Achema, the international trade fair for process industries has kickstarted with great pomp and vigor in Frankfurt, Germany. The live show has attracted over 2,200 exhibitors from more than 50 countries and is exhibiting numerous equipment and processes for the chemical, pharma and food industry.

With support from the Important Project of Common European Interest (Ipcei) Hy2Tech program, Cummins will expand its existing PEM electrolyzer manufacturing capacity at its Oevel, Belgium factory to 1 GW, thus accelerating the green hydrogen initiative.

Plug Power has secured an order by Lhyfe to supply ten 5 MW PEM electrolyzers for the production of green hydrogen which will be mainly used by the firm for various mobility applications in Europe, including forklifts and light commercial vehicles.

The chemical company Yara along with Northern Lights, a joint venture firm of Shell, Equinor and Total Energies have entered into an agreement to transport CO2 captured from Yara Sluiskil, an ammonia and fertilizer plant in the Netherlands, and permanently store it under the seabed off the coast of Norway.

Six companies from the Coesia Group will be exhibiting their innovative solutions for the pharmaceutical sector at the soon to be held trade fair Achema in Germany. With a special focus on digital tools and services, the company aims to optimize the efficiency of machines, lines and entire factories, and deliver advanced support to its customers.

LG Chem and ADM have entered into an agreement to establish two new joint ventures focusing on LA (lactic acid) and PLA (poly lactic acid). The first joint venture ‘Greenwise Lactic’ will produce 150,000 tons of high-purity corn-based lactic acid every year while the second one ‘LG Chem Illinois Biochem’ will use Greenwise Lactic’s lactic acid to produce 75,000 tons of bioplastics annually.

Nextchem has secured a Pre-Feed engineering services contract by Madoquapower2X to develop and operate an integrated renewable hydrogen and green ammonia plant in Portugal. The project is expected to have an initial capacity of 500 MW for electrolyzer and up to 500kt/y of green ammonia, thus reducing CO2 emissions by up to 600,000 t/y.

The National Petroleum Construction Company bagged the mega contract to develop the new gas line at Adnoc’s Lower Zakum field offshore of Abu Dhabi. Once completed, the project is expected to increase the field’s gas production capacity from 430 million to 700 million standard cubic feet per day.

With escalating gas prices in Europe, the fertilizer firm has announced further cuts in production across Europe, bringing the firm’s total European ammonia capacity utilization to around 35 %.

Curevac has launched a clinical trial for the Covid-19 booster in collaboration with GSK. The booster shot is expected to protect people from the omicron variant.