Sourcing and retaining talent has been a challenge especially to the chemical and process industries, which deal with hazards and risks daily. Poised to grow at 11 – 15 per cent, with a future employment potential of five million jobs, the industries deal with this challenge through a systematic competency development – A strategy to make new talent ready and refresh existing practitioners to update,aiming at an empowered work place free of injuries...

India is a power-starved country, whereas the country’s biomass resources (otherwise waste) hold a great potential to address the challenge. About 15 GW of electricity generating capacity could be achieved through adding cogeneration capabilities in various industries including sugar mills, breweries, textile mills, distilleries, fertilizer plants, pulp and paper mills and rice mills.

Gharda Plastics, the performance polymers division of Gharda Chemicals, launched its specialty lubricious solution for industrial and business appliances. Now the company wants to boost it's polymers production capacity with a new process plant...

Haver & Boecker picks up on market trends and puts new demands on containers in order to conserve resources.

IPB China will take place from 19 to 21 October at the Shanghai Convention & Exhibition Centre of International Sourcing and is regarded as major gathering for the bulk solids and process engineering sector in the Asia-Pacific region.

Basel/Switzerland and Nanjing/PR China – Lonza announced the building of a performance chemicals plant in Nanjing. The facility will come on stream in the second half of 2008.

The Hungarian pharmaceutical industry has a long history, and it is a major factor in the country’s economy. Research plays an important role, but production technology is also very sophisticated, as the example of a recent automation project clearly shows.

Whether coal, gas or even biomass will replace petroleum as the chemical raw material of the future is not yet clear. However, one thing is certain. Alternatives will be needed in the long term despite that fact the even pessimists predict that oil will be available for the next forty years. High prices, increasing consumption in Asia and the chaotic political situation in the oil producing countries add an element of urgency to the discussion on diversification of the raw material base. The industry is looking for an intelligent mix and an evolutionary approach to the supply of raw materials.

Energy costs have now become a long-term issue in the chemicals sector and are becoming an important efficiency factor. Process versions which only a few years ago laid abandoned and disregarded in the drawer due to their high investment costs are benefiting from this sea change. This also includes mechanical compression of vapors in evaporators which remained in the long grass for a long time and is now enjoying a renaissance.

BASF will modernize and service its acetylene facility at the Ludwigshafen Verbund site. In the course of these efforts the company will also perform routine maintenance at its facility producing 1,4-butanediol (BDO), which is based on acetylene.