Even after the Corona pandemic has subsided, the demand for pharmaceuticals is increasing. But the requirements are changing - and this has an impact on production equipment. Machines for packaging medicines are not exempt from this. And their manufacturers are only spurred on by this.

On December 21, 2023, BASF, Letter One and Harbour Energy reached an agreement on the future of Dea Wintershall's exploration and production business. The business, excluding Russia-related activities, is to be transferred to Harbour Energy.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in Finland has granted 2 million euros as energy investment aid to Neste for its green hydrogen project at the Porvoo refinery. The investment aid is for heat recovery from the green hydrogen production.

Over 6,000 tons of blended SAF will be supplied into the fueling system at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in 2024. The move comes as an expansion of the partnership announced by Neste and Emirates last year.

BASF, Sabic, and Linde have started-up the world’s first large-scale electrically heated steam cracking furnace at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The project makes use of electricity from renewable sources and has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 90 % compared to the technologies commonly used today in the chemical industry.

PROCESS Worldwide brings to you the ‘Top 10 plant engineering projects of December 2023’ from all over the world. Right from Ørsted starting work on Denmark’s first carbon capture project to Fluor securing two contracts for the world’s first net-zero ethylene cracker and derivatives complex, find out all the projects making headlines here

Technip Energies and John Cockerill have created a new firm called Rely which is dedicated to offering integrated green hydrogen and power-to-x solutions. The move has been undertaken in the background of growing demand for solutions in order to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries.

Expected to begin operations this year, the wastewater treatment plant is almost 100 % automated and will handle variable bio-treater wastewater. The plant will make use of Ecolab's ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membrane system.

The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) is cooperating with Namibia in research for a hydrogen pilot plant and refueling station. With this, both the parties aim at jointly collecting scientific insights for upscaling green hydrogen technologies.

Eastman has plans to develop its second molecular recycling project in the U.S.A. The Longview site in Texas has been selected by the company for developing the project.