Ovivo Offers Variety Of Treatment Solutions

Jim Porteous, VP/general manager for the North American municipal market at Ovivo, sat down with Water Online Radio for this live interview from the show floor at WEFTEC 2011 in Los Angeles. Porteous describes how Ovivo’s range of wastewater treatment equipment can help municipalities meet today’s strict quality standards and reduce energy consumption. Listen or read on to learn more.

Todd Schnick: We're back, broadcasting live from the Los Angeles Convention Center and the tradeshow floor of WEFTEC. I am Todd Schnick, joined by my co-host, Todd Youngblood. Todd, we are kicking off hour six, pal.

Todd Youngblood: Hour six and no break.

Todd Schnick: No break whatsoever to the guy who is managing it.

Youngblood: We don’t need no stinking breaks.

Todd Schnick: Our producer is being very, very mean, but we have an exciting guest to kick off hour six. He is the VP/General Manager, North America of Ovivo, Jim Porteous. Welcome to Water Online Radio.

Jim Porteous: Thank you, gentlemen.

Todd Schnick: Before we get into a conversation, Jim, why don’t you take a few minutes and tell us a little bit about you, your background, and the work that you’re doing with Ovivo.

Jim Porteous: I came to the U.S. in ’85. I came for a year and I am still here.

Todd Schnick: That is good sign, so far.

Jim Porteous: My background has been in the water/wastewater treatment business, throughout my entire career. Here in the U.S., we bought a company called Enviroquip, which we had a management buyout in 1993. We ran that company until five years ago and, at that time, we sold it to what is now Ovivo. So from there I am now in charge of all the Ovivo operations in North America.

Todd Schnick: Jim, how is it different – the water/wastewater business – in the U.S. vs. Ireland. Is there any difference?

Jim Porteous: There is a big difference. The main difference is that here, we typically sell equipment – work through consulting engineers. In Ireland, it seems to be more the turnkey approach, where are responsible for providing the whole system.

Todd Schnick: Help me and our audience better understand what Ovivo is delivering to its marketplace. What are you actually delivering to your customers?

Jim Porteous: Ovivo has a full range of water and wastewater treatment equipment. Over the years, Ovivo has acquired a number of different companies: Brackett Green, Eimco Water Technologies, Jones and Applewood, Christ, and Enviroquip. We have a full range of technology available for both water and wastewater treatment equipment.

Todd Schnick: Tell me of what you see, Jim, as the emerging trends and issues in the water/wastewater industry going into 2012.

Jim Porteous: One of the big trends, of course, is nutrient removal, and we had a workshop on that last night, as it happens. What we are looking at is developing technologies that can remove as much of the nutrients as possible from the water treatment system and the wastewater.

Todd Schnick: From an economics standpoint, how big an impact is that having – both in terms of your own R&D, to new product development, and the ability of your customer base to invest?

Jim Porteous: Well, I think that the biggest impact is being seen on the East Coast at the moment, where there is a lot of very strict requirements for phosphorous limits getting down to .1. What that means is that you have to add a lot of chemical, unless you start developing biological removal systems – which we do. That gets us down to about 1 milligram per liter of phosphorous. Below that, you have to start adding chemical, and that, of course, is expensive for the cities.

Todd Youngblood: Okay. I guess looking more at that, a lot of the cities are strapped. I’m originally from Pennsylvania, and Harrisburg has just declared bankruptcy. How do you help your municipal customers, anyway, deal with those kinds of financial issues?

Jim Porteous: What we are doing is we are looking at all our existing plants that were really designed maybe for a lower treatment – maybe only for nitrogen removal and not for phosphorous removal – and we are going back in and seeing what is the least expensive retrofit we can do to upgrade that plant to meet new and more stringent limits.

Todd Schnick: Help the Water Online audience better understand the target market for Ovivo, assuming your international concern. Walk us through, how do you define the perfect customer for Ovivo?

Jim Porteous: We have offices across the world. In the U.S., our main business is municipal treatment. What we are doing is we are supplying equipment and solutions to the cities and towns and developers. Our ideal customer, really, is somebody who has a tight limit and has got to meet some very high standards. The other thing we are looking at, of course, is helping our customers reduce energy. So that is another area that I think we are going to see some more activity on.

Todd Schnick: Jim, you emphasized a minute ago solutions, and given the complexity of some of these systems, is collaboration important? And how do you collaborate with other providers of different pieces of the full system?

Jim Porteous: It is not so much collaboration. What we do is we work with consulting engineers very closely. We work with them to try and develop the best solution for a particular application or particular need that the city may have, and that is really more important to us than collaborating with other manufacturers.

Todd Schnick: Assuming you are in a competitive market space, how does Ovivo differentiate itself in its market?

Jim Porteous: What we do is – a lot of our products are unique. We look for products that can meet a requirement and provide a higher level of service than anything else in the market that is available to anybody else. For instance, one of the products we just added was a product called AEROSTRIP, and it is a very high-performance diffuser system that will allow us to reduce energy costs at any plant that installs this equipment.

Todd Schnick: Boy, that is a really common theme, Todd – the energy cost. Could you just expand on that a little bit, Jim? It seems like that is a big deal.

Jim Porteous: It is a big deal because, in a lot of cities, treatment of wastewater is a very large cost. It is one of the major costs they have, and a lot of systems are biological and they require air. And to deliver that air, it can be very expensive. So cities are looking at any way to reduce the costs of that, obviously.

Todd Schnick: Is Ovivo exhibiting here at WEFTEC?

Jim Porteous: Yes, we are over in the South Hall at booth 2049.

Todd Schnick: So what is Ovivo's biggest objective? Why are you attending this show?

Jim Porteous: Our biggest objective is, really, to give our customers the chance to look at the new things we are doing, get them excited about what we are doing, and try and convince them to think about more creative ways to solve their problems using some of our solutions.

Todd Schnick: Okay, Jim, we are about out of time. Before we get to go, share with the audience how they can contact Ovivo and learn more about the work that you guys are doing.

Jim Porteous: As I said, we are over in the South Hall at booth 2049. You can come and see us there. We are putting on talks – not just with our people, but also some of our operators who have experienced using our equipment – and we would love to see you there and learn more about what we are doing.

Todd Youngblood: Outstanding. Jim Porteous, VP/General Manager of North America for Ovivo, it was a pleasure having you. Thank you for joining us today.

Jim Porteous: Thank you, gentlemen. I enjoyed it.

Todd Schnick: Thank you, Jim. That wraps this segment. On behalf of Todd Youngblood, I am Todd Schnick. Water Online Radio will be right back.