What’s the most important competitive advantage in water solutions right now?
Speed.
The world order is changing. Things are moving faster. We have gotten used to Amazon next day delivery. Amazon same day delivery!
I visited the NSI, factory in The Netherlands last week. It was like visiting an Amazon Shipping depot. The pure logistics of it were impressive. Thanks to Wilbert Menkveld. The factory floor had technology packages for diverse applications ready for shipping to four continents. There were containers with turnkey systems for diverse applications at doors waiting to be loaded onto trucks and shipped to four continents. The diversity of solutions was impressive with over 80 techs.
Ozone CN Destruction for Oil Refineries in North Africa. Ammonia Recovery for UK utilities. Water Re-use systems for meat processors in KSA. Cirtec Cellulose Recovery technology for use in asphalt for road construction. Ammonia water for use in incinerator scrubbers to remove NOX.
Micropollutant removal systems for EU priority pollutants using the quite astounding BODAC® technology paired with Ozone, which NSI is the licensee for. A type of carbon that regenerates itself through biological breakdown of contaminants.
A brief detour: What is the most difficult to degrade priority pollutant?
Anyone, anyone…?
Diclofenac. An anti-inflammatory marketed under the trade name Volterol.
The others include benzotriazole, carbamazepin, gabapentin, hydrochlorothiazide, irbesartan, metropolol, venlaflaxine. Its basically the things that keep our aging parents alive, heart regulation along with antiobiotics, anti-depressants. The pharmacopeia that keeps us alive longer, if not healthier.
The Open Innovation partnership model is also striking. NSI partners with REDStack on Electrodialysis for high purity applications, Axine Electro oxidation for PFAS destruction, combined with vacuum foam fractionation PFAS Concentration from Coldep. NX Nanofiltration membranes for water re-use.
I once commented on a tour of the Wetsus Research facilities, that it felt like James Bond getting a tour from the head of R&D, Q, of all of the latest new-fangled gadgets and inventions.
The tour of the NSI factory, felt like a glimpse into a new world order. Where logistics, integration and speed-to-market are essential to the competitive strengths of the water solutions provider. Where water re-use is assumed. Where pre-engineered modular systems are held in inventory and can be on site and up and running in timelines measured in weeks, not months. Where the systems allow for water re-use, recovery of nitrogen, cellulose, destruction of PFAS and micropollutants.
As systems become more complex, vertical integration becomes more important, including automation and remote systems monitoring.
We are in a world where the industrial client highly values speed of delivery to site, minimal construction and commissioning time on site and a vertically integrated solutions that just work out of the box.
