Total’s Grandpuits refinery in France will be converted into a zero-crude platform for the production of biofuels and bioplastic. The platform will comprise of three new industrial units: a bio-refinery, a bioplastics plant and a plastics recycling unit.

The new Wuxi plant is Sumitomo Chemical’s fifth production facility in China and with this project; the company aims to enhance its automotive materials business in the country’s Jiangsu Province.

With an aim to further support its extreme cryogenics business, Air Liquide has taken over a majority stake in Cryoconcept, a firm specialising in dilution refrigeration. With this move, the company will be able to offer its customers with a complete range of products and services across the entire cold chain.

The mega production facility is expected to have a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum on completion and will be built in Grandpuits, France. The plant will commence operations in 2024.

Clariant provided investors, analysts and journalists important details of the specific challenges and opportunities in North America as well as unique insights into the latest market and technology trends within Clariant’s Business Units Catalysis and Oil & Mining Services at Clariant´s Roundtable event in San Francisco on August 25.

The new Air Separation Unit (ASU) is expected to have an oxygen production capacity of more than 2,000 tonnes per day and will be built in China’s Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone. The plant will enable Air Liquide to strengthen its position in the industrial basin.

A global survey conducted by Yokogawa has revealed that process industry companies are accelerating investment in industrial autonomy in the background of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Cyber security (51 %), cloud, analytics, and big data (47 %), and artificial intelligence (42 %) are three vital areas in which companies are planning significant investment over the next three years.

The Chemical Activity Barometer (Cab), rose by 2.5 per cent in August on a three-month moving average basis following a 3.0 per cent gain in July, reports the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

The digital twin of a plant is a virtual image, which not only allows internal process states to be displayed transparently, but also allows process optimizations to be worked out. Take the example of steam crackers — the king’s class of process plants — and learn how models, simulations and digital twins can be used to generate benefits over the entire life cycle of plants.

The 11th colloquium on Process Analytics was held in the historical dome hall of TU Vienna under this motto. The nearly 200 participants were unanimous: process analytics must come out of the ivory tower and finally shed the perception of complexity. How is this to happen? How will the much admired trialogue between device manufacturers, science and industrial users be wrapped up finally?