Global energy company BP unveiled plans to invest around 60 million dollars in a new, state-of-the-art electric vehicle battery testing centre and analytical laboratory in the UK. The company aims to advance development of engineering, battery technology and fluid technology and engineering into new applications.

Leybold has introduced the Varodry Vdi vacuum system with an integrated Vacontrol Cab control which assists its customers to carry out smart performance management and achieve high energy efficiency.

Under the terms of the agreement, BP will sell its 50 % stake in the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery in Ohio to its joint venture partner Cenovus Energy for 300 million dollars. BP and Canada-based firm Cenovus are also expected to enter into a multi-year product supply agreement.

The 4th ‘China International Import Expo (CIIE)’ showed where the chemical industry in China is heading. At the beginning of November, while climate negotiations were taking place in Glasgow, keywords such as ‘low carbon,’ ‘green,’ or ‘circular economy’ also dominated the presentations of Chinese and international chemical companies at the Expo in Shanghai.

Six key take aways from Parenteral Drug Association’s (PDA) recent workshop have been summarized by the author. The association intends to host a number of workshops to educate and help the industry implement the revision of the new Annex 1: ‘Manufacture of Sterile Products’.

The introduction of robotics into manufacturing plants benefits both products and staff, delivering greater operational flexibility, safety, quality and process efficiency compared to what traditional mechanical solutions allow. However, the price to achieve this is a reduction in production rates.

Sea Vision and the Marchesini Group are launching a brand-new solution in the market for primary pack serialization and aggregation, comprising a complete range of technologies to print, inspect and pack serialized blisters and perform aggregation with cartons, all integrated in a 4.0 environment.

Any review of China’s chemical industry in 2021 is dominated by the two big issues the industry had to wrestle with: climate neutrality and Corona. These are the same issues that will dominate the year 2022. The industry as a whole in the People’s Republic is facing enormous challenges and changes — while at the same time there are great growth opportunities for certain sectors. However, the ongoing global epidemic, including in China, continues to create uncertainty.

Extremely long life cycles are typical for many plants in the process industry. With the new version 3.1 of Simatic PCS neo, Siemens has completely rethought the plant life cycles in the process industry and, in addition to a variety of new functions, the completely web-based process control system shows how the challenges of long life cycles will be mastered in the future. Users of all process technology sectors already benefit from it today.

In the healthcare industry, 3D bioprinting is being used to develop human tissues for the purpose of research and development as well as regenerative medicine but now there is also a possibility that fully functional artificial organs can be printed, a move which if proved successful can revolutionize the industry like never before.