Reprinted from
PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING
industry interview
The Official Technical Magazine of ISPE
January/February 2013, Vol 33, No 1
©Copyright ISPE 2013
www.PharmaceuticalEngineering.org
Pharmaceutical Engineering Interviews
George Gsell, President,
MECO, Inc.
G eorge V. Gsell is
President of Mechanical Equipment Company
(MECO), a leading manufacturer
of engineered
equipment for water purification.
The firm has an 80-year history and
a broad base of products for desalination and water purification. Gsell
has more than 25 years of experience
designing and constructing a variety
of technologies for desalination and
water purification, including vapor
compression plants, multiple effect, waste heat and flash distillers,
reverse osmosis plants, and enhanced
membrane systems using micro- and
ultrafiltration membranes. His experience includes applications throughout
the world in the offshore oil and gas
industry, onshore refining, biopharmaceutical applications, municipal
water treatment, and state of the art
military applications. He holds an
MS in desalination technology from
Glasgow University in Scotland and
a degree in mechanical engineering
from Tulane University. He is the
author of several patents and papers
in the industry related to desalination
and water purification.
MECO is focused on water and
water is a critical utility in the
pharmaceutical industry. Can you
tell us about the firm and its role
in the industry?
MECO invented and patented the
vapor compression process for the
desalination of seawater in the early
1940s. Through the years, we have
been developing technologies and
systems for various industries such
that these industries can meet their
needs for fresh water. The vapor compression process is the most energy efficient method of distilling water and
so the pharmaceutical industry began
adopting the process for the production of water for injection in the
early 1960s. In the 1970s, membrane
processes such as reverse osmosis
began to see widespread use. Today
we manufacture a broad range of
products that can deal with any water
source for any industry. Our focus is
primarily on customers who require a
very high quality of product with the
need for excellence in the execution
of their project or delivery of their
product.
Describe your professional
development, your relationship
with ISPE, and your role at
MECO.
I have been designing and building
various water purification technolo-
gies for close to 30 years. I have had
the very good fortune to work with
some of the pioneers in the business and today remain surrounded
by a very talented team of people. I
have had the opportunity to travel
the world and get involved in a lot of
water related problems and issues. As
President of MECO, my role today is
more focused on the long-term development of the business, process control, and administration. I engage our
customer base directly on a routine
basis and work on building a foundation for the learning and growth of
our employees. My relationship with
ISPE began about 20 years ago both
as an educator and one who was being
educated. I gave a few talks on water
and in the process, learned more and
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January/February 2013
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industry interview
more each day about the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Today
we have a number of people engaged
with ISPE and the document team for
the ISPE Guide on Biopharmaceutical
Process Development and Manufacturing. You will find us participating
in various conferences, contributing to the ISPE Baseline® Guide on
Water and Steam Systems Guide, and
authoring technical papers. Through
the years, we have patented several
processes for the production of water
to USP purified and water injection
standards.
Was the ISPE Baseline® Guide on
Water and Steam Systems or any
other ISPE Guide used in any of
these projects?
The ISPE Baseline® Guide on
Water and Steam Systems has been
a tremendous resource for us and
the industry as a whole. Some of our
people have been participants in the
development of the Guide over many
years. The Guide serves all of us (designers, contractors, vendors, regulatory officials) as a reference tool.
We use the Guide continuously as a
resource in designing and constructing systems, as well as educating the
industry.
Water has captured everyone’s
attention today. Can you tell us
why? Give us your perspective.
Freshwater is a limited resource.
Severe weather patterns have impacted the hydrological cycle such that existing supplies are stressed. The world
population is growing and with that
growth comes not only the increased
demand on freshwater sources, but
also the contamination of existing
supplies through industrialization.
Right here in our home state of Texas,
we built a multimillion gallon per day
reverse osmosis plant to treat groundwater that had been contaminated by
farm runoff posing a health hazard.
Water is a resource we often take for
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January/February 2013
granted, but if you look a little deeper,
you will come to realize that industry
consumes and wastes vast amounts
of freshwater to deliver the goods and
services we routinely use. The pharmaceutical industry is no exception.
MECO is building a new
manufacturing facility here
in the US that will serve the
biopharmaceutical industry.
Why here, why now, and what is
special about this new facility?
Our principal manufacturing facility was located in New Orleans, LA
and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina
seven years ago. Eighty percent of
our employees lost their homes and
the communities they lived in were
utterly devastated. We quickly opened
two new facilities in the aftermath to
meet the needs of our customers and
provide our employees with continued
employment. Both of these facilities
are now at capacity.
The new facility will significantly
increase our manufacturing capacity. It will be a state of the art facility
for the machining, fabrication, and
assembly of pharmaceutical water
projects. Louisiana is a great place to
work. The workforce is highly skilled
and there are meaningful incentives to
do projects there. Our new facility will
be in Covington, LA, a New Orleans
suburb located to the north of Lake
Pontchartrain. Building in Louisiana
is a way for us to help rebuild the
community.
How does the pharmaceutical
industry compare to others in
considering their need to purify
water?
The pharmaceutical and biotech
industries are very different relative to
others when it comes to many things
including water. Regulations require
us to start with source water that
meets drinking water standards. Most
other industries start with much more
difficult source waters. Having said
PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING
that, producing water to the Pharmacopoeia standards can be every bit as
challenging and expensive. The water
quality standards are high and the
monitoring is more intensive as is the
documentation. Regulations do not
allow us to add substances, so where a
simple chemical treatment step might
otherwise be used, the pharmaceutical
industry requires us to add additional
unit operations. The manufacturing
standards are significantly higher than
that of general industry.
“
In the short
term, I think all of us
can review our unit
operations to look
for opportunities
to increase water
recovery rates. In so
doing, it is likely we
will find reductions
in energy usage as
well.
What other industries do
you serve, how do they use
your products, and are there
any lessons or opportunities
these industries can offer the
pharmaceutical industry?
Although we serve a variety of other industries, I think the pharmaceutical industry can and will benefit from
our work with the armed services. We
have a long history of contracting to
the US government and armed services because water is one of the largest
logistical burdens on the battlefield.
Right now we are under contract
with the US Army, the Navy, and the
industry interview
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA). Several years ago,
the Army commissioned us to design
and develop a highly capable and
mobile water purification unit. Today,
these machines are produced in our
Texas facility and hundreds have
been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan,
and elsewhere in the world. DARPA’s
mission is to ensure that our soldiers
are never behind the technological
curve, so they have commissioned
us to develop the next generation
of highly capable water purification
units. Navy ships today operate closer
to shore and in littoral waters that are
troublesome for conventional desalination plants. Given this, the Navy
has engaged us to design and develop
an advanced shipboard desalination
plant to meet their very special needs.
The technologies funded, developed,
and proven under these programs are
done so to resolve fundamental issues
that are in some cases common to
other industries. The pharmaceutical
industry wants lean processes and the
technology being deployed and developed will result in improved water
recovery, lower energy consumption,
higher reliability, lower maintenance,
and zero operator involvement.
Where do you see opportunities
for advancement with respect to
water within the pharmaceutical
industry and what role can
industry play in considering the
larger water issue?
Water is the most prevalent
ingredient in the drug manufacturing process and the pharmaceutical industry wastes an exceptional
amount of water. Typically more than
25% of the feed water is rejected to
waste immediately in the purification
process given a variety of unit operations. Further down the line, often,
only a fraction of the ultrapure water
is used in the final product. In some
cases, more than 90% of the freshwater (drinking water quality) supplied
to a pharmaceutical water system goes
down the drain. Although the technology to recycle and reuse the water is
available, regulations and aversions to
risk prevent us from doing so.
In the short term, I think all of us
can review our unit operations to look
for opportunities to increase water recovery rates. In so doing, it is likely we
will find reductions in energy usage as
well. Longer term, I think we need to
tackle the issue of recycling and educate one another on the opportunities
to do so.
ISPE has been a tremendous
resource for sharing of best practices
such that the process of change does
not necessarily have to be accompanied by the unknown. The ISPE
Baseline® Guide on Water and Steam
Systems is another excellent resource
for information. It is incumbent upon
us to be good stewards of our natural
resources and be leaders setting an
example.
In considering the production
of water, what technology
advancements are out today
that could be of benefit to the
industry?
Micro- and ultrafiltration refers to
a method of particulate removal. The
generic process is not new and many
of us are familiar with the single use
cartridges used throughout the industry. The use of advanced microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes
with respect to water purification
has seen exponential growth over
the past 10 to 12 years, but we have
not seen them widely adopted in
pharmaceutical plant water systems.
These membranes have the ability to
be backwashed regularly, are chlorine
tolerant, and offer very high recovery
rates. In some cases, applying this
technology can eliminate other processes or reduce the sizing of downstream processes while improving
overall water quality within a system.
Given the fundamental issues
surrounding water around the
globe, what solutions are on the
horizon?
We have been “stuck” on the use of
reverse osmosis membranes for the removal of dissolved ions from water for
40 years. The principals of operation
dictate certain minimum thresholds
for energy consumption we just cannot
get around. There are other issues
around fouling of membranes and
rejection rates that are undesirable
and expensive. There is a tremendous
amount of research underway through
governmental programs, universities, and private industry. Much of it
is devoted to alternative, far reaching
techniques to lower the cost of water
production such that it can be more
economical to produce for those in
need. Selective ion removal through
the use of carbon nanotubes is one
area that is garnering a lot of attention and money. If the theory in this
area can be transformed into reality,
it could have a tremendous impact on
how we purify various fluids.
MECO recently launched a
“Sustainability Initiative.” Can
you tell us a little about that and
how you are implementing the
initiative?
It started with the building of our
new plant and our intent to be environmentally responsible with respect
to our own use of water, the land
around us, and the way we operate. As
it turns out, we are really just committing to policy what we are doing
for industry every day. We are always
trying to find a solution that makes
sense given the challenges. Purifying
water is expensive and the operational
costs over the life of a plant are many
times the plant’s first cost. So, in
considering what we do for industry, we are always trying to improve
energy consumption and reduce the
water footprint. When we are successful, both the percentage and absolute
value of the impact is significant.
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