At the start of 2020, Gea embarked on a new course — two functional business areas were divided into five divisions, including Liquid & Powder Technologies with the business unit Chemical Technologies (BU CT). Dr. Christopher Braun, who has been managing the business of Gea Wiegand for 19 years, is expecting this to deliver clearer responsibilities. He believes that areas of growth for thermal separation technology will be found particularly in attractive niche markets.

Neste Engineering Solutions’ Nexpinustm technology has been selected by Fintoil for its new CTO fractionation unit in Finland. The company has also been made the engineering partner for the plant which is expected to start-up by 2022.

Weltec Biopower will be building a new 500-kW biogas plant in partnership with Tetoros Machinery for a Greek Abattoir. The Veria facility will make use of the animal waste to generate efficient bioenergy.

Axens’ Paramax Technology Suite has been finalised by China’s Cnooc Huizhou Petrochemical Company for expanding its petrochemical complex. On completion of the project, the new complex is expected to produce 1,500,000 tonnes per year of para-xylene in a single train.

Fast Company has awarded Heliogen with the ‘World Changing Ideas’ award for its technology that is capable of replacing fossil fuels with sunlight. The technology also boasts of commercially bringing carbon-free, ultra-high temperature heat to traditionally carbon-intensive industries for the first time.

A new biomanufacturing plant uses a comprehensive digital enterprise solution based on the concept “from integrated engineering to integrated operation”. Cathay’s new Wusu plant adopts Siemens’ complete digital factory solution, covering the entire lifecycle of the plant in design, construction, operation and maintenance, enabling Cathay to fully upscale every step of its process from R&D to production.

The Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites forecasts a global production capacity of 4,3 million tons of bioplasics in 2022 — a real growth market. A US bioplastic resin provider wants to be part of this success story and invested in a tailor made production plant. For the challenging handling and processing of the natural raw materials they found in Azo the right partner.

Air Products has acquired five steam methane reformer hydrogen production plants in the US from PBF Energy. The acquired units offer a combined production capacity of almost 300 million standard cubic feet per day.

Fitness scheme for the plant: in a turnaround, every move must be right — When an “eternal” flame goes out for a while, something big is in progress: a refinery shutdown demands the utmost of operators, service providers and planners. When production comes to a standstill, the work of over 800 specialists really begins ...

Eco-friendly, limitless and CO2-neutral: Can synthetic fuel become the future of mobility? Power-to-X projects could be used to convert surplus electricity from renewable resources into clean synthetic fuels. While decision makers and politicians are still discussing the concepts feasibility, German engineering experts from Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz (CAC) show what can be done …