438 Innovative Water Treatment Chemistry with Matheus Paschoalino
Release Date: 09/19/2025
463 Mapping the Future of Water Innovation with Paul O’Callaghan
Scaling UP! H2O
“If you say something over and over often and enough, it becomes true because perception is reality.” has built a career at the intersection of water science, wastewater realities, and the practical question every operator and executive eventually faces; what actually moves innovation from idea to adoption. As Founder and CEO of, Paul explains how his team helps decision-makers put capital to work more efficiently in water by reducing uncertainty and separating signal from noise. He describes patterns he’s watched repeat across water entrepreneurs, pilots, and...
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462 From Lab Chemist to Field Mentor: Water, Culture, and Representation
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water work rewards people who can move between precision and practicality. brings both. She started as a lab chemist, then transitioned into field service with , where much of her work supports healthcare facilities and high-accountability programs. Lab habits that protect your tools and your data Katie describes the first surprise of field work: a central plant is “very dirty,” and the job demands good technique without chasing lab-level perfection. She shares a couple of simple practices that prevent expensive problems. Use proper lab wipes on...
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461 Corrosion, Lead, and Algae: New Tools for Old Water Problems
Scaling UP! H2O
Corrosion rarely announces itself as a “big water problem.” It shows up as leaching at the tap, residual loss in the field, premature equipment replacement, and the slow, expensive erosion of decision-quality. (CEO) and (chemist/Chief Science Officer) of lay out a system-wide view of corrosion control—starting with what changed in Flint from a technical standpoint and moving into why many utilities still struggle to meet expectations when standards and risk assumptions shift. System-wide corrosion control starts with chemistry...
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460 Building Boiler Talent: Fundamentals, Online Training, and Better Partnerships with Eric Johnson
Scaling UP! H2O
Boilers can feel intimidating the first time you step into a boiler room—the heat, the noise, the pressure gauge, and the weight of knowing that mistakes can be costly. Trace Blackmore opens with a reminder that boilers deserve respect, not fear—and that learning fundamentals is how you replace mystique with clarity. The talent gap behind the boiler room door , Founder and CEO of , explains why boiler expertise is becoming harder to replace. He points to the shrinking pipeline of boiler-trained technicians—historically strengthened by Navy steam...
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459 From Wastewater to Resource: Water Reuse with Dr. Veronika Zhiteneva
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water professionals are increasingly pulled into conversations about scarcity, resilience, and “where the next gallon comes from.” , CEO and Co-founder of frames water reuse as an implementation challenge more than a technology gap—and explains where the practical starting points are when the scope feels overwhelming. Moving reuse forward when the technology already exists Waterloop Solutions was founded to accelerate implementation: clarifying end-use quality, identifying post-treatment needs on the back end of...
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458 Hiring Olympics and High-Performance Culture with J.D. Roth
Scaling UP! H2O
"Stay curious. And you only have one reputation. Guard it with your life." Hiring for judgment, not just rehearsed confidence Industrial water treatment is full of decisions made with incomplete data—on sites, with customers, and inside the business. (Managing Director and Co-owner of ) builds his hiring around that reality. His aim is straightforward: protect the team and the culture by selecting people who can think, collaborate, and lead under pressure. JD frames the organization as a group of people choosing to work toward a common goal: building a better future for...
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457 2026: A New Year with New Intentions
Scaling UP! H2O
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456 The 12 Days of Scaling UP! H2O 2025
Scaling UP! H2O
A year-end recap is more than a highlight reel—it’s a practical reset. In this New Year episode, Trace Blackmore walks through 2025 using a “12 Days of the Scaling Up Nation” format, tying together performance, community growth, listener engagement, and the sponsor support that keeps the podcast and its companion tools available at no cost. Year-end by the numbers Trace explains how he used to track every stat closely—and how that shifted into an unhealthy measure of self-worth—so the team now uses numbers as feedback, not validation. He notes the...
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455 Mentors, Mindset, and the CWT: Owning Your Water Career with Nella Fergusson
Scaling UP! H2O
“So one thing I never do is try to start giving remediation or advice before I truly have understood and diagnosed the problem.” Mentorship and certifications don’t replace experience—but they can accelerate it when paired with the right mindset and a disciplined approach to learning. (District Manager, Southern California, ), lays out what “growing up” in industrial water treatment actually looks like: repeated exposure to real problems, strong diagnostic habits, and a willingness to keep learning long after year one. Learning that keeps...
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454 Water Recycling, Innovation, and Industry Wisdom with Dr. Kelle Zeiher
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial cooling is one of the biggest levers industrial facilities can pull on water use—and it’s getting harder to ignore as data centers and other high-heat operations grow. Returning guest (Project Manager at ) breaks down what water reuse looks like when you move past slogans and into the realities of pretreatment, concentrate management, footprint, and cost. Cooling water reuse: the scale of the opportunity Dr. Zeiher reframes “drought” beyond rainfall, emphasizing aquifer recharge and the limits of focusing only on household restrictions. She...
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Can a carbon-negative, bio-based molecule replace legacy phosphonates and help you use less azole—without sacrificing corrosion performance? In this episode, host Trace Blackmore, CWT, welcomes Matheus Paschoalino, PhD Senior Business Development Manager and Microbial Control SME of Solugen, to unpack polyhydroxycarboxylic acids (PHCs) and how they’re changing cooling-water programs from the field up. We cover HEDP replacement in light-duty systems, azole enhancement in copper-challenged waters, a second-generation cut for heavy-duty heat flux, and PHC behavior with oxidizers and non-oxidizer biocides.
From Bioforge to Basin: How PHCs Are Made and Why It Matters
Paschoalino explains Solugen’s chemo-enzymatic “Bioforge” approach that oxidizes sugars (corn-syrup feedstock) into PHCs with very high yield and no practical byproducts—a pathway validated as carbon-negative. He outlines how different “cuts” (monoacid-rich vs. diacid-rich) map to different use cases, and notes current manufacturing capacity and adoption across hundreds of towers.
Replacing HEDP in Light-Duty Programs
For hospitals, HVAC, and other light-duty systems, PHCs have fully replaced HEDP as the anodic corrosion inhibitor while keeping PBTC for scale, enabling lower total phosphorus formulations with equal or better performance compared to status-quo organics.
Azole Enhancement, Free Copper, and Real-World Cost
Field work showed PHCs chelate metals quickly, protecting azole demand when free copper is present (e.g., after oxidizer flushing) and reducing expensive azole overdosing. One university case dropped an adjunct 8-ppm azole feed by pairing the base 3–4 ppm azole with PHC, yielding both corrosion control and lower discharge costs.
Second-Generation PHCs for Heavy-Duty Heat Flux (Toward “Neutral Phosphorus”)
At higher heat flux and stabilized-phosphate conditions, a diacid-rich second-generation PHC proved more stable, enabling orthophosphate reduction and opening a path toward “neutral phosphorus” programs that leverage background phosphate in municipal make-up. Bench data also show synergy with trace metals (e.g., zinc).
Biocide Potentiation and Where It Works Best
PHCs remain stable with oxidizers like chlorine dioxide and bleach. Their most compelling synergy shows up with non-oxidizers and peracetic acid (PAA): as a biocide potentiator, PHCs can reduce the need to overdose actives such as THPS, glutaraldehyde, quats, and DBNPA by first complexing interfering metals (e.g., Fe/FeS), letting the biocide perform as intended.
Not “Bug Food”: Pilot Cooling Towers and Oxidizer Demand
To address the industry’s biggest concern with bio-based chemistries, Solugen ran side-by-side outdoor pilot cooling towers under identical bleach control. Result: comparable oxidizer usage and consistently low counts versus HEDP—evidence that PHCs don’t fuel biofilm.
Chelation Mechanics, Polymer Savings, and White Rust
PHCs chelate beyond acid-group stoichiometry thanks to multiple hydroxyls and conformational effects—critical for controlling dissolved metals and protecting films. In stressed heat-flux/chlorine conditions, PHCs reduced calcium-phosphate fouling versus HEDP, often allowing polymer dosage cuts. Early data also show promise for white-rust mitigation on galvanized systems, with the diacid-rich cut delivering the strongest reductions.
For practitioners, the message is pragmatic: PHCs aren’t “lab curiosities.” They’re fielded at scale, enabling lower-phosphorus programs, protecting costly azole inventories, widening the operational window under oxidizer stress, and potentiating select biocides—while staying compatible with common metals. If you manage cooling assets under cost, compliance, and performance pressure, this episode gives you a clear technical playbook to evaluate.
Listen now, review the papers in the show notes, and test a pilot where it counts—on your heat exchangers.
Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:15 - Trace Blackmore shares a quick personal open: spotting the Goodyear Blimp (100th anniversary), using memories as fuel rather than limits, and a mindset reset around the word “can’t.”
06:42 - Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals
09:23 - Water You Know with James McDonald
11:41 - Interview with Matheus Paschoalino, Senior Business Development Manager and Microbial Control SME of Solugen
12:02 - HEDP replacement in light-duty programs; lower total phosphorus without losing performance
19:13 - Heavy-duty heat flux: second-generation (diacid-rich) PHCs and reducing orthophosphate
20:39 - “Neutral phosphorus” approach
27:42 - Biocide potentiation: synergy with PAA; strongest effects with non-oxidizers (e.g., THPS)
33:03 - “Bug food?” Pilot side-by-side cooling towers (Houston)
37:39 - HEDP systems fouled with calcium phosphate while PHC system showed only minor patching (CTI paper)
41:44 - Early evidence: white-rust mitigation on galvanized systems (seeking field partners)
Quotes
“Use your past as history, not as a limiter.” - Trace Blackmore
“Plan where you’ll be; you never know what you’ll learn or who you’ll meet.” - Trace Blackmore
“First-gen PHCs let us replace HEDP in light-duty programs and keep performance with lower total phosphorus.” - Matheus Paschoalino
“Non-oxidizing biocides work best with PHCs—we target the metals first so you stop over-dosing the biocide.” - Matheus Paschoalino
“We like to be very conservative… we start with the laboratory; we start with light duty. Now we are going to heavy duty.”
Connect with Matheus Paschoalino, PhD 
Phone: 14847193979
Email: matheus.paschoalino@solugen.com
Website: Home - New - Solugen | Solugen
LinkedIn: Matheus P. Paschoalino, PhD | LinkedIn
Guest Resources Mentioned
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
Water You Know with James McDonald
Question: Back in the day, what was the treatment used for corrosion inhibition in cooling water systems that was banned around 1985 in the United States from widespread use due to its toxicological impact?
2025 Events for Water Professionals
Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.
