Market and raw material trends set the direction in the chemical industry. That is one of the reasons why the 2008/2009 crisis signaled the start of a paradigm shift in chemical plant engineering and construction. Traditional EPC suppliers (general contractors based in the Western industrialized nations) are facing increased competition from Asia. At the same time, the plant engineering teams at global chemical companies are intensifying their partnerships with EPCs and spreading the workload across the international engineering resource base.

The global demand for biodegradable plastics is predicted to be over a million tonne in 2022 and hence, the company has undertaken this move. Once complete, the facility is expected to produce a capacity of about 5,000 tonne per year.

Mitsui Chemicals and Prime Polymer announced the increase of their production of polypropylene at three of its global PP compound hubs in the United States, Mexico, and India.

A new project at Jacobs University is set to drastically simplify the application and implementation of biocatalytic processes in industrial practice.

Chemicals giant Bayer plans to get rid of the remaining material science and polymers business: The company wants to focus on life science solutions, bringing its subsidiary Bayer material Science on the stock market by 2016. Already in 2004, the company had divested large parts of its speciality chemicals and polymer business into the new formed Lanxess.

Songwon of Korea buys the speciality chemicalsoperations of Indian SeQuent Scientific: The acquisition includes Sequent's entire polymer stabilizer business and one production site in Panoli, Gujarat, together with the local R&D team.

Storing fluctuating and delivering stable electric power supply are central issues when using energy from solar plants or wind power stations. Here, efficient and flexible energy storage systems need to accommodate for fluctuations in energy gain. Scientists from Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials (DWI), RWTH Aachen University and Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea., now significantly improved a key component for the development of new energy storage systems.

Dupont is investing more than $ 80 million to build a new manufacturing facility in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province in East China. The facility will produce compounded high-end engineering plastics and adhesives to serve customers in transportation, electronics, industrial and consumer products markets.

Lanxess is investing in its ion exchange resin production facility at the Leverkusen, Germany, site. The company is optimizing its process technology and operating efficiency for a eight-figure Dollar amount. The project is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2019.

“Flexible, Fast and Future Factory” — the F3 Factory is a vision for the future of chemical production. Ambitious projects such as these need partners that can keep the time. Flexibility, speed and efficiency are demanded from plant and components alike — automation suppliers therefore have to leave the trodden path ...