Siemens made its presence felt at the Achema 2022 trade fair through the show’s Green Innovation Zone and Digital Hub. The company focussed on the topics of chemical recycling and hydrogen at the event.

Keeping products in the economic cycle for as long as possible, closing material cycles, avoiding waste (including CO2) — awareness is now wide spread that the Circular Economy is more than “just” recycling. However, the extent of the transformation is only gradually becoming apparent. At Dechema’a Tutzing Symposium, the consensus was: if you really want to implement the Circular Economy, you have think big.

Time is running out! We have to get our greenhouse emissions under control and eliminate it completely before it’s too late. The effects of climate change are already beginning to appear and, in this background, the most carbon-intensive sectors have undertaken sustainable business strategies to achieve their net zero goals but is it going to be enough? PROCESS Worldwide lists down four progressive solutions that will help industries to decarbonize their operations.

E-crackers are the next big thing within the chemical process industry as it has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 90 %. The transition of this core industrial process has already begun with leading petrochemical companies looking to establish pilot e-cracker plants across Europe. PROCESS Worldwide revisits its ‘Progress on E-Cracking’ article by highlighting the top 3 e-cracker projects in the news this year.

To deal with the global plastic waste problem, at great deal of hope is placed in chemical recycling processes. But can the process hold up to these high expectations? An expert discussion at Achema Pulse addressed the potentials and challenges of the technology. PROCESS worldwide listened in on the session and summarized the most important statements for you.

The increasingly relevant climate change coupled with the worldwide static increase in energy consumption by industry and private households requires us to rethink. New climate-neutral alternatives are being promoted more and more. One of the biggest hopes in the field of climate neutrality is hydrogen. But what is hydrogen? How can we produce it and where can it help us?

S&B Engineers and Constructors has been awarded an EPC contract for expanding New Hope Energy’s plastics pyrolysis unit in Texas, USA. On completion, the expansion is expected to add 420 metric tons of capacity daily to convert plastic waste to chemical feedstocks in the existing facility.

Lyondell Basell's proprietary Moretec molecular recycling technology is based on chemical recycling but it also includes a catalyst-based approach. The technology aims to return post-consumer plastic waste back to its molecular form and use it as feedstock for the production of new plastic materials. Currently, the company has set up a pilot plant in Italy to advance its technology towards commercial scale.

The Pyrochem Project aims to process 1 million tons of waste plastic into feedstock for the chemical industry from 2030 onwards. With this project, the project partners intend to reduce 1.7 million tons of CO2-eq annually and save 550 kilotons of petroleum.

Neste aims to scale up processing capabilities for liquefied waste plastic at its Porvoo refinery in Finland. The development will enable the company to meet its goal of processing over 1 million tons of waste plastic annually.