Given the challenges the pharmaceutical industry is facing – secure material supply, reduce operation cost and increase flexibility, enhance sustainability and safety, innovate and reduce time-to-market – the sector is poised for a breakthrough of flow chemistry.
Numerous crises such as climate change, energy shortages, raw material shortages, war in Ukraine and the consequences of the pandemic are putting value chains worldwide to the test.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Major Brazilian chemical company Unigel is planning to invest $120 million in developing a site for green hydrogen production.
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.
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.
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.
Clariant is restructuring its business and leadership to position itself for long-term sustainable growth and implement a cultural transformation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Biovox was founded in 2020 to enable more sustainability through renewable bioplastics even in difficult applications such as consumables in healthcare or machine parts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Besides digitalization, sustainability and the circular economy are the key issues facing the chemical industry at present and in the coming decades.
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.
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.
