The Energy Crisis as Opportunity
The current crisis, exacerbated by the economic downturn and war in Ukraine, can be an opportunity to reduce dependence on fossil feedstocks and explore sustainable alternatives.
Sustainability
21.10.2022 • News
ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell and Cyclyx in US Plastic Waste Project
ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell and Cyclyx International have agreed to jointly establish a plastic waste sorting and processing facility in Houston, Texas, USA, providing feedstock for both mechanical and advanced recycling technologies.
Sustainability and the Chemicals Industry
The chemicals industry is one of the world’s largest industrial sectors, worth €3,471 billion in 2020. It includes producers of industrial chemicals, polymers, pesticides, food and feed additives, and cosmetics, and is growing rapidly. By some estimates it will reach almost $22,000 billion by 2060.
20.09.2022 • News
Solvay Expands French Rare Earths Site
Solvay has announced plans to expand its rare earths operations in La Rochelle, France, in order to enter the permanent magnets sector in Europe and serve customers in the fast-growing electric vehicle, wind power and electronics markets.
20.09.2022 • News
Neste Studies Porvoo Shift to Renewable, Circular Feedstocks
Finnish oil refiner Neste has launched a study on transforming its Porvoo facility to renewables and circular feedstocks, ending crude oil refining in the mid-2030s.
03.08.2022 • News
OQ Chemicals Switching to Green Power
In its drive to become a climate-neutral company, Germany-based oxo-chemicals specialist OQ Chemical has announced it will switch all of its worldwide production sites to run on electricity from renewable sources in the medium term.
02.08.2022 • News
Unigel Plans Brazil’s First Hydrogen Plant
Major Brazilian chemical company Unigel is planning to invest $120 million in developing a site for green hydrogen production.
01.08.2022 • News
Air Products Beefs up its Climate Goals
Air Products is strengthening its sustainability goals, pledging to allot at least $4 billion in fresh capital for the transition to clean energy over the next five years. This builds on the more than $11 billion already commited to real zero- and low-carbon hydrogen projects.
21.07.2022 • News
Shell Invests Billions in Sustainability
Shell Chemicals has announced it will earmark “billions of euros” from its current capital spending budget to make production assets more sustainable as it works to achieve net zero emissions by 2032.
18.07.2022 • News
Perstorp “Green” Methanol Project Wins EU Aid
Project Air, a production facility for sustainable methanol in Stenungsund, Sweden, described by the project’s partners Perstorp, Fortum and Uniper as “unique,” has been selected as one of 17 large-scale “green tech” projects that will share more than €1.8 billion in aid from the EU Innovation Fund.
23.06.2022 • News
Clariant Restructures Business, Leadership
Clariant is restructuring its business and leadership to position itself for long-term sustainable growth and implement a cultural transformation.
17.06.2022 • News
Perstorp Starts Switch to Sustainable Polyols
Swedish chemical producer Perstorp is making strides toward its sustainability goals following its mid-May announcement that it will be acquired by Malaysian petrochemicals giant Petronas Group (PCG) for €1.54 billion.
Planning for the Unexpected
Dorothee Arns, Director General of FECC, discusses current challenges, market trends and her vision for the chemical distribution industry in Europe. The interview was conducted by Michael Reubold and Ralf Kempf.
17.05.2022 • News
Sustainability to Drive Evonik’s Business Growth
After making “good progress”, both strategically and financially, in the recent past, the next phase in Evonik’s drive toward enhanced business growth will see it execute “targeted and massive investments” in green chemistry and establish sustainability as its central innovation driver, CEO Christian Kullmann said at the company’s Capital Markets Day.
The Upswing of the Superstars
For its annual report "Value Creation in Chemicals 2021 – Ten Years of Steady Growth – and a Few Superstars," the strategy consultancy Boston Consulting Group examined the performance of leading international chemical companies from 2011 to 2020. The long-term perspective shows that the industry has mastered serious market downturns with astonishing confidence.
• 19.04.2022 • Topics • Innovation
Blockchain in Chemical Value Chains
Interview with Jens Schmidt, ReCarbonX
21.01.2022 • News
Vertimass and European Energy Combine Carbon Technologies
US green technology company Vertimass has signed a Letter of Intent with Denmark’s European Energy to integrate their technologies for capturing CO2 and converting it into hydrocarbon products, such as renewable fuels and chemicals.
Chemistry Shapes the Future
In his interview with CHEManager, Jeff Zhu, chairman of the Chinese Association of International Chemical Manufacturers (AICM), talks about the industry’s role in helping achieve China’s carbon-neutrality goal.
• 30.11.2021 • Topics • Innovation
Providing Circular Side Stream Solutions
Interview with Steven De Laet, InOpSys
Making Demanding Applications Bio-Based
Biovox was founded in 2020 to enable more sustainability through renewable bioplastics even in difficult applications such as consumables in healthcare or machine parts.
20.10.2021 • News
ExxonMobil Plans Chemical Recycling Plant in Baytown
Following trials earlier this year of its proprietary technology for advanced recycling – also referred to as chemical recycling – ExxonMobil has now announced its intention to build a large-scale plant in Baytown, Texas, USA.
Processes4Planet: EU Cross-Sectorial R&I
The Processes4Planet (P4Planet) partnership’s goal is to transform the European process industries to make them circular and achieve overall climate neutrality at EU level by 2050, while enhancing their global competitiveness.
• 14.09.2021 • News
Chemical Industry – Surviving or Thriving in the Next Normal?
In his interview with CHEManager, Thorsten Wenzel, Vice President and global head of the industry business unit Chemicals at SAP, talks about most recent trends and developments shaping the future of the chemical industry.
The Future of Sustainability Policy
Over the past few years, sustainability has become a priority for innovation teams in the materials and chemicals industry as well as consumer-facing industries like apparel, food, and beauty.
On the Way to Climate Neutrality
The EU Commission’s ambitious plan for a European Green Deal, launched shortly before the pandemic struck in early 2020, aims to make the continent the world’s first climate-neutral region by 2050. The goals spelled out in January last year call for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% up to 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
Sustainable Synthesis of Biochemicals
When Circa was founded in 2006, the company’s aim was to convert non-food cellulose into high-performance, renewable chemicals, at scale — extracting value from waste biomass and addressing a gap in the market for better, more sustainable materials.
Taking an Active Role in the Industry Transformation
Fernando J. Gómez, head of the Chemical and Advanced Materials Industry at the World Economic Forum (WEF), discusses the chemical-industry-related topics that are high on the WEF’s agenda.
The Age of Sustainability
In a nutshell, reaching sustainability has become a key aspect for chemical companies and adjacent businesses along the product chain with a high entry hurdle for everyone.
The Role of Clean Hydrogen for a Climate Neutral Industry
Europe wants to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and decouple its economic growth from the consumption of natural resources – this is what the members of the European Union committed to in the so-called Green Deal in December 2019.
17.03.2021 • News
CO2-Neutral Chemical Industry
The European Chemical Industry has set out on an ambitious path to become carbon neutral. Germany, as one of the major chemical manufacturing nations, has committed to achieve this goal by 2050.
Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Chemical Industry
Besides digitalization, sustainability and the circular economy are the key issues facing the chemical industry at present and in the coming decades.
11.02.2021 • News
Ercros Launches Three-Dimensional Sustainability Strategy
Spanish chemical company Ercros has launched a three-year strategic plan to improve its sustainability. The plan, which incorporates 20 projects, is based on three dimensions: diversification, digitalization and decarbonization.
02.10.2020 • News
LyondellBasell Sets Out Sustainability Aims
LyondellBasell has pledged to produce and market 2 million t/y of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030 as part of a range of new sustainability targets.
Into the Crucible: Will the European Chemicals Industry Rise to the Circularity Challenge?
Chemicals are a critical, but often overlooked, factor of success for a circular economy. 96% of all products on European markets, from food to medical treatments, from buildings to consumer electronics, rely on chemicals, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But what does circularity mean for the future of the chemicals industry? Should it embrace circular systems or resist them?
Upcycling of Post-Consumer PLA Waste
Designed for their performance and durability, synthetic plastics have become indispensable as “materials of every-day use”. However, their characteristic long life span and indiscriminate disposal have led to an acute problem of plastic pollution. In order to address this issue, the European Union is not only trying to adopt a circular system to reuse, repair and recycle plastics (circular economy) but it also aims to produce plastics out of renewable resources (biobased plastics).
Cabot Corporation
LANXESS Deutschland GmbH
MBDC
Agility Logistics Sol. Ltd.
Porelio GmbH
Sepawa
Proventis Partners
Solugen
Dyneon GmbH
AstraZeneca
JMP Statistical Discovery / SAS Institute GmbH
Dupont International Operations S.àr.l.
PlasticsEurope
The Scott Partnership
IChemE
Archroma
Bergeson & Campbell P.C.
Dow Corning GmbH
Sonichem TechnoLogies Ltd
Edelman Southside
The Dow Chemical Company
Oxea
Evonik Operations GmbH (Hanau)
Managm. Consult. Chemicals
Perstorp Holding AB
Miebach Consulting GmbH
Europäische Gesellschaft für Nachhaltige Labortechnologien e.V., Egnaton
LLamasoft Deutschland GmbH
Nova Chemicals
European Bioplastics e.V.
Together for Sustanability (TFS)
FECC - European Association of Chemical Distributors
AkzoNobel
Univers. St. Gallen
Accenture
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
Carbon Waters
TU Techn. Univers. Dresden
Bioindustrial Innovation Centre
A.I.S.E.
Röhm GmbH
Nova-Institut GmbH
Unigel Group Limited
Fraunhofer SCS
Inopsys
Treffert GmbH & Co. KG
IMCD Deutschland GmbH
Global Impact Coalition (GIC)
DistriConsult GmbH
Kline Group Prague