NEWS RELEASE                                                                                         December 2017

World Air Pollution Control Market Growing but Shifting

Next year air pollution control system, product and service companies will generate revenue in excess of $80 billion.  Of this total 40 percent will come from the power industry.  This is the latest conclusion in Air Pollution Management published by the McIlvaine Company.

East Asian power sector purchases will be $20 billion. By contrast power segment purchases in the U.S. and Europe will be modest.  This market shift has put great strains on B&W, GE-Alstom, Hamon, Clyde Bergemann, CECO, Fuel Tech and other companies who prioritized combustion applications.  Those which have focused on ambient filtration and modular units have not been adversely affected.

The advent of IIoT and Remote O&M combined with a major geographical shift is radically changing the air pollution control market. As the market shifts to Asia, American and European suppliers face not only a shrinking market but the creation of new competition.  Chinese companies now top the list of the largest air pollution control system suppliers.

The market can be divided into engineered equipment generally associated with large systems and small standard units.  Companies such as Donaldson make small units but have efficient manufacturing plants around the world.  AAF who is also a leader in small units was acquired by Daikin and is well situated to tackle the global market.

This market for small units exceeds $5 billion per year.  The sea change in the small unit market is the ability to monitor the performance of each filter and offer total solutions contracts with filter replacement as needed. Parker Hannifin is taking this to a new level with the purchase of Clarcor.  It has a program to supply all filters to a plant including those of competitors.

Many automotive engine plants have elected to move away from central systems for oil mist and grinding dust collection.  Instead a plant could have hundreds of small units.  The ability to monitor each unit economically and maintain it as needed offers a big revenue opportunity for suppliers.

The market for remote monitoring and total solutions for small units is more than the new equipment market and offers higher margins than the hardware.  Furthermore, hardware market shares will be impacted. Those with the solutions capability will capture more of the hardware market.

The sea change in the large systems market will create a market of more than $20 billon in remote monitoring and operational support.  The challenge of air pollution control system suppliers is to leverage third party process system experts who become more knowledgeable than the OEMs.  There are examples where this is happening. In one instance the process subject matter ultra-experts (SMUES) have redesigned bag components to deal with HCl and have licensed the design to major bag suppliers.  This sea change is discussed in a webinar conducted on October 8, 2017 and both the recording and PowerPoints are available as part of this Air Pollution Management service. For more information click on: 5AB Air Pollution Management