Over 144,628 participants from over 150 countries and 3,737 exhibitors from 55 countries attended ACHEMA 2018. Copyright: Dechema e.V./Jean-Luc Valentin
Over 144,628 participants from over 150 countries and 3,737 exhibitors from 55 countries attended ACHEMA 2018. Copyright: Dechema e.V./Jean-Luc Valentin
Over 2,000 exhibitors have currently booked and numbers still growing. Copyright: Dechema e.V./Jean-Luc Valentin
Discover the latest products and technology at ACHEMA 2022. copyright: DECHEMA / Markus Püttmann

ACHEMA 2022: Facing the future in digitalisation and sustainability

Jul 08 2022

Addressing key industry issues

Bringing together chemists, engineers and process technicians as well as biotechnologists, energy and environmental experts, IT specialists and skilled experts from many other disciplines, ACHEMA 2022 will address key industry issues - digitalisation and sustainability.

With over 2,000 exhibitors currently booked, and numbers still growing, the latest technologies for the chemical, pharma and food industry, from the lab via the world-scale plant to the packaging line, will be showcased at ACHEMA 2022. Given the immense interest of exhibitors, the organisers anticipate a corresponding rush of visitors. Over 144,628 participants from over 150 countries and 3,737 exhibitors from 55 countries attended ACHEMA 2018 which made Frankfurt am Main the epicentre of the global process industries for one week.

In addition to the transformation towards a climate-neutral chemical industry and the perennial topic of digitalisation, the current global political situation also poses massive challenges for the process industry. Which technologies can be used to achieve defossilisation? How to secure and enhance regional and global supply chain networks? And what hurdles must be overcome in the digitalisation of the industry? ACHEMA 2022 offers answers and solutions to these and many more questions.

Europe aims to become climate-neutral by 2050. In line with this target, the chemical industry is working on technologies to achieve this goal. What are the opportunities, challenges, and obstructions? How do we shape the necessary political framework and incentives? Which financial instruments are required? These questions will be addressed at the opening event of ACHEMA entitled ‘Climate-Neutral Chemical Industry’ on 22 August 2022 from 5pm at the end of the first exhibition day.

After the welcome address and opening of ACHEMA by Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer of Covestro AG and Chairman of DECHEMA eV, Martin Brudermüller, President of CEFIC - The European Chemical Industry Council and CEO of BASF SE, will present the perspective of the European chemical industry in his keynote speech. Open questions will be discussed in the subsequent panel discussion, with Martijn Smit, Business Development Director of Northern Lights, and Ernst Rauch, Chief Climate and Geo Scientist of Munich Re, joining the panel.

Integrated exhibition and congress programme

For the first time, ACHEMA 2022 will fully integrate the congress into the exhibition programme. All congress sessions will take place either on stages directly in the exhibition halls or in the immediate vicinity of the exhibition groups. Another change to the Congress is that there will be five theme days instead of three this year. Daily highlight sessions within the respective themes will emphasise additional topics, ensuring that all topics driving the process industry are addressed.

On Monday the theme ‘Hydrogen Economy’ will explore how hydrogen will play a central role in the transformation of the process industry, the transport sector and the energy system as we move towards a climate neutral future.

The theme day on Tuesday will address ‘Fossil Free Production’ and the many unanswered questions regarding this important and ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process industry.

The focus topic of ACHEMA, ‘The Digital Lab’, will be part of the Wednesday theme day on ‘Perspectives in Laboratory & Analytics’: Data from all areas of research and production converge in the laboratory. Modular, automated and fully networked, the digital laboratory is a central component for process development and quality assurance. The Highlight Session on this topic and the Congress will complement the theme day.

The continuous hot topic of ‘Digitalisation in Process Industry’ can be found as part of the new exhibition group ‘Digital Hub’ (Hall 12.1) and also as a focal point of the Congress programme agenda on Thursday: ‘Data is the new gold’ is a phrase used often enough, but how can this treasure be harnessed? How can data be used in business models? And how can data security be guaranteed?

The last day of the congress on Friday will focus on ‘Novel Bioprocesses and Technologies’: New biopharmaceuticals, bio-based fine chemicals or biotechnological recycling all require new (production) processes. Changes in these processes are especially driven by advances in synthetic biology, automated laboratory technologies, integrated bioprocesses, innovative bioreactor concepts, novel downstream technologies and advanced modelling. ACHEMA 2022 will serve as the global showcase for these developments.

At the ACHEMA Congress, researchers, developers and users will meet to discuss the latest technical developments and solutions for the current challenges in the process industries. In total, the Congress will feature more than 115 sessions. In the five highlight sessions, users, technology providers and thought leaders will discuss where we are today and what the process industry can expect in the future. While the congress sessions will focus on application-oriented research and the development from proof-of-concept to the threshold of market entry, the PRAXISforums will focus on current production issues, best practices and ready-to-use technologies via short presentations – always with application in mind. With the exhibition and the closer integration of the various components, ACHEMA 2022 will offer a complete 360-degree perspective on all trends and technologies in the process industry.

Green Innovation Zone shows solutions for a more sustainable future

The challenges and solutions for a more sustainable future are also addressed by the ‘Green Innovation Zone’: This special area brings together pioneers, experts and solution providers from industry, politics, and science with decisionmakers and users. The Green Innovation Zone highlights green innovations and the challenges faced by the process industry on its way to climate-neutral production. Five areas in particular will be in the spotlight at ACHEMA: climate-neutral production, circular economy, industrial water, sustainable chemistry, bio-based economy.

“The process industry will have to electrify its facilities across the board and use hydrogen as an energy source in the medium term if it wants to live up to its responsibility for sustainable value creation,” said Frank Jenner, Global Chemicals & Advanced Materials Industry Leader at EY, the main green innovation partner of ACHEMA 2022. “The industry is already going to great lengths and it’s a huge challenge, but it can be done.”

“With this year’s ACHEMA - perhaps more than ever - we are sending out a signal that technological cooperation across industry boundaries, but also across national borders, is indispensable for solving the significant crises of our time,“ said Thomas Scheuring, CEO of DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH. Björn Mathes, Member of the Board of DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH, adds: “As an industry platform, we can create a nucleus in our lecture formats and in the discussions at the stands, in which the industry works together on a solution.”

Digital Hub and Digital Lab offer digitalisation at your fingertips

The topic of digitalisation has finally claimed a top spot on the agenda of the process industry. The new exhibition group ‘Digital Hub’ contributes to this: It is the central meeting point for digital experts and all participants interested in or actively involved in the digital transformation of the process industry. The exhibition area with a central stage puts digital showcases of the process industry in the spotlight and offers the latest insights from experts and solution providers and facilitates future-oriented discussions.

A total of six use cases for the connected and digitalised laboratory will be presented at the Digital Lab Action Area – the smart lab of tomorrow to experience, touch and try out. Equipment and software manufacturers will demonstrate cross-manufacturer digitalisation solutions using relevant practical examples. The spectrum ranges from Cobot-assisted work processes for sample preparation and analysis, user-oriented process control with Laboratory Execution Systems, to horizontally and vertically connected yet modularly adaptable equipment solutions with the perspective of shared laboratory infrastructure and seamless integration between sample input and quality-assured analysis results. Innovative software and device solutions are supported by the Laboratory & Analytical Device Standard (LADS) for OPC UA.

“Digitalisation, sustainability, security of supply - the challenges ahead are enormous and can only be overcome together and across sectors,” said Thomas Scheuring. “Let us therefore use ACHEMA in August 2022 as the world’s only comprehensive showcase of the latest technology trends in our industry to find and tackle solutions together.”

ACHEMA 2022 takes place from 22 - 26 August in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Over the following pages we take a look at a selection of exhibitors and products that will be on display. For more information and a detailed programme visit www.achema.de.