Claimed to be the energy industry’s first autonomous vehicle trial, BP and Oxbotica held the autonomous vehicle trial at BP’s Lingen refinery in Germany. With these self-driving vehicles, BP aims to improve safety, increase efficiency and decrease carbon emissions at its sites.

Achema Pulse is a new digital format that has been introduced to complement the prominent trade fairs Achema and Achem Asia. Scheduled to be held from June 15 – 16, 2021, the virtual platform aims at bringing together industry leaders and market players from the process industries in order to explore opportunities for collaboration and establish new contacts.

The new unit is Air Products’ maiden cryogenic nitrogen plant in the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, Northern Malaysia. With this project, the company aims to cater to the booming demand from the electrical and electronics and other manufacturing industries in the region.

Emerson has recently introduced a new software to boost process automation and the application of the Roxar 2600 Multiphase Flow Meter (MPFM) for the oil and gas industry. The Rapid Adaptive Measurement software architecture enables the Roxar 2600 MPFM to do parallel computations at 10 Hz and autonomously select the optimal configuration for a particular time period. This leads to more automation in operational processes, reducing the need for what previously were manual configuration changes.

Ajax Equipment has supplied two large stainless steel vertical screw blenders to a major chemical producer in South Korea for producing polymer powder. Each blender is capable of handling batches of up to 8T of polymer powder and additives.

BASF and Siemens Energy have partnered to fast-track the implementation of new technologies – specializing in lowering greenhouse gas emissions – on a commercial scale. Numerous pilot projects will first be studied and then launched at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site in Germany.

Alfa Laval has acquired a 20 % stake in US-based IIOT specialist AMI Global effective year-end 2020. The move is to strengthen the company's market position in connected services such as condition monitoring of equipment and systems.

A new hydrogen development and testing facility is to leverage and expand Ricardo's capabilities in building solutions to support zero-emission mobility. It will also become part of a global center of excellence for hydrogen, renewable fuels and electrified transportation technology.

Lanxess has plans to commence its mobile operations and maintenance over the next three years. In the first phase, around 400,000 paper-based operations and maintenance checklists will be substituted by digital technologies.

With an aim to develop the circular economy, Solvay is testing the blockchain technology for tracing its supply chain. The move is part of the European Union-funded Chemchain project which intends to create a decentralized open-source blockchain infrastructure to store and track chemical-related information along the supply chain.