Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1517668
18 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2024 LaRont: That leaves air emissions. Are you considering working on any technology to help reduce air emissions in the future? Yes. Once the central ZLD system adoption rate is higher, tackling air emissions is my next project if someone doesn't go there first (I wish they would). In most of the world's shops, they put a fume scrubber up and then vent it out to deal with air emissions, but a significant amount still gets out. You can also add chem- icals to the water to make the reaction more efficient, put filters on specific processes, or add a cooling column to reduce the emissions at the source. en there is the completely closed-loop system for air—something nobody looks at. e process-specific filtration is gen- erally as far as anyone has gone, only about 1% do that, and it's mostly in Europe. e circu- lar systems are the best. I've done a couple of facilities in my career. Nobody has tried to "fix" this issue, but if you do it the right way, it can be done with a decent ROI by saving chemicals and eliminating permits. Matties: Who's making the decisions to consider new systems? Right now, the best candidates are those who have a high cost to their waste treatment, are considering new factories, or are replacing their old systems. e idea is to target those candidates for the next 12 to 18 months and get the systems in the field as reference accounts in each region, as most of the install base is currently state-side. Once we have more regional reference accounts, we target the existing factories to show them that there is a better way. At the same time, in hav- ing those reference accounts, you market heavily with the OEMs so that they will create demand for these systems. Hopefully, other companies respond to my disruption with some positive ini- tiatives of their own to compete. Matties: Where should a board fabricator's attention be right now? Everybody is looking for taxpayer funding, but another interesting idea is to try and fish somewhere else. AI is an interesting space for investment, and it has its hardware require- ments. Embedded component CapEx invest- ments have a low hurdle rate as well and are becoming increasingly desirable. Finally, ZLD is always a good idea to market yourself as green and hygienic vs. others. LaRont: Alex, you mentioned that this move- ment toward environmental sustainability should not be driven legislatively because of the long timeframe. Are global standards a regional factor? What is the timeline in regard to legislative and regulatory pressure, regard- less of where technology and ROI are at? I don't think there will be that much regula- tory pressure any time soon in the U.S. or Europe. e only place we really see that pres- sure is in China, and some in India. e U.S. and Europe have lost enough economically over the years that there is not much desire to put more regulations out there. I know of new facilities going up in Europe and the U.S. that do not have ZLD constraints. In the U.S., only some of the new factories are ZLD. We can still do this the right way through innovation that changes our market by making it the logi- cal economic choice. Matties: What else should we be looking at when it comes to sustainability? We need to pay attention to the sustainability of the equipment supply chain. With invest- ments in the U.S. market right now, every fac- tory has a completely different equipment investment strategy, and it is not a domestic one. ere is no globally competitive equip- ment supplier in the U.S., just holding compa- nies. Also, in Europe, there are, effectively, just a couple of companies operating competitively at the leading edge globally. LaRont: Alex, thank you very much for your time. It is always a pleasure to speak with you. PCB007