Green Innovation Sustainability Becomes a Driver for Chemical Plant Construction

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EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft mbH

Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH

Italvacuum, Srl

These are the birth pangs of a new economy: the increasing demand for chemical products is bringing growth to the industry, which at the same time has to cope with the necessary transformation towards climate neutrality. For chemical plant construction, both of these factors mean a lot of work in the coming years - in addition to enormous challenges, huge opportunities await.

The energy crisis resulting from the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine has sent shock waves through the global chemical industry in 2022. Germany and chemical nations in Europe, which have few energy resources of their own, have been hit hard by the rapid rise in gas prices. As a result, the pressure for more efficient processes and new energy sources has increased significantly. But a rethink of the raw material and energy base was already underway. This is because chemical nations and global chemical companies have long been working towards the goal of "Net Zero" and want to end greenhouse gas emissions by 2070 (India), 2060 (China and Russia) or already by 2050 (all other chemical nations).

The project is ambitious: in Europe alone, the chemical industry will have to invest 1 trillion euros for this purpose, according to estimates by the consulting firms Accenture and Nexant ECA. 400 to 600 billion euros will be spent on modifying and building new production plants for the eight most important chemicals: ammonia, ethene, propene, nitric acid, carbon black, caprolactam, soda ash and fluorochemicals. In the USA and China, investments will be much higher. Chemical plant construction has a key role to play here: the mammoth task is to scale up new technologies to large-scale production in the shortest possible time - actually the industry's paradigm discipline.