Wednesday, July 4, 2012

World's leading event for process engineering industry


ACHEMA 2012
World's leading event for process engineering industry shrugs off economic woes to post stable numbers of visitors & exhibitors
ACHEMA 2012 – the world's leading event for the process engineering industry – closed its doors on June 22, with numbers of exhibitors and visitors having remained stable from the last edition of the event held three years ago. According to the organisers, DECHEMA, 167,000 participants from across the world – including many from Asia – found out about the ranges of the 3,773 exhibitors, presented over an area of 136,400-m², 2% more than in the previous edition.
The scope of products and services on display was vast: from laboratory equipment to components, and plant building to packaging lines, one could see products for chemistry, process technology and biotechnology at the Frankfurt Messe, the traditional home for the event.
More international than ever before
ACHEMA 2012 was also more international than ever before, with 50% of exhibitors coming from outside of Germany, from 56 countries, including China (200 exhibitors) and India (145 exhibitors). "Globalisation does not just mean Europeans and Americans going to Asia – increasingly, Asian exhibitors and visitors are coming to Europe," said Dr. Thomas Scheuring, CEO, DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH, at the end of the event.
According to Dr. Michael Thiemann, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH and President of the ACHEMA Committee, the international nature of the event is a consequence of the emergence of new gravitational centres in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
The exhibitors showed they were just as satisfied with the response. "ACHEMA's influence is undiminished," said Dr. Thiemann at the interim press conference on June 20. According to the results of the visitor survey, more than 83% of the visitors, in turn, judged the quality of the ACHEMA as "good" or "very good".
Evolutionary trends in plant engineering industry
Speaking at the inaugural press conference on June 17, Dr. Thiemann pointed to several evolutionary trends in the plant engineering industry. "Plants are becoming both larger – the key words being 'megaplants' and 'world scale', especially for bulk chemicals production – and smaller, the key words being 'microprocess engineering' and 'single-use technologies.' Modular systems, aiming at flexible application for different purposes, and increasing automation are also gaining ground."
In the exhibition group 'Pumps, Compressors, Valves and Fittings,' which alone accounted for more than 1,000 exhibitors, the focus was clearly on 'energy intelligence' – not surprising considering these components account for 20% of global electricity consumption. In 'Laboratory and Analytical technology' the trend has long since been towards and faster and more efficient processes. "Flexibilisation, miniaturization, automation, parallelization and sequencing are key words that were once the themes of special shows at ACHEMA, but have long since become mainstream," Dr. Thiemann noted.
Bio-based world
Another core theme at the event was under the heading 'BiobasedWorld at ACHEMA' and showcased technologies, products and services covering the whole gamut of the bio-based value chain, including biomass, bio-based chemicals and materials and bio-fuels. More than 700 exhibitors participated under this theme.
The Congress, held alongside ACHEMA 2012, with 900 talks and numerous guest and partner events gave a look at the subjects that will be occupying the industry in the short and medium term future.
The front runners at this year's event included energy generation & storage, and biomass processing, although other sessions covered materials science, bionics and chemistry parks.
The ACHEMA community is now looking to China, where the 9th AchemAsia will be taking place from 13- 16 May 2013 in Beijing. Then, from the 15 June 2015 it will once again be Frankfurt for a week.
INDIA DAY CELEBRATIONS
India growth story very much intact: Indian Ambassador to Germany
Indian visitors to ACHEMA 2012 constituted the largest non-European group, and the number of exhibitors – 145 – was a 40% increase over the number in 2009. This catapulted India to the 'top-10' amongst the 56 exhibiting countries participating at the event.
It was therefore no surprise that India was one of the few countries to have a dedicated event – India Day –held on the third day of ACHEMA 2012, on June 19, organized by the Chemtech Foundation, in association with DECHEMA.
Speaking at the event, Mrs. Sujatha Singh, Indian Ambassador to Germany, stressed the strong economic ties that link the two countries. "Several Indian companies including Reliance and Manipal Accunova have invested in Germany, and many German companies have invested in India."
She admitted that while growth in India may have slowed down from its high levels, the India growth story is very much intact. "The fundamentals are sound. Governance may be somewhat slow, but it is stable," she assured the audience, which included representatives from the DECHEMA and VDMA, the German manufacturers' association, besides exhibitors from India.
Opportunities in alternative energy
Dr. Benno Lueke, Managing Director, Uhde India, also expressed confidence that the India story will be back on track, even though oil companies appear to be going slow on investments. "Investments in alternative energy such as wind, biomass and solar are expected to be significant, and the chemical industry is also investing in knowledge-based chemicals," he added.
Mr. Mohan Murti, Chief Representative, Europe, Reliance Industries Ltd., highlighted the prospects for the petrochemicals business given the growth in the domestic economy and the improved purchasing power of consumers in India.
BUSINESS OUTLOOK
Strong growth outlook for chemical industry, despite short term glitches
The chemical industry has enjoyed growth rates of more than 3% per year on average since the beginning of the century and well above 5% since the economic crisis in 2008-2009. This has been driven by the strongly growing economies of South America and Asia, which since 2010 have accounted for half the incremental global demand for chemicals.
At the opening press conference in Frankfurt, DECHEMA officials were optimistic that the long-term growth prospects of the industry remain solid, despite any glitches in the near term.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Diercks, Member of the Board, DECHEMA, pointed out that growth in the chemical industry has eased slightly, mainly due to China's tightened monetary policy and the debt crisis in Southern Europe. "Regardless of this, strong growth can be expected for the coming years in the chemical industry," he said.
Dr. Diercks expected emerging markets to account for 75% of the growth in the chemical industry in this decade, with China emerging as the largest single market in this decade and bigger than the combined chemical markets of all industrial countries by 2020. While the European chemical industry will be disadvantaged by high energy costs, he expected resurgence in North America, driven by low energy costs and access to cheap feedstock for petrochemicals from shale gas. "Investments to install some 11-mtpa of ethylene capacity, all based on ethane, have been announced for the coming years, as well as a considerable expansion in downstream capacity for products like polyethylene and ethylene glycol."
'Too early to predict market potential of chemicals from renewables'
While a trend to renewable feedstock for making 'green' chemicals seems obvious, Dr. Diercks cautioned that up to now only Brazil has proved to be competitive and successful in using renewable feedstocks for production of commodity chemicals. "Many of these technologies are not yet economically viable and several technological challenges limit the use of renewables in chemicals production," he added.
"Within the coming decades we will see chemical production based on renewables increase. But it is in my view too early to comment definitely on the global market potential renewable-based chemicals will have in future."
Dr. Holger Zinke, CEO, BRAIN AG, noted that a limiting factor continues to be the lack of an innovation-oriented capital market. "The first bio-polyethylene plant has come on-stream in Brazil; European bio-refineries have been debated for years, yet no industrial operators have turned up."
Bigger role for catalysis
Dr. Diercks expected catalysis to play a major role in the innovation processes leading to the chemical industry of the future. "Catalysts are a means to make many chemical reactions more cost-efficient, environmentally more sustainable or even possible in the first place. Answering the main questions of the future – reducing demand for and optimal use of fossil and renewable resources, sustainable production of chemicals and energy, as well as a reduction of emissions of harmful substances to the environment – will only be possible with further improvement in catalysis."
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
China to drive global markets for syngas
Synthesis gas (or Syngas) is the name given to a gas mixture that contains varying amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It is industrially produced by steam reforming of natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen, the gasification of coal, biomass and some types of waste-to-energy gasification facilities.
According to Mr. Sebastian Muschelknautz, Linde AG, the markets for syngas are growing with demand for ammonia for fertilizer manufacture and hydrogen for making clean fuels in refineries. "Hydrogen for mobility is still in its showcase phase and is challenging," he noted while delivering a keynote address at the Congress.
50% growth by 2020
By 2020, the market for syngas is expected to increase by 50% from the current levels, representing an annual growth rate of 10%, with much of the growth slated for China, India, East Asia and the US. "Gas-to-liquid and coal-to-liquid technologies will also grow more than the average, driven mainly by China and India, but if shale gas is a success this could change," he observed.
Demand for hydrogen for desulphurisation of automotive fuels propagates in waves, and the current growth is mainly in South Africa. "This will also be a growth market as countries look to cleaner fuels," Mr. Muschelknautz added.
Competitive landscape
While syngas plants focused on producing carbon monoxide are primarily based on partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, hydrogen plants are based on steam reforming. "Hydrogen gas production technology by steam reforming is now a commodity. Technology packages can be readily brought for a few hundred thousand dollars."
In this context he pointed to efforts made at Linde for improving the competitiveness of hydrogen manufacturing plants through standardization and local procurement, which leads to savings of up to 20% for customers. "The bad news is that the competition can also do the same."
Linde is also experimenting with modular construction of syngas plants in order to leverage lower manpower costs in some regions and shipping such plants to markets.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Coaxing CO2 to chemicals & fuels: Many challenges still to be to tackled
Europe and the US lead the way both in terms of research and investment in developing carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies as a complementary approach running parallel to carbon capture and storage (CCS) options.
Industrial utilization of carbon dioxide (CO2), and in particular its chemical recycling toward materials and fuels, was the subject of a number of presentations at the Congress. Speakers viewed the emerging technologies as likely to play a significant role as a complement to reduction and prevention strategies for curbing anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
But the key challenge will be to surmount a fundamental property of CO2: it is an extremely stable molecule that is thermodynamically disfavoured to readily react. An overarching theme in all efforts to coax this molecule to undergo chemical transformations and to improve economic viability is catalysis.
Well-known technologies
Technologies for recycling of CO2 are well known: urea and methanol are two large volume chemicals made at a scale of more than 146-mt and 20-mt annually; while smaller volume chemicals include salicylic acid (70-kt) and cyclic carbonates (65-kt). But given that global chemical production of 0.5-gt (gigatonnes) pales in comparison to the 40-gt of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, it is clear that chemistry alone cannot meet the challenge of tackling CO2 emissions.
According to Dr. E. Quadrelli, University of Lyon, 'chemical' approaches to react CO2 can be divided into two broad categories:
·         Carboxylations, in which the CO2 moiety is intact and processes are not excessively energy intensive and yield products that are long lasting; and
·         Carbonylations in which the CO2 moiety is reduced by energy intensive processes to yield products that can be viewed as options for energy storage.
Mineral carboxylation, for example, aims at transforming geologically stable carbonates (like magnesite or calcite) to carbonates using CO2, and is now being tried out in Oman. Carboxylation approaches to organic carbonates include attempts to use CO2 instead of phosgene for making polycarbonate, as being attempted by Chimei-Asahi in Taiwan; Bayer's 'Dream Production' for production of polyether polyols for polyurethanes now under development in Germany; and Novomer's attempts to make polymers containing up to 50% of CO2.
Dream production
The Dream Production project, to elaborate, is a collaborative effort involving academia, a power company (producing the high quality CO2 required), and a chemical company (Bayer). In the broad process, CO2 is separated from flue gas streams of a coal-fired power plant of RWE Power AG and is made available in sufficient purity for synthesis. A pilot plant set up by Bayer Technology Services GmbH has recently come on-stream at Chempark Leverkusen to trial the new process on a technical scale. This plant produces polyether polyols into which CO2 is incorporated and which are afterwards processed into polyurethanes used in many every day items.
Dimethyl carbonate currently made in a volume of 0.5-mt, but with potential for use as a fuel additive with a market of 30-mt annually, is also seen as an interesting material that can be derived from CO2.
But the most relevant and sizeable long-term effect is to be expected to come from synthesis of "solar fuels" -- a fuel produced from sunlight through artificial photosynthesis – either through use of inorganic catalysts or by enzymes.

Possible synthetic routes using CO2 as feedstock
 Carbon absorption strategies
Today, the principal technology used for CO2 capture from hydrogen plants is based on chemical absorption, but this process requires large amounts of energy, thereby reducing its environmental benefit. And it is costly, currently in the range of €30-40/tonne of CO2 captured.
 Consequently, several alternate technologies have emerged that aim to address some of the shortcomings. Union Engineering, a Danish company, showcased its proprietary FlashCO2 process, that it claims significantly reduces the cost of CO2 capture from fossil fuel-based hydrogen production and enables liquid CO2 to be produced at a direct operating cost of around €20/ton.
 By utilising an innovative process combining conventional physical absorption by means of chilled methanol and CO2 liquefaction technologies, the FlashCO2 process eliminates the requirement for steam stripping while keeping power consumption at an attractive level. The overall CO2 recovery of the FlashCO2 unit is 92%, 12% more than the minimum required.
 Polymerizable ionic liquid monomers and their corresponding polymers (poly(ionic liquid)s) have also been found to exhibit high CO2 sorption. They have enhanced and reproducible CO2 sorption capacities and sorption/desorption rates relative to room-temperature ionic liquids. Furthermore, these materials exhibit selectivity relative to other gases such as nitrogen, methane and oxygen. They are useful as efficient separation agents, such sorbents and membranes.
 SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY
Bio-based chemicals & fuels: Next-generation technologies on verge of deployment
 Renewable resources do have a long tradition in the chemical industry but have been forced back by the development of the modern petrochemicals industry. Recently, however, fears over diminishing finite petroleum resources, and concerns over increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are forcing the chemical and energy industries to develop alternative production processes that use renewable carbon sources.
 Routes for biofuel production currently in commercial operation are based on feedstock that compete with the food chain (e.g. sugar cane or corn), and are not seen as scalable or sustainable. The emphasis has shifted to the processing of cellulosic material incorporated in grass or wood (lignocellulosics) – available in the quantities that are related to the tonnages of products that are to be made. More than 1.7 X1011 tonnes of such biomass is produced annually, but less than 10% are used in the chemical industry today.
 A number of presentations at the Congress highlighted the technical progress being made to exploit this resource; the opportunities available; and, most importantly, the several challenges that still need to be satisfactorily resolved.
 Huge potential of lignocellulose
Lignocellulose provides a huge potential as renewable industrial feedstock to produce sugar- and phenol-based platform chemicals within a lignocellulose biorefinery. But the complex structure of this natural bio-composite material requires new process strategies. In the last few years it has become apparent that only the integration of different physical, chemical and biotechnological methods can successfully convert the lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and platform chemicals.
 In the manufacture of bio-ethanol from lignocellulose, complex enzyme mixtures capable of working at relatively higher temperatures are now being developed. Enzyme costs – seen crucial to commercial viability – have come down significantly in the last three years, but continue to be an area of concern.  DSM, an enzymes producer, expects to set up the first commercial scale plant for bio-ethanol with an annual capacity of 20-mn gallons by 2013. The plant will use corn-cob residues as feedstock, and utilize proprietary enzymes developed by the company's R&D team.
 Development of 'platform chemicals'
Several studies have identified organic acid metabolites, such as lactic acid, succinic acid, fumaric acid and malic acid, as attractive targets for production through bio-based routes, but economical bulk production requires efficient and cost-competitive cultivation of microorganisms and development of robust downstream processes.
 One major challenge for the efficient fermentative production of platform biochemicals is the construction and optimization of microbial strains. High selectivities, high titers and high turnover rates on cheap substrates are needed to be economically successful.
 While these organic acids have sizeable markets of their own, it is their utility as 'platform chemicals' for making other derivatives that greatly enhances and broadens the scope of chemicals from renewables. For example, acrylic acid, an important monomer, can be produced by selective dehydration of lactic acid with acetaldehyde, with propionic acid and 2,3-pentanedione being the main side products.
 Efforts to take the ideas towards the marketplace have now moved from the laboratory to at least the semi-commercial scale. Uhde, for example, has built an industrial facility in Leuna (Germany), which is capable of producing 700-1,000 tpa of organic acids.
 Likewise, the biotechnological production of 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HPA) from glycerol is of great interest. 3-HPA is a platform chemical making 1,3-propanediol, which is used for the production of paints, resins, adhesives, elastomers, synthetic fibers, superabsorbent polymers and plastics.
 Second-generation chemicals by metabolic engineering
Whereas the first generation of bio-products focused on chemicals that are part of the natural metabolism of their host cells, the second generation of products deals with chemicals that their host strains have never seen before or which are even non-natural with respect to their origin. Building up efficient new metabolic pathways leading to new biochemical products is what scientists are nowadays exercising their minds on, making their effort a part of synthetic biology science.
 Within metabolic pathway design for the second-generation products, enzyme engineering is seen to be the key technology. Plugging in customized enzymes with novel activities is what gives access to new production strains with designed properties.
 Global Bioenergies, a French company, to cite just one example, is focused on the development of processes for the direct biological production of light olefins from renewable resources. The product secreted by the micro-organism is the olefin itself, not an alcohol such as ethanol, isobutanol or butanediol, which would then need to be dehydrated chemically and possibly undergo further chemical reaction steps (e.g. metathesis).
 The company's processes are based on the implementation into microorganisms of an artificial pathway composed of mutated enzymes optimized to catalyze reactions not observed in nature and of non-natural intermediates.
 Proof of principle for this break-through innovation was obtained in 2010 through the successful bacterial production of isobutylene – a key building block for tyres, organic glass, plastics and various polymers.
 Collaborative efforts
In Germany and other European countries a collaborative approach to tackling the challenge of efficient biomass utilization is being stressed. The first German 'BioEconomy cluster' is centered on the chemical site of Leuna and covers the complete value chain from timber production in mixed forest areas, timber logistics and wood processing, to the production of basic chemicals for a sustainable chemical industry. From there it extends, via further processing steps, to the production of bio-based plastics and further to plastics products, as well as optimized energy use of residues.
 Primary basic chemical products will be lignocellulose based sugars, 'green' hydrogen and aromatics. These will be further processed to secondary and tertiary bio-based products and will also be integrated into existing value chains on site.