A water authority had been running conventional single-stage thermal distillation and treating its energy cost as the unavoidable price of reliable drinking water production. The assessment identified multiple energy recovery stages that could be integrated directly into the distillation process, delivering a significantly more efficient route to the same result.
Independent Process Performance Investigation
Find hidden process losses
before you approve the wrong CAPEX.
Gas Transfer. Thermal Processes. Water Reuse.
When industrial systems do not perform as expected, I identify where value is being destroyed, what it is costing, and what is worth fixing first.
The expensive problem is rarely the equipment.
Investigated in isolation
Gas cost, cooling OPEX, heat losses and water treatment are each investigated separately, usually by the supplier category that benefits from the next upgrade.
The loss sits between disciplines
The real cause is often in how gas, heat and water interact across the system. That gap is measurable. It is connected to exergy: the portion of energy actually available to do useful work.
The decision comes before the diagnosis
CAPEX is approved before the loss mechanism is understood. Once the real cause is mapped, the next step becomes clear: often simpler and cheaper than what was already on the table.
When It Is Worth a Conversation
Use this before the decision becomes expensive.
A supplier proposal is on the table.
You are being asked to approve a compressor, PSA/VSA, oxygen system, chiller, cooling-water upgrade, heat-recovery system, filtration system, or process modification — but you are not fully convinced it solves the real cause.
A cost has become "normal".
Gas consumption, cooling OPEX, heat rejection, water treatment cost, fouling, chemical use, or energy demand has been accepted as normal, but nobody has quantified the physical loss mechanism.
The explanation still feels incomplete.
Previous specialists have looked at the system, but the answer is still too narrow, too vendor-driven, or too focused on symptoms instead of root cause.
Methodology
One physical question across several engineering domains.
Where is useful value being destroyed — and what is that destruction costing?
Gas transfer, process gas supply, compressed air, heat exchange, waste heat recovery, cooling, absorption and adsorption systems, condensation, evaporation, and process water may look like separate engineering fields. In operation, they often influence one another.
I assess them through the same physical lens: where usable energy, pressure, temperature difference, gas potential, water quality, or process driving force is being wasted before it creates useful work. The equipment changes. The physics does not.
What I Investigate
Most plants separate these problems by department or supplier.
I look at where they interact.
Process Gases & Supply Decisions
O2, N2, CO2, LOX, PSA/VSA, membrane generation and compressed air. Where gas demand, purity, pressure, supply model, storage, dissolved demand or plant usage creates avoidable cost before renegotiating supply or approving new equipment.
Gas Transfer & Dissolution
Oxygen, ozone and CO2. Where injected gas is not becoming useful dissolved gas, and why. Dissolution efficiency affects gas cost, process performance, chemical demand, biological stability and treatment reliability.
Heat, Cooling & Thermal Recovery
Cooling towers, chillers, heat exchangers, heat pumps, absorption and adsorption systems. Where useful heat is rejected, where cooling performance is lost, and where low-grade thermal energy can be recovered or avoided.
Water Reuse & Process Water
Where treatment, recovery, fouling, discharge, cooling-water quality or reuse decisions cost more than they should. Often the loss point is upstream of the treatment step that has been labelled as the problem.
How the Assessment Works
Four steps from question to decision clarity.
01
Decision Context
We define the decision in front of you: supplier proposal, CAPEX approval, gas supply change, unexplained OPEX, underperforming system, or technical problem that has not been properly explained.
02
Data & System Review
I review available drawings, operating data, utility bills, gas consumption, temperature and pressure data, water chemistry, equipment specifications and previous reports. If needed, this is followed by a focused site visit.
03
Independent Finding
You receive a clear technical finding: what is physically happening, where useful value is being destroyed, what it is likely costing, and which actions are worth considering first.
04
Decision Path
The output is a ranked decision path. It can support CAPEX approval, CAPEX avoidance, supplier negotiation, operating changes, further testing, or a deeper implementation specification. No equipment purchase is attached.
Why This Works
I am an independent process investigator with a background in gas engineering, thermal processes, hydrodynamic cavitation, ozone and oxygen transfer, filtration, cooling-water systems, water reuse and waste-heat recovery. I am named as inventor on 14 patents and have worked on deployments across Europe, the GCC and Southeast Asia.
I do not promise savings before reviewing system data. I do not recommend equipment before diagnosis. I do not sell gas, chillers, compressors, heat pumps, membranes, filters or treatment hardware. I deliver independent performance clarity for technical and financial decisions.
The Engagement Advantage
Three reasons this works differently.
Without independent assessment
↓ Reduced
With independent assessment
Wrong CAPEX decision risk
01
Reduced CAPEX Risk
An independent finding before the approval stage reduces the risk of funding a solution that addresses the wrong problem. Most engagements happen after someone else has already looked and could not fully explain it.
Conventional
With assessment
Time from challenge to ranked finding
02
Faster Path to Clarity
A structured four-step assessment delivers a ranked finding in weeks, not months of trial-and-error with vendor-led diagnostics. The report is the deliverable. No implementation dependency.
Process Gases & Supply
Gas Transfer & Dissolution
Waste Heat Recovery
Cooling & Heat Rejection
Process Water & Reuse
Multi-Effect Distillation
Single-Effect Distillation
One lens: Exergy
7 domains. 7 countries. One analytical framework.
03
Wider Solution Spectrum
Cross-domain expertise across gas transfer, thermal recovery, and water means the solution space is not limited by what a single-discipline specialist knows to look for. The equipment changes. The physics does not.
Before & After
Selected anonymized outcomes from field projects.
Some client names are omitted because of NDA or partner confidentiality. These examples are included to show the type of problems investigated, not to promise identical results in a different system.
Before
Extreme summer heat was raising distribution water temperatures above acceptable limits. Several high-CAPEX cooling proposals had been reviewed and rejected as too complex or too costly.
After
In this project, a simple adiabatic cooling process brought distribution water temperature down immediately, at a fraction of the cost of the alternatives that had been on the table.
Before
Tightening standards required removal of PFAS and PFOS. Conventional membrane treatment alone was insufficient and compliance was at risk.
After
The assessment identified a combined oxidation and pre-treatment approach. In that operating context, PFAS/PFOS removal exceeded 99%, third-party validated, while membrane flux increased by 59%.
Before
Conventional mechanical cooling was running continuously. Electrical cost was treated as fixed and unavoidable. Waste heat from the process was being discarded.
After
The project achieved a 90% reduction in electrical power consumption by recovering low-grade waste heat below 35°C and converting it into useful thermal input, in that specific system configuration.
Before
Treatment OPEX for water reuse was running at 12 AED per cubic meter. The cost was accepted as the price of compliance. The actual loss point had not been identified.
After
The assessment identified the real loss point in the process, not the equipment. In that project, treatment OPEX dropped from 12 to 3.3 AED per cubic meter with full discharge compliance maintained.
Before
Ozone was being over-consumed to maintain water quality. The cost was accepted as unavoidable. Gas dissolution efficiency and ozone off-gas losses had never been assessed at system level.
After
A system-level assessment of ozone dissolution efficiency reduced ozone consumption significantly, eliminated ozone off-gas losses, and improved reaction time through better energy utilisation. Feed conversion improved by 15% and chemical use was eliminated entirely at full production scale, in that operating context.
Additional Deployments
Additional anonymized outcomes from field projects.
These examples are included to show the type of problems investigated, not to promise identical results in a different system.
A sports venue had a turf biofouling problem that had persisted for five years despite repeated treatment attempts. The actual cause was identified and resolved within a single season.
What You Can Expect
Clarity before commitment.
What you gain
An independent view of what is actually happening in your process, not an assessment shaped by what a vendor has to sell. You receive a ranked decision path showing what is worth checking, changing, negotiating, testing or approving first.
What you avoid
Approving CAPEX before the real loss mechanism is understood. Paying the same supplier category that benefits from replacement to also define the problem. Running months of trial-and-error adjustments before discovering that the bottleneck was somewhere else.
About
Filip Herman
I work as an independent process performance investigator across gas transfer, process gases, cooling, thermal recovery and process water. My background is in gas engineering and thermal processes. I am named inventor on 14 patents and have worked on projects across Europe, the GCC and Southeast Asia. I take on a small number of engagements at a time so I can give each one proper attention.
Connect on LinkedIn Book a 30-minute diagnostic conversationHave a system problem, supplier proposal, or CAPEX decision that deserves a second technical view?
A diagnostic conversation takes 30 minutes. No pitch, no equipment recommendation, no generic audit. Just a direct discussion of the system, the decision in front of you, and whether an independent investigation is worth doing.
Book a 30-minute diagnostic conversationPrefer email? filip.herman@advanflow.com