Custom filtering systems to boost output and lower costs

India

Mehul Panchal, chairman and managing director of Filter Concept, talks to The Energy Year about the efficiency gains enabled by customised filtration systems and the company’s successful track record among oil and gas companies in the GCC.

Filter Concept is a manufacturer of air, gas and liquid filters for industrial applications.

• Conventional filters used in oil and gas, petrochemicals and power plants are commonly made from polymeric materials that are costly to eliminate when filters are discarded.
• Filters made from sustainable materials can deliver substantial operational savings when properly calibrated to the desired processing parameters and can eliminate disposal costs for the end user.
• Since most industrial plants are built following similar designs and utilise established OEM equipment, industrial customers see filters as consumables rather than separate systems that can be customised to improve performance.

You are trying to change the mindset around filtration, positioning it as a service, rather than a capex element. What is your rationale, and what impact do you seek?
Historically, big players in filtration equipment have pursued recurring business. They install a product, and once it reaches a particular differential pressure, it gets replaced, generating regular revenue. We, on the other hand, believe in sharing our operational experience for the betterment of industries.
When we analyse customer operations, we see the burden of maintaining inventory, being compelled to buy replacement stocks from OEMs, requesting quotations, verifying compliance, chasing logistics providers, and finally installing the product without being sure it will perform to expectation. With this model, management often only realises the existence of filtering issues after problems arise.
Our approach is to audit the facility and analyse its processes to understand the type, expected duration and process parameters of the filters in place, along with the annual budget assigned for filtration and the total cost of procurement. In many cases, we have found room for savings of up to 30%. With sustainable filters, for example, we are able to eliminate disposal costs from the customer side entirely.
Conventional filters are made from polymeric materials that go to incinerators or landfills when discarded. Many suppliers don’t mention that, and incineration costs can be very high.
The most important thing is educating the market that a filter is not a consumable. People make assumptions about replacement, but filtration is a very technical subject, and the industry needs to understand how adequate filtration can deliver higher efficiency and output. Proper filters can change the mathematics of your plant.

In this context, what problems is your retrofit approach addressing for facility operators?
Industries are often impacted by factors outside their control. A plant project involves investors, the licensee, consultants, the EPC company and possibly several subcontractors, so many follow copy-and-paste specifications and depend on OEMs for equipment supply.
We have developed a retrofit model under which we study operational challenges and replace filter elements as is adequate, without the need for modifications to the capital equipment. We do not have to remove the entire filter body; we just change filter elements depending upon their process parameters to achieve higher throughput and lower pressure drops across the filtering system.
We have successfully implemented this across multiple refineries and processing facilities in GCC countries, and to support regional localisation programmes, we have established a manufacturing presence within the region. We have done it in the UAE and are preparing to begin operations in Oman in 2027. We approach each country similarly because our retrofit approach and supplying sustainable filters as a service require us to be on location, near the industry.

You have developed proprietary software for process design. Can you walk us through its main characteristics and what you expect to achieve with it?
When we developed the software in 2010, there were standards for mechanical design, but industries did not have standards for process design. Our platform, FC-PDS, filled that gap. It uses process parameters collected from the customer to suggest the right system for their operations, performing its own calculations for validation.
Before FC-PDS, industries treated filtration as a component business. EPC companies procured the components and installed them, locking facilities into using that equipment. What we did was show the market that customisation is important, because every plant and every process is unique, and tailoring equipment to them brings measurable benefits. In the coming years, I see FC-PDS becoming an industry standard for filtration decisions.

Can you give us a snapshot of the scope of your business and your footprint today?
We are in a strong growth phase. Around 55% of our business is in the energy industry, with roughly 40% being oil and gas, 20% power and the remainder in renewables and adjacent applications. Cleaner fuels such as hydrogen and biogas all require filtration, and we are already working with producers in that space.
Geographically, approximately 85% of our revenue comes from international markets. We operate in more than 90 countries, with the GCC as our primary export destination. In India, we work with PSUs [public sector undertakings] such as IndianOil, ONGC and GAIL, which account for most of our domestic business.

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