Air Liquide has plans to develop three new plants for supplying ultra-high purity industrial gases to two of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers. The plants are expected to produce a total of up to 2 billion Nm3 per year of ultra-pure nitrogen, oxygen as well as argon and will be operational by 2024.

Merck has heavily invested in its biosafety testing capacity at Rockville, Maryland, USA and this is claimed to be the largest investment in contract testing in Merck’s history. The move was undertaken in the background of growing demand for these services.

Enablers of production – Same old in the “pump halls”? Not this time! If the production of tomorrow wants to truly unleash its efficiency potentials, pump experts are challenged. In fact, the largest exhibitor group at Achema is more innovative and digital than ever before.

Anyone who prints pharmaceutical labels needs a lot of expertise and experience. But with the right hardware, software and advice, even newcomers can efficiently produce the complex pharmaceutical labels in short runs - an interesting option for pharmaceutical retailers who specialise in re-imports and want to print very small quantities of labels themselves.

Gea introduced the intelligent software solution Gea Smart Filtration for membrane filtration plants at a recently held beverage and liquid food industry trade show. The software monitors the plant status remotely via app and makes use of cloud connectivity and real-time analytics to increase plant availability and performance. One of the company’s customers Seagarden, a supplier of fish-based ingredients in Norway, has also invested in a Gea membrane filtration plant that will be connected via app in the future.

Digital twins ensure competitiveness. This is the experience of numerous users in the process industry who are working with a solution developed by Siemens and Bentley Systems. Bart Moors from Siemens and Alistair Stubbs from Bentley Systems describe what makes this platform unique and, furthermore, how they can help customers to advance their digital maturity.

Under the chemical industry’s ‘Together for Sustainability’ initiative, the sector has agreed on a global guideline for calculating product carbon footprints. The new guideline aims to provide specific calculation instructions for emissions from ‘cradle-to-gate’ for chemicals and will also assist companies to compare and evaluate the climate impact of their products.

The deal with Italy-based firm Sea Vision Group will enable the Marchesini Group to create packaging lines which are even more integrated with vision and inspection systems. The acquisition aims to combine Marchesini Group’s mechanical engineering business with some of the leading software and vision companies in Italy.

Digitalization is one of the biggest industry trends of the 21st century. However, the transformation presents companies with major challenges. Can a professional coaching method, supported by a dedicated digital framework, help firms and employees alike achieve sustainable change for the long term?

At this year’s Achema trade show which is claimed to be the world's leading trade show for the process industry, more than 2,200 exhibitors from over 50 countries along with 70,000 plus participants from 127 nations were present at the event which was held from August 22 – 26, 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany.