Ahlam Rais

India's chemical industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and contributes 3.4 % to the global chemical industry. A dedicated focus on developing sustainable specialty chemicals and investing significantly in R&D and technology is trending in this burgeoning sector.

3D printed medicines are slowly becoming popular due to its many advantages not only for the end consumer but also for pharmaceutical companies. Numerous firms are also exploring the additive manufacturing technology to reduce costs as well as create on-demand drugs.

A local fire recently broke out at Borealis’ production location in Stenungsund, Sweden. The fire was contained and no people were injured during the incident. The cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained.

Exxon Mobil has collaborated with the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to discover the new material. The innovation is capable of capturing more than 90 % of CO2 emitted from industrial sources.

China’s GDP shrunk 6.8 % in the last quarter as compared with a year earlier. The country’s chemical manufacturing output declined by 21 % and profits by 66 % in the first two months of 2020 due to the coronavirus scenario. However, now with the virus defeated, the East Asian nation hopes to improve these figures.

At least 11 people have died and thousands have fallen sick due to a styrene gas leakage from LG Polymers’ chemical plant in Visakhapatnam, the southern state of India. The gas leakage occurred due to the negligence of factory workers amidst the coronavirus lockdown in India.

India's chemical industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and contributes 3.4 % to the global chemical industry. A dedicated focus on developing sustainable specialty chemicals and investing significantly in R&D and technology is trending in this burgeoning sector.

The ‘Westküste 100’ project in Germany has received funding confirmation from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. The mega project is claimed to be the first large-scale hydrogen project in the country.

Cyber Security in the oil & gas sector is steadily gaining momentum in the backdrop of rising cyber-attacks. PROCESS Worldwide brings to you the latest cyber security solutions in the market for this vital industry.

BASF has announced that its process catalysts manufacturing facility will be ceasing operations at its Erie site in 2021 due to non-profitable operations in the long term despite heavy investments. The move is in line with the firm’s long-term business plans.

Covid-19 has transformed industries like never before and the oil and gas sector is no exception to this. The demand for digital twin technologies is at an all-time high amidst the pandemic and major industry players are already making use of this technology for numerous significant projects.

On December 2, a fire broke out at Tjeldbergodden’s methanol plant in Norway. The fire was successfully extinguished on the same day and no one was injured in the accident.

Eni and Enel have plans to set up two pilot projects in order to produce green hydrogen with the help of electrolysers which are powered by renewable energy. The electrolysers are expected to be located near two of the Eni refineries.

People have witnessed an increase in fake news during Covid-19. To dissect what is real and fake, the PQE Group has set up a task force which aims to provide scientifically correct information in a clear and simple manner.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has regularly hit the headlines: in 2016, it beats Grandmaster Lee Sedol in playing Go, and in 2018, the auction house Christie's auctioned off the first artwork created by artificial intelligence, "Portrait of Edmond de Belamy", for over 400,000 dollars. And today the AI-based text generator GPT-3 from the research laboratory Open AI, co-founded by Elon Musk, is said to flood the web with fake news through machine-generated posts but what about industrial applications of artificial intelligence? What are the opportunities and challenges of AI in the process industry?

Eight workers lost their lives and around 40-45 workers were seriously injured after a boiler exploded at a chemical factory in Gujarat, India. A massive fire also broke out post the blast.

The ‘intrinsic safety’ type of protection covers a wide range of applications and is currently used in systems ranging from simple point-to-point wiring to digital automation for Industry 4.0. Ex i-protected solutions enable direct process data capture in hazardous areas, reduce installation work and can be tested and maintained during ongoing operation.

Digital twins are either a must-have for any self-respecting engineering consultant; or they are dismissed as the latest shiny object dreamed up by VC-fueled ‘constructech’ mania. On the one hand, digital twins are important enough to warrant their own National Digital Twin Day; on the other, proponents are accused of ‘digital-twin-washing’ Bim just like they ‘green-washed’ their eco-sustainability credentials, driven by fear of missing out.

The intrinsic safety (Ex i) type of protection has established itself worldwide in the field of measurement and control technology in systems with potentially explosive areas. For one thing, it is much more cost-effective when it comes to construction when compared to other types of protection. For another, it allows for maintenance work and modifications during operation. Moreover, it is also possible to use simple electrical equipment without special approval.

Repsol’s first project includes construction of one of the largest net zero emissions synthetic fuel production plants in the world while the second one involves building a plant for generation of gas from urban waste.

China has announced massive investments in one of the country's largest petrochemical industry sites. In Zhanjiang, at the southern tip of the People's Republic in Guangdong Province, another 45.2 billion dollars is being pumped into a Verbund site which will focus on petrochemicals and steel production over the next five years. The German chemical giant BASF is right in the middle of all this.

Wilden has introduced Wilden Safe Guard – the industry’s first Internet of Things (IOT) enabled remote performance monitoring and alert system for air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pumps.

Emerson’s Sergio Diaz, product marketing manager for safety systems, and Alexandre Peixoto, product marketing manager for cybersecurity, explain what factors need to be considered in creating defendable safety systems.

How a desalination plant uses the most sustainable and available energy source to generate fresh drinking water — Seawater desalination has a large ecological footprint, as the processes used to generate fresh water from brine or seawater are energy intensive an often rely on fossil fuels. Luckily, the arid regions that rely on desalination the most have one resource in abundance: sunlight. Can solar power bring green drinking water to the Middle East?

Saudi Aramco has halted the deal with its Chinese partners – Norinco and Panjin Sincen – to build a 10 billion dollar refining and petrochemicals complex in the Chinese province of Liaoning. Lower oil prices across the globe are the core reason behind this move.

Several of Dow’s US sites safely shut down operations before the impact of the hurricane. However, manufacturing operations at the firm’s sites in Freeport, Texas and Louisiana remained active. Minor damages were reported at the company’s Sabine and Beaumont sites.

Leybold has recently expanded its Turbovac i/ix series - 90, 250, 350 and 450 - by the sizes 850 i/ix and 950 i/ix to six models. The two new turbomolecular pump variants are characterised by extended, trouble-free operation, longer system life and lower operating costs.

The life threatening Benzimidazole gas leaked from Sainor Life Sciences, a pharma unit located in Andhra Pradesh, India which left two people dead. This is the third gas leak accident reported in the state in the past six months.

China has published new important guidelines for further development of its chemical industry. The ‘Guidelines of the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry’, were presented in a live internet broadcast on July 30. In it, the main guidelines of the 14th Five-Year Plan are specified in detail. Here are some important insights.

LG Chem claims that the new biodegradable material is the only biodegradable material with 100 % bio contents and is also the only material which offers mechanical properties equivalent to polypropylene.

Weighing 3,025 tonnes and a height of 72 meters, the world’s largest hydrogen reactor was installed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) in Zhoushan, China on June 10. The reactor is the core element of Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical’s 40-million-tonne/year refining-chemical integration project, phase II.

How to gain timely and accurate data insights to optimise asset performance and reliability.

The acquisition will enable Saudi Aramco to strengthen its downstream strategy and further enhance its international presence. The move will also assist the company to take advantage of growth opportunities in the petrochemicals industry.

Fujian Petrochemical has announced that the world's largest ethylene project to date will be realised together with Saudi chemical giant Sabic. The plant in the Chinese province of Fujian is expected to produce 1.5 million tonnes of ethylene per year.

In the fight against coronavirus, Tata Chemicals under its subsidiary Rallis India has converted its chemical units at Akola and Ankleshwar to produce and supply 75,300 litres of hand sanitisers across different states in India.

China’s pharma firms Sinopharm Group and Sinovac Biotech are each developing a covid-19 vaccine. Phase 3 clinical developments of the vaccines have already begun and Global Data opines that the vaccines can surprise the world with their success.

The 12th edition of the Vogel Pharmaceutical Engineering International Forum (VPEIF) 2020 was successfully held from September 19 – 21 in Taizhou, China Medical City, China. Organised by PharmaTEC China, the event witnessed the participation of 58 exhibitors and a footfall of more than 1,300 people making it even more successful than its earlier edition.

The global industrial wearables market is projected to grow from 1.1 billion dollars in 2019 to 8.6 billion dollars by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 50.2 %. Many firms have developed smart solutions but are there any wearables specifically for the chemical and oil & gas industries? PROCESS Worldwide finds out…

BASF recently held a groundbreaking ceremony online for its new cathode active materials production plant in Schwarzheide, Germany. The new unit will make use of cutting-edge process technology to produce battery materials for electric vehicles.

The large-scale sustainable project aims to create a hydrogen and sustainable fuel unit founded on the concept of electrolysis. Expected to be complete in three stages, the electrolysis plant once completed will offer a capacity of 1.3 GW.

A quarter of European ethylene production capacity is threatened by refinery cuts in the background of the global pandemic of Covid-19, states ICIS. If the coronavirus restrictions continue, the ethylene crackers may be forced to reduce operating rates or even shut down due to their dependency on LPG feedstocks which are sourced from refineries.

With the mega investment, Merck will expand its high-potent active pharmaceutical ingredient (Hpapi) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) manufacturing capabilities. The new 6,500-sq m facility is expected to be one of the largest Hpapi manufacturing facilities capable of handling single-digit nanogram occupational exposure limit materials.

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) welcomed Sartorius as its new shareholder and together the companies plan to extend their partnership to develop future-focused tools and AI applications for the production of advanced medications.

India together with China, are and will continue to be the growth motors of the global pigment industry. This is the conclusion of a study by the market research department of JM Financial. India is also substantially increasing domestic demand and export volume.

The fire has been extinguished at Equinor’s Hammerfest LNG plant in Melkøya, Norway. It had occurred in a turbine at the facility on September 28, 2020; however, no personnel were injured.

The mega project, Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend), is expected to produce hydrogen from natural gas and will also utilise the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. With this project, the UK aims to develop the world’s first net zero cluster by 2040.

Market research firm, Research and Markets has recently released an in-depth report on the impact of Covid-19 on the Chinese chemical industry. In the report, various regional players, laws and policies, consumer behaviour and macro-economic factors have also been analysed.

The first phase of the MDI capacity expansion project, which includes a new MDI synthesis unit at BASF’s Louisiana site, is complete while the second phase, which consists of capacity increases of several upstream units, is currently under progress. The final phase is expected to bring the capacity to approximately 600,000 metric tonnes per year.

With an aim to reinvent BP, the company has agreed to the sale of its petrochemicals business – including global aromatics, acetyls and related businesses – to Ineos. The move is expected to strengthen BP’s finances and also deliver its 15 billion dollar target for agreed divestments ahead of schedule.

In India, Dow and Lucro Plastecycle have entered into a MOU to develop post-consumer recycled polyethylene (PE) film solutions. The move is expected to develop the circular economy in the country and also expand Dow’s plastics circularity portfolio in the Asia Pacific region.

Post the successful installation of a pilot fever-scanning cabin at the Kallo facility in Belgium, Borealis has plans to install the cabins at a number of other production units to protect its workers during the global pandemic of Covid-19.