Water treatment is not the environment in which one expects to find state of the art automation technology — And yet, sewage treatment plants could benefit greatly from the latest developments in drives and process control systems. All that is needed is an open mind for innovative thinking and new technologies, as a major English water distributor experienced.

Lanxess is building a new facility for the production of prepolymers at its site in Porto Feliz, Brazil. The Urethane Systems business unit is investing a single-digit million dollar amount to expand its prepolymer production capacity, which is scheduled to come on stream in the first half of 2019. Current production at the Rio Claro site, about 200 kilometers away, will be terminated.

Haver & Boecker (Oelde, Germany) and Windmoeller & Hoelscher (Lengerich, Germany) announced the launch of a new joint venture company, known as Aventus, at a press conference yesterday at Achema.

The Thyssenkrupp Group’s materials business is digitizing its entire range and consolidating it in what the company describes as the world’s biggest virtual warehouse.

With Dima (Decentralized Intelligence for Modular Applications), Wago provides an approach to how companies can master the digital production transformation.

BASF inaugurates its new world-scale production plant for sodium methylate in Guaratinguetá, Brazil, the company's largest site in South America.

Yokogawa Germany will present automation solutions for digital transformation at Achema. The company will focus on all key aspects of automated processing plants in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Yokogawa will also showcase solutions for ‘modular automation’ at its ZVEI partner Stand as well as its own portfolio of transmitters at the shared Profibus exhibition space.

This solution allows companies to minimize the risk involved in system migration – Companies, particularly medium-sized enterprises, cannot afford excessive production outages in the course of modernizing the control technology used in their processing systems. Migrating to a new solution step by step can be the answer to maximizing system availability and avoiding extended or unplanned downtime, as demonstrated by a recent migration project at specialty chemical producer CHT/BEZEMA.

Clariant hosted a Grand Opening Event for their new facilities based in Clinton, Oklahoma. The site is a strategic location to support the growing oil and gas industry within the Mid-Continental (Mid-Con) region with a focus on the Stack and Scoop, the company announced.

Emerson has launched the latest version of its Smart Meter Verification software for Coriolis and magnetic flow meters, providing flow meter verification on demand and empowering process engineers, technicians and operators to look beyond the meter and make real-time decisions based on the most advanced meter and process diagnostics in the industry today.