Author: tmiller

When you think of an oilfield, what comes to mind? Most people are familiar with the appearance of a traditional drilling rig, but what goes into making it work safely, effectively, and efficiently is an increasingly complex technical arena?

As part of this technical area, the Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy Office of Oil & Natural Gas supports research and policy options to ensure domestic and global supplies of oil and natural gas and provides overviews on many sectors of interest, including Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), which was initially developed as a method to extract additional oil from reservoirs after primary and secondary recovery methods ceased to be productive enough to maintain economic field operation. BCC Research reports that the global EOR market totaled nearly $22.9 billion in 2016 and should total $30.4 billion by 2021, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% through 2021. This market includes a wide variety of products and components, such as injection pumps, wellheads, specialized well tubing, chemical feeder systems, air separation units, gas compressors, blowers, steam generators, specialized storage vessels, gas recapture and separation systems, and various other equipment and facilities. Additionally, this market includes surfactants, polymers, alkali chemicals, liquid nitrogen and CO2, which act as oil recovery media. Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Oilfield Services & Technologies”

The concepts of green building and building energy efficiency seem to be everywhere, but what do they really mean, and how do they impact both our lives and the economy? The Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office’s (BTO’s) Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP) for Fiscal Years 2016-2020 is a helpful resource to learn about energy use in the buildings sector, new opportunities for cost-effective energy savings, the barriers to their achievement, and BTO’s strategies and goals for achieving significant reductions in building energy use intensity. According to the BTO, “We spend more than $400 billion each year to power our homes and commercial buildings, consuming approximately 74% of all electricity used in the United States, about 40% of our nation’s total energy bill. And much of this energy and money is wasted—over 30% on average. If we cut the energy use of U.S. buildings by 20%, we could save approximately $80 billion annually on energy bills and help create jobs.” Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Building Energy Efficiency”

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, nuclear power has reliably and economically contributed almost 20% of electrical generation in the United States over the past two decades, and remains the single largest contributor (more than 70%) of non-greenhouse-gas-emitting electric power generation in the United States.

In order to deploy this type of power, a variety of key technologies are necessary. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are best suited to small electric grids and locations that cannot support large reactors, and can serve as a “plug and play” option, which reduces capital costs and construction times. They also offer utilities the flexibility to scale production as demand changes. Currently, the most common reactors in the United States are the Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) and Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), both variants of the Light Water Reactor (LWR). The large majority of operating LWRs are PWRs – the primary difference is the combination of pressure and the temperature of the coolant, which enables major design differences between the two types of reactors. Advanced Reactor Technologies are being explored by DOE, including the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) to demonstrate the technical viability of high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology and the Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARC) program supporting research for advanced reactor subsystems addressing long-term technical barriers for the development of advanced nuclear fission energy systems utilizing coolants such as liquid metal, fluoride salt, or gas. Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Nuclear Energy”

With science and technology continually advancing, how do you define advanced manufacturing? Broadly speaking, advanced manufacturing uses innovative technology to improve products or processes. Given the broad definition of advanced manufacturing, several markets fall under its umbrella. Manufacturing.gov  provides a glossary that covers key terms in advanced manufacturing with helpful definitions for growing areas such as smart manufacturing, Rapid Prototyping, Robotics, Digital Manufacturing, Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM), 3D Printing, and Additive Manufacturing. To provide additional insights, the  American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) infographic titled Understanding Advanced Manufacturing.

As part of the advanced manufacturing market, MarketsandMarkets reports that the smart factory market is forecast to be valued at $205.42 billion by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3%, between 2017 and 2022. The group attributes this growth to the increase in adoption of industrial robots, and the evolution of Internet of Things (IoT). Furthermore, distributed control system (DCS) technology is expected to hold the largest share of the overall smart factory market in 2017. As described by MnM, DCS is used to offer regulatory controls to the manufacturing process industry and provides the finest control for the regulatory applications and is used for the integration of power measuring devices, drives, and soft starters. Integration of motor managing data in the DCS helps in real-time monitoring of the motors and is used to detect the failures in the motors before their occurrences. In terms of the major players in this space, the following components, equipment manufacturers, system integrators, and distributors provide noteworthy offerings: ABB Ltd.(Switzerland), Atos SE (France), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.), FANUC Corporation (Japan), General Electric Co. (U.S.), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Rockwell Automation, Inc. (U.S.), Schneider Electric SE (France), Siemens AG (Germany), and Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan). Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Advanced Manufacturing”

Today, batteries are used to power a broad array of products ranging from everyday personal electronics and medical devices to commercial and military electric vehicles, unmanned systems, and aviation engines.

BCC Research reports that the global large-and-advanced battery market totaled nearly $23.7 billion in 2014 and is projected to approach $30.9 billion by 2019, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% through 2019. The global market for lithium batteries totaled $5.9 billion in 2010. The market should reach $10.6 billion in 2015 and $13.3 billion in 2020, demonstrating a CAGR of 4.5% from 2015 to 2020. The global market for advanced battery and fuel cell materials reached $22.7 billion in 2016 and should reach $32.8 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2017 to 2022. Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Advanced Batteries”

Membranes and separation technologies are taking on new forms and are playing an ever-expanding role in many industries. Generally speaking, separation technologies are used to recover, isolate, and purify products. Using membranes rather than incumbent methods could reduce both energy use and costs in many industrial processes and application areas including fuel cells, Gallium Nitride (GaN) wafers/semiconductors, hydrogen refueling stations, and more.

According to MarketsandMarkets coverage of this space, the global membrane separation technology market is expected to reach $28.10 Billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2% with such players as The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), The 3M Company (U.S.), GE Water & Process Technologies (U.S.), Toray Industries (Japan), Merck Millipore (Germany), Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan), Hydranautics (U.S.), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), Pentair plc (U.K.), and Koch Membrane Systems Inc. (U.S.) leading the market. BCC Research reports that the global market for membrane microfiltration was nearly $1.8 Billion in 2014, almost $1.9 Billion in 2015, and will grow at CAGR of 6.7% to reach close to $2.6 Billion by 2020. These figures from BCC include their use in food and beverage processing, biopharmaceuticals manufacture, potable water production, wastewater treatment, industrial processes, and semiconductor fabrication. Frost & Sullivan also provides extensive coverage on membranes and advanced materials. In its coverage of membrane bioreactors, Frost & Sullivan discusses a variety of competitive factors, including the important role of total system and other costs associated with these systems. BCC Research reports that the global market for membrane bioreactor systems (MBRs) totaled $425.7 million in 2014 and is projected to approach $777.7 million by 2019. Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Membranes & Materials for Energy Efficiency”

Non-destructive testing, evaluation, and inspection (NDT, NDE, NDI) equipment and techniques allow for the examination of an object without impacting its current or future usefulness. This capability can improve a product’s design, reduce manufacturing costs, and provide a consistent level of quality. The NDT equipment market is commonly segmented based on technology type, including ultrasonic, magnetic and electromagnetic, visual inspection, radiography, and penetrant testing. Major end-use markets include aerospace, defense, automotive, renewable energy, oil and gas, infrastructure, and more. Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Non-Destructive Test, Evaluation, and Inspection Markets”

The term big data or “BigData” may seem like an overly simplistic term to describe large, complex data streams generated through almost every facet of our daily lives – these data streams have reached a point where legacy or incumbent data processing application software may be incapable of handling them. BigData and the challenges associated with this topic are also linked to such digital trends and movements as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and more traditional data science. BigData has become the ultimate, ‘the more you know’ tool.

Frost & Sullivan provides coverage on many sectors of this growing market, including Big Data Analytics. Frost & Sullivan defines Big Data analytics (BDA) as a set of data management tools, applications, and techniques for effective analysis of Big Data sets so as to derive intelligence on business operations and customer interactions. With this influx of new information comes new regarding issues of privacy and security, as well as data discrimination. According to MarketsandMarkets, the digital transformation market was valued at $181.02 Billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $493.39 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.1% during the forecast period. It goes on to report that the big data market is forecast to grow from $28.65 Billion in 2016 to $66.79 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 18.45%. BCC Research sheds light on many of the sectors impacted by the digital transformation and the usage of BigData. For example, BCC Research reports that the global market for the internet of things (IoT) in energy and utility applications should reach $59.9 billion by 2022 from $21.4 billion in 2017 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9%, from 2017 to 2022. In terms of IoT discrete parts manufacturing, BCC Research values this market, which includes three main components – hardware, software and networking and five subsets of the discrete parts market: automotive and transportation; electronics and computer; consumer goods; aerospace, aviation and defense; and machinery and heavy equipment at $643.9 million in 2016 and is expected to grow to $2.8 billion by 2022. Continue reading “Market Snapshot: BigData”

When looking for current information on the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) market searching Frost & Sullivan, BCC Research, and MarketsandMarkets provides ample content to learn from. Frost & Sullivan reported that LED lighting was closing in on 40% penetration of the global lighting market in late 2014 and that the size of the global LED lighting market for 2016 is forecast to be $47,303 million. When comparing these figures to the global market for general lighting, BCC Research reports that this market is expected to grow to nearly $47.6 billion in 2018 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8% over the five-year period from 2013 to 2018. With these broader figures in mind, BCC Research goes on to forecast that the global market for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) will be $9.6 billion in 2020, registering CAGR of 25.7% for the period 2015-2020. Furthermore, the report indicates that global shipments of high-brightness LEDs are projected to reach nearly $105.5 billion in 2019, a CAGR of 17.9% between 2014 and 2019. Research from MarketsandMarkets explores this space with a look at the markets for various usage areas, including the outdoor LED lighting market – projected to reach $21.95 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 13.7% between 2017 and 2023. Accessing and utilizing this type of information from trusted analysts and sources provides us with the tools needed to accurately, and quickly size a market and explore market drivers, restraints, key players, and competitors in our research.

While subscription market research sources may provide the most in-depth coverage of a specific market or application area, free, public domain, government sources also provide valuable information that can help companies assess the potential for a technology and better understand the direction of research and development trends. For example, the Department of Energy’s Technology Roadmaps page contains multi-year plans outlining solid-state lighting goals, research and development initiatives focusing on accelerating technology advances and market penetration of solid-state lighting, and recent achievements. Market studies, technology fact sheets, and more are all available through the Department of Energy’s website. Recently, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) published a 116 page report, Assessment of Solid-State Lighting, Phase Two, as a follow-up to its 2013 report Assessment of Advanced Solid-State Lighting. This report, available for free download, covers such topics as, Public Policy and Deployment of New Lighting Technologies, Assessment of LED and OLED Technologies, SSL Applications, and Manufacturing.

Still looking for more? Trade associations, conferences, and events are an excellent way to gain first-hand experience with potential customers, partners, and influencers in the industry. A few upcoming events include the Optical Society November 2017 symposium which plans to cover all aspects of solid state lighting, ranging from new materials development and device physics to the design of efficient lighting optics. The Illuminating Engineering Society provides an events page, and Lightfair announced its 2018 dates.

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Eliza Gough

Are you a small business trying to take a product or service to market, on limited resources? Are you playing the role of marketing, payroll, human resources, sales and proposal writing?

Well, you’re not alone. In fact, you may well be closer to the norm than you think. While functioning efficiently on limited resources feels nearly impossible some days, identifying the next source of funding may be an even greater challenge. If that challenge isn’t enough to keep you up at night, you then have the daunting task of convincing potential investors that you fully understand your target market, what that market will look like in 5 years and how much of that market you expect to capture.

Convincing investors that you understand your market begins with reliable and current research data; which often comes at a premium cost. You could purchase a single analyst report, which may vary in price from $4,500-$10,000 per source, hire a private consultant for the duration of the project, or fund a dedicated research staff with wages, benefits and overhead. But let’s assume that you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars under the company mattress to invest in these research strategies. Where can a small business find the market numbers and customized research findings that potential investors are looking for?

Dawnbreaker has been working with small business for over 20 years. Our team, comprised of business acceleration managers and market researchers has access to hundreds of formal analyst reports from industry-leading subscription databases, including Markets and Markets, BCC Research and Frost and Sullivan. We pull current information from a multitude of subscription sources, not available to most small businesses to secure the market intelligence expected by potential investors. Working together our teams then quickly translate this information into commercialization strategies that will help you more quickly and reliably arrive at your targeted destination. Armed with excellent information and appropriate strategies you will be well prepared to “pitch” your opportunity to potential investors.

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Eliza Gough