Digital assistant for the control room — A battle for supremacy rages in the consumer world of voice-controlled digital assistants. Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft are the trailblazers on this market and want to make their assistant an integral part of our everyday life. But when you look to industrial applications, the search still comes up empty. This is about to change, because useful applications are manifold and a prototype is now entering the pilot phase.

The Haver & Boecker Machinery Division together with its technology subsidiaries Behn + Bates, Feige Filling and Haver Automation have introduced technologies and digital developments for a more sustainable use of resources and materials.

In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, Sanofi and GSK have collaborated to develop a Covid-19 vaccine by making use of their innovative technologies. The companies aim to create and supply sufficient quantities of vaccines that will help stop the virus.

AGC Pharma Chemicals Europe aims to increase pharmaceutical production capacity by 1.3 times that of the current level with this expansion. A new R&D facility is also expected to be constructed as a part of this project.

The first phase of the Surat Gas Project will be developed in Queensland, Australia and is expected to bring as much as 90 billion cubic feet per year of new gas to the market at peak production. The project belongs to Arrow Energy, a 50:50 joint venture between Shell and Petrochina.

Eco-friendly, limitless and CO2-neutral: Can synthetic fuel become the future of mobility? Power-to-X projects could be used to convert surplus electricity from renewable resources into clean synthetic fuels. While decision makers and politicians are still discussing the concepts feasibility, German engineering experts from Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz (CAC) show what can be done …

Researchers are hoping that hydroxychloroquine maybe an effective treatment of Covid-19. In this background, many countries have requested Sanofi to provide hydroxychloroquine to them amidst inadequate supplies. The company also plans to continue to donate the medicine to governments and hospital institutions if it is proven that the medicine can fight Coronavirus.

India is the world's largest producer and exporter of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine globally. Research suggests that there is a possibility that the drug can be used to fight the deadly pandemic of Covid-19. In this background, India has exported hydroxychloroquine tablets to the US and also intends to ship it across to 13 other countries on their request.

With an aim to expand its presence in the China market, Lyondell Basell has signed definitive agreements with Liaoning Bora Enterprise Group. Under the terms of the agreement, the joint venture will produce polypropylene and high-density polyethylene in the Asian country.

The European project RES Urbis (Resources from Urban Bio-waste), showed that different biowaste produced in an urban environment can be treated within the same chain of valorisation. It can be used to obtain products with biological origins, such as bioplastics, with a higher economic value than that of compost and biogas.