These are the birth pangs of a new economy: the increasing demand for chemical products is bringing growth to the industry, which at the same time has to cope with the necessary transformation towards climate neutrality. For chemical plant construction, both of these factors mean a lot of work in the coming years - in addition to enormous challenges, huge opportunities await.

The end of hierarchical pyramid structures in process automation has often been predicted - now Namur is getting serious with Namur Open Architecture (NOA): Today’s best-in-class technologies make it possible to extend the automation pyramid with transparent data exchange.

The chemical industry is in crisis, but pump and valve manufacturers are confident in the circumstances. Despite all the crises - after all, there will always be pumping. Read on to find out which three megatrends are now set to boost fluidics...

LG Chem has plans to expand the capacity of its Cheongju plant located in South Korea. With this move, the company intends to add 400,000 reverse osmosis membranes annually to its existing capacity at the site.

Technip Energies has recently announced appointments to its executive committee. Naïla Giovanni has been appointed as Chief Digital and Information Officer while Marco Villa and Loïc Chapuis have been appointed as the firm’s Chief Business Officer and Chief Operating Officer respectively.

Pepperl+Fuchs has introduced a new Smart-Ex 03 smartphone that can be used in hazardous areas across diverse industries. The 5G- and Wi-Fi 6-enabled smartphone ensures outstanding connectivity and supports the latest technical standards.

Auma has added an explosion-proof actuator series Profox-X to its existing Profox actuator series. The versatile, future-proof actuators meet all the requirements of modern plant automation.

BHS-Sonthofen will be focusing on metal recovery from metal-containing waste materials such as electric and electronic scrap (WEEE), incinerator bottom ash (IBA) and automotive shredder residue (ASR) at this year’s Ifat (Booth B4-351/450). A second focus topic is the efficient and safe recycling of lithium-ion batteries.

Under a ‘Heads of Agreement’ signed between the two parties, LG Chem and CJ Cheiljedang will work together to establish a joint venture which will focus on the production and sales of bio-nylon.

With chemical and chemical processing industries aiming to forge ahead in their automation and digitalization drive to develop their respective ‘Factory of the future’ or ‘Smart factory’, one thing is certain – it can’t be done without the use of robots at least for the time being. The concept of robots is not new but they have been transformed time and again to meet the challenges of today’s industrial plants especially with regard to plant inspection as well as maintenance and it won’t be wrong to term this phase as the ‘return and rise of robots.’