191 The One Where We Learn About Tannin

Welcome to the Scaling UP! H2O podcast, where we scale up our knowledge, so we don’t scale up our systems. 

Today’s guest is TGWT (Tannin Guys Water Treatment) President & Chief Executive Officer located in beautiful Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, Louis-Philippe Cloutier. Louis has fifteen years of experience working as President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board at TGWT, and since TGWT started in 2005 he has been a knowledgeable and passionate advocate for using tannin in water treatment. 

 Louis has been honored with several awards and accommodations including Best Startup Award for TGWT, Sustainable Supplier Of The Year Award, and Eurêka Award Winner: Public and para-public categories. 

 

Bottom line: Louis-Philippe Cloutier knows how to run a successful water treatment business and one of those keys to his success is using tannin. 

 Your roadside friend, as you travel from client to client. 

 -Trace 

 

Timestamps:  

Louis-Philippe Cloutier shares the history of tannin [6:40] 

Tannin and food safety: FDA Approved, Organic Certified, and Kosher Certified [17:02] 

Tannin chemistry [18:30] 

Feeding the tannin [21:30] 

Advantages switching to tannins, and operating parameters [24:08] 

Why have you used tannin since 2005? [35:59] 

What’s the strangest thing to happen to you since you started doing water treatment? [44:10] 

Lightning Round questions [45:45] 

James’ Challenge: “Question every chemical product you use at each location to ensure they are the best choice for the application.” [53:10] 

 

Quotes:

“Our purified tannin triples cycles in steam boilers. It reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gases.” - Louis-Philippe Cloutier 

“Tannin is a natural extract. There are 3,000 species of tannin. The species we use comes from the bark of trees. It has to be purified to become a purified tannin.” - Louis-Philippe Cloutier 

“Pressure. Temperature. Purification.” - Louis-Philippe Cloutier 

“Tannin replaces your sulfite and your polymer/disbursement.” - Louis-Philippe Cloutier 

“Tannin will interlink with the magnetites and form a thinner and more robust film on metal than the usual products.” - Louis-Philippe Cloutier 

“Tannin is Green Chemistry. It is FDA Approved, Organic Certified, and Kosher Certified” - Louis-Philippe Cloutier 

“It’s the best career out there. I don’t know why anyone would want to do anything else, other than water treatment.” - Trace Blackmore 

 

Links Mentioned: 

Louis Cloutier’s company, TGWT 

Submit a Show Idea 

Rising Tide MasterMind 

 

Events: 

Business Webinar - Adam Lean May 28th 

AWT (Association of Water Technologies)  

 

Books Mentioned: 

Scaling Up - by Vern Arnish 

Playing To Win - by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin