Insight into Innovation at Ecolab: Review of Two Recent Innovations

• Hear innovation stories that illustrate how Ecolab leverages the power of data to apply connected, insights-driven results for even greater customer impact across business segments.

Schedule:

• 5:00 – 6:15 Networking
• Research Facility Tours
• 5:15, 5:35, 5:45
• 6:15 – 6:20 Intro Introduction
• 6:20 – 7:30 Ecolab Innovation Presentation
  

Session Description: 

Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services. The company’s solutions are utilized at nearly three million customer locations to help make the world cleaner, safer and healthier while protecting people and vital resources.

Ecolab has 1,600 scientists, engineers and technical specialists working at 19 global technology centers around the world, and holds more than 9,400 patents. The company develops solutions that programs provide quantifiable value to specific customer challenges, whether improved operational efficiency, safety, product quality or environmental impact.

In this session, you will gain insights into Ecolab’s approach to innovation based on the review of two recent innovations, how they were developed and the benefits they provide. You will hear innovation stories that illustrate how Ecolab leverages the power of data to apply connected, insights-driven results for even greater customer impact across business segments.

Hand Hygiene Compliance

The first Ecolab innovation presentation will be Ecolab’s innovation in the electronic measurements of Hand Hygiene Compliance, which can improve hospital patient outcomes through safer interactions. The presenter will be Cheryl Littau, Ph.D., Corporate Scientist, Ecolab Healthcare Division.

Ecolab has developed a new electronic solution for hand hygiene monitoring. The Compliance Monitoring System, a part of the complete Ecolab Hand Hygiene Program, helps hospitals accurately monitor hand hygiene to encourage positive change. As handwashing compliance increases, the risk of healthcare-associated infections decreases, and patient outcomes improve.

With the Ecolab Hand Hygiene Program, hospitals can transform the way they create, monitor and report hand hygiene compliance. This innovation can change the way the hospital staff thinks about hand hygiene to improve safe interactions with patients.

Cheryl Littau, Ph.D., will describe how the Electronic Hand Hygiene Compliance Monitoring (eHHCM) gives a much more robust view of hand hygiene performance, and much more data on where and when hand hygiene opportunities are being missed. She will clarify how use of this system which can give immediate feedback to healthcare workers, enables immediate and sustained improvements to be gained.

Key Take Aways: 

• Hand Hygiene Compliance is difficult to monitor by traditional methods
• The innovation of Electronic HHCM systems allow rich data to be collected
• Immediate feedback mechanisms within an eHHCM system bring sustained behavior change
• Compliance improvements have led to reduced HAI risk in hospitals employing eHHCM systems

3D TRASAR Innovation Story

3D TRASAR technology saves Ecolab customers so much water, they built a counter to keep track of the savings. 3D TRASAR is the industry’s most advanced and broadly implemented solution for cooling water management. The presenters of this innovation story will be Mike Willer, Ph.D., VP of Ecolab Chemicals and Polymers Technology and Steve Hatch, Ph.D., VP of Global Corporate Technologies.

The innovation team has vastly improved the customer experience – bringing together technology from the world’s most innovative water treatment company, along with personally delivered world-class service. This technology was brought to the market to continuously address customers’ increasing resource challenges. 3D TRASAR Technology is designed to monitor key performance parameters and optimize water management through custom solutions.

Mike Willer, Ph.D., and Steve Hatch, Ph.D., will provide an overview of how Ecolab industrial water customers were facing challenges in managing the health of their cooling systems. Spot inspections were insufficient in detecting problems early. Undetected system upsets were causing performance issues, wasting water and energy. Through creative problem solving and dogged determination to solve a major customer problem, Ecolab scientists created a solution to chemically tag water treatment chemistries and continuously trace treatment levels for accurate system monitoring and precise product dosing, giving birth to the Ecolab 3D TRASAR technology platform. 3D TRASAR uses an interconnected ecosystem of smart technology, innovative chemistry, data analytics and extensive expertise to proactively resolve problems and deliver effective results. Seventy-two billion data points collected and analyzed across 40,000 customer systems delivered with on-site expertise save customers 188 billion gallons (in FY18) of water a year, increasing their efficiency, protecting their equipment and reducing operating costs.

Key take aways  

• The 3D TRASAR™ development team was created in 2000, long before digital was trending and IoT had been coined. New sensors and remote access were added to standard measurements in the industry to meet customer needs in a unique way and deliver one of the company’s greatest commercial success stories.
• 3DT is now the world’s most advanced and comprehensive water performance technology, combining chemistry, remote services and sophisticated monitoring and control to improve a range of industrial operations.
• It detects conditions that precede scaling, corrosion and biofouling to deliver the appropriate chemical response around-the-clock monitoring by our System Assurance Center.
• Ecolab’s goal is to leverage the power of data to apply connected, insights-driven results for even greater customer impact across business segments.

Session Leaders

Paul Christian, Ph.D., Corporate Scientist, Polymers and Chemical Technologies at Ecolab, will introduce the speakers
• The presenter for Ecolab’s innovation in the electronic measurements of Hand Hygiene Compliance, will be Cheryl Littau, Ph.D., Corporate Scientist, Ecolab Healthcare Division at Ecolab.
• The presenters of Ecolab’s innovation in 3D TRASAR technology will be Mike Willer, Ph.D., VP of Ecolab Chemicals and Polymers Technology and Steve Hatch, Ph.D., VP of Global Corporate Technologies at Ecolab.

Session Bios 

CHERYL LITTAU, Ph.D.
CORPORATE SCIENTIST, INFECTION PREVENTION

Cheryl Littau is a Corporate Scientist with the Healthcare division of Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources.
Cheryl leads the technical team supporting sales and service of the Ecolab Electronic Hand Hygiene Compliance Monitoring System as well as working on continuous improvement of the system to add new features to improve scalability and user experience.

Cheryl has worked in Ecolab’s Healthcare Division since 2004, leading the North American Hand Hygiene R&D program until 2014. Prior to joining Ecolab, she worked for Hoechst Celanese Corporation (later Clariant Corporation) in various roles in Applications, Research and Development, including Technical Manager for North American Personal Care. She holds numerous US patents, has served as a peer reviewer for the American Journal of Infection Control and has been a member of APIC since 2004.

Cheryl received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Emory University.

STEVE HATCH  Ph. D.
RD&E VP CORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES

Steve Hatch is RD&E VP Corporate Technologies for Ecolab, the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

Steve began work at Ecolab through Nalco Chemical Co. in 1992 in the Research Analytical laboratory. He has managed Cooling Water, Corporate Quality and Product Regulation, European R&D, Process and Membrane Solutions, and Wastewater Research. He has been responsible for Ecolab’s Global Analytical Services team and currently manages the Corporate Technologies RD&E areas. Steve was closely involved in development of Nalco’s 3DTRASAR technology and was part of the team recognized with the United States EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Award for this advancement in 2008. Steve has authored 18 publications and holds 6 US patents.

Steve received a B.S. in Chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1985 and a Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry from University of Texas at Austin in 1990 where he studied surface photochemistry and the Surface Raman effect. In 1990 he received a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with Exxon Corporate Research and Engineering to investigate interfacial chemistry with nonlinear spectroscopies.

MICHAEL WILLER Ph. D.
RD&E VP CORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES

Mike is RD&E VP Chemical & Polymer Technologies for Ecolab, the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

Mike joined Nalco Chemical Company in 2000 in Cooling Water Research. He was the project leader for the development of the first 3D TRASAR offering, which included new sensors, a controller, a web platform, and supporting PC software. The technology was recognized with the United States EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 2008, and after expanding to several other application areas, more than 30,000 installations are in operation today. In 2014, Mike took a new role to lead the product development team for Food & Beverage North America, where the 3D TRASAR technology was brought to the first legacy Ecolab business as 3D TRASAR CIP along with several other new product launches worth a total of $180M in sales. In 2018, Mike moved to corporate R&D focusing on development of new cleaning platforms as RD&E VP Chemical & Polymer Technologies.

Mike received a B.S. in Chemistry from Kalamazoo College in 1993 and a Ph. D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Harvard University in 2000, where he studied substitution chemistry of rhenium sulfide clusters and structural analogs of molybdenum enzyme active sites.

Venue Information

Ecolab, Alan L. Shuman Campus
655 Lone Oak Dr, Eagan, MN 55121, USA

Building F

The meeting room is called the Innovation Center.

Parking Directions:
Visitors should park in the lot nearest the F Building entrance and to check in at the Reception Desk.

As you enter the Ecolab Research Facility campus from Lone Oak Parkway, you will come to the ring road circling the Ecolab buildings. Take a left onto the ring road. Take the next left into the first parking lot entrance then immediate right down the first row of parking. Go down to the 2nd stairway where there are Visitor Parking signs on the right. Take the stairway up from the parking lot and you will be in front of building F, the meeting room is on the right after you enter and get your name tag.

PDMA Minnesota Chapter