Water sourced from lakes, rivers and oceans contain multiple chemical and physical contaminants which make it unsuitable for domestic purposes such as drinking as well as for industrial purposes. Water is a crucial element for both these areas and the only way to utilize this natural resource is by purifying it via different treatment processes.

China is catching up in the fine chemcials sector. The communist state and party leadership in Beijing intends to use a series of targeted support measures to accelerate the development of the industry in order to become more self-sufficient towards foreign countries.

Nouryon’s Lumatreat tagged polymer products have been granted a US patent and the innovative solution assists customers to measure the available deposit-control agents in water treatment systems and reduce polymer and water usage during treatment.

KBR and ISU Chemical have teamed up to design and develop a commercial scale lithium sulfide unit for next generation battery technology which is expected to help the industry move towards more efficient utilization of renewable energy.

Takasago Hydrogen Park, the world's first integrated hydrogen validation facility has entered full-scale operation at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Takasago Machinery Works in Japan. The facility has begun producing electrolysis hydrogen at the site.

Neom has already attracted eyeballs from across the globe for its landmark projects including the development of a green hydrogen based green ammonia production plant. The 5-billion-dollar project is claimed to establish the world’s largest green hydrogen plant in order to produce 650 tons of hydrogen everyday which will be synthesized to produce 1.2 million tons of green ammonia annually.

Under the chemical industry’s ‘Together for Sustainability’ initiative, the sector has agreed on a global guideline for calculating product carbon footprints. The new guideline aims to provide specific calculation instructions for emissions from ‘cradle-to-gate’ for chemicals and will also assist companies to compare and evaluate the climate impact of their products.

Air Liquide’s autothermal reforming technology has been chosen by Inpex Corporation for Japan’s first demonstration project which aims to produce low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia. Once combined with carbon capture technology, autothermal reforming can achieve higher energy efficiency, lower investments and a production process which can assist in capturing up to 99 % of carbon in integrated industrial units.

The digitalization of the process industry is changing the requirements for process control systems. PROCESS Worldwide got in touch with three leading players to find out the latest market trends as well as the most recent innovations in this space.

Petróleo Brasileiro has awarded an EPCC contract to Toyo Engineering to build a new diesel oil hydrotreating unit and hydrogen recovery unit at the replan refinery in Brazil. The project is expected to boost production of S-10 diesel (ultra-low sulfur diesel) by 63,000 bpd.