reduced. whereas the amount that's being converted to biogas or is used in waste to energy plants is increasing so this puts increased emphasis on dryer, filtration processes, such as the filter press.
Another growing application is dredging due to the fact that particularly in the United States there are a number of waterways which need to have the sediment removed, but in a manner that does not create additional pollution.
Zero liquid discharge is another growing opportunity where a plant recycles all the water rather than discharge wastewater and this requires final dewatering.
Synthetic sands for hydraulic fracturing are another growing market. natural sands were used in the United States, but it was found that using local sands near the fracturing sites was a better option, and particularly since natural sands are running out. This opportunity is now expanded to Argentina and China and other areas that are pursuing hydraulic fracturing, including even Saudi Arabia, where you would think there was plenty of sand, but actually you need a synthetic sand rather than what's locally available.
Recommendations along with detailed forecast are available from the McIlvaine Company. For more information contact Bob Mcilvaine at 847-226-2391 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Stacy Hall This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE April 2024
The Most Profitable Market is an Aggregation of Niches
It is important for a company to have one-year, five-year, and 10-year forecasts for each niche market and the achievable share.
Factors impacting the market are:
- Market size
- Growth rate
- Volatility
- Suitability
The volatility is a function of the following factors:
- Economic
- Political
- Social factors
- Technological
Mcilvaine has prepared these detailed forecasts for many of the air, water, energy (AWE) products in each industry and location.
An example of the approach is the market for ULPA filters. They are high efficiency filters. The semiconductor industry is the largest purchaser. Taiwan is one of the largest markets TSMC accounts for a large percentage of the purchases.
There are strong political factors including the possible invasion of Taiwan which need to be considered.
There are strong technology factors including the potential to move beyond digital chips.
A forecast has been prepared to assess the market in the world, U.S. and Taiwan. The shares of TSMC in the U.S. and Taiwan are also assessed.
This is a volatile market with Taiwan being the most volatile.
This data is all displayed as percentages of the world 2024 market.
Many other products share a similar percentage distribution. Here is a partial list.
Air Pollution Control: fabric filters, scrubbers, catalytic oxidizers
Liquid Filtration: reverse osmosis, microfilters, cartridges
Consumables: garments, treatment chemicals
Cleanroom: modular rooms, fan filter units, mini environments
Flow: pumps, valves, fans, compressors instrumentation
The market is particularly attractive to companies such as AAF which have manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and significant market share at existing facilities.
Long range forecasts are critical to many company decisions. But due to the many variables it is desirable to have a median forecast with 50 percent reliability as well as high and low forecasts with twenty-five percent reliability.
The Mcilvaine Most Profitable Market Program provides the data shown here for each niche in Air, Water, Energy.
For more information contact Bob Mcilvaine at 847-226-2391 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Stacy Hall This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE January 2024
Forecasting the AWE Industry is Made Difficult by Politics
The Mcilvaine Company has been making predictions about all the air, water, energy (AWE) markets for decades. The political winds have been of minor importance. The big variables have been in economics. The new reality is that political forces will shape the AWE market in the coming years in an unprecedented way. If the winds are favorable there will be 2 billion more people in 2050 and global GDP will be twice that of today. But here is what the political winds may blow in.
Industry
Region
Vendors of AWE equipment and systems will be leveraging automation and AI to efficiently supply and help operate plants around the world. Ore will be mined, processed and transported without the need of operating personnel.
With wind, solar, hydrogen, and BECCS greenhouse gas concentration will peak while pharmaceutical miracles end cancer and other sicknesses with techniques of cell and gene therapy. Thanks to AWE technologies much of the food will be grown in enclosed greenhouses or ponds.
If the political winds are unfavorable, we could be entering a period of regression. Mcilvaine believes that the wind conditions are an aggregate of the individual life choices and the degree to which there is freedom of choice.
The individual makes life quality choices as part of a tribal hierarchy progressing from the family to the city, country and the world.
Mcilvaine has created a metric to measure these life quality choices and is using it to predict the AWE markets. An example is the life quality choices of Ukrainians. Their prioritization of free choice was not anticipated by Russia. The use of the system might have avoided the situation which exists today.
A detailed analysis of the Mcilvaine metric and what it tell us about the AWE market is found at
https://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1777
This analytical technique is utilized in the Most Profitable Market program. Details on this can be found at www.mcilvainecompany.com
Stacy Hall, VP of Marketing, can answer any questions. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE March 2024
Rapid Changes in the Air, Water, Energy (AWE) Market
EBITDA is maximized by anticipating growth opportunities ahead of the competition. Here are some game changers in air, water, and energy.
- Contract manufacturing of pharmaceuticals is creating a large group of AWE purchasers in biopharmaceuticals.
- Orders for coal fired boilers in Asia continue to exceed expectations and have created a market far bigger than the combination of the U.S and Europe at peak capacity.
- Water reuse is becoming increasingly more sustainable. We have a metric comparing harm from CO2 vs water use in a drought area vs a water surplus area to guide decisions on dry cooling and water reuse.
- Drax is moving into the U.S. with multiple sites for Bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration
- LNG supply will meet expanding needs and will include small projects such as capturing and liquefying flared gas for truck transport.
- Horizontal drilling along with hydraulic fracturing have allowed the U.S. to produce more energy than any country in history. The repair parts market is now stronger than that for new construction.
- New food processes from homogenization to freeze drying continue to open up new opportunities.
- Investors are buying distributors and building cleanrooms where they assemble valve and pump skids saving customers labor plus reducing downtime.
- Consolidation continues. Suppliers of compressors have been busy with Ingersoll Rand and Atlas Copco pursuing component solutions while Chart with Howden is pursuing application solutions.
Mcilvaine is following all the AWE trends and can help you pursue those which will be most profitable.
We can set up a discussion with you where Bob Mcilvaine can discuss these trends and how you can take advantage of them.
Contact: Stacy Hall This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE January 2024
Facts and Factors on 20,000 Prospects Needed to Generate EBITDA of $120 million
The most profitable market is an aggregation of $10 million niches. There are 10 - $1 million sub niches each with up to 10 sub-2 niches which provide the targets for the local salesmen. Each sub niche is shaped by a value proposition which will achieve a 40% market share and 30% EBITDA. The proposition explains why a specific plant will want to pay the premium price for a product which provides the lowest total cost of ownership. This superiority is based on the relevant specific facts and factors. For a company to achieve highly profitable revenues of $400 million it needs to pursue 100 niches and 1000 sub niches.
If the average annual purchases by an individual plant are $50,000 then 3\20,000 prospects need to be pursued. It is necessary to take an organized approach to assess 1 million facts and factors. The Most Profitable Market (MPM) program uses the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIOW) to cost effectively provide easy access to all this information.
To achieve EBITDA of $120 million and 40% market share in a billion-dollar market, millions of facts and factors on plants, processes, direct competitors and indirect competition such as packages have to be gathered, disseminated and revised. The MPM program uses the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIOW) to provide all this data cost effectively.
The average EBITDA in the Air, Water, Energy (AWE) market is less than 15%. But those who are focusing on the best prospects are achieving EBITDA of 30%. Examples are ITW and IDEX.
The best prospects are those who will benefit most from a unique value proposition.
The Mcilvaine Company Most Profitable Market (MPM) Program is structured to help suppliers match unique value propositions and the customers who will most benefit.
There are 50,000 large plants and over 1 million smaller plants. In general success at the larger plants will not only be most profitable but also lead to sales at smaller plants.
The program provides the clarity which becomes not only the foundation of strategy for the local salesman but for every level of sales, purchasing, production and management. The Most Profitable Market Program is explained at www.mcilvainecompany.com
Stacy Hall, VP of Marketing, can answer any questions. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
