ACHEMA 2022: The World Forum for the Process Industries opens its doors again

Following the success of ACHEMA Pulse 2021 - the pioneering digital event for the process industries - ACHEMA 2022 is back on stage in Frankfurt. From 22 to 26 August 2022 the Frankfurt exhibition halls will once again be the meeting place for the global process industries where a comprehensive hygiene concept ensures that networking is possible safely.

"After a two-year dry-spell the need for intensive technical and personal exchange is palpable," said Dr Thomas Scheuring, CEO DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH. Trendsetting technology and global networking will continue to characterise the world's leading show for the process technologies in 2022. Manufacturers and service providers will present their products and services for the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, energy, and environmental sectors.

With the focal topics ‘The Digital Lab’, ‘Product and Process Security’ and ‘Modular and Connected Production’, ACHEMA 2022 will address the issues that are preying on the mind of the process industries.

Focal Topic Digital Lab

Laboratories in industry and research are increasingly becoming habitats for IoT-equipment. Robots that relieve staff from mundane and repetitive tasks such as serial pipetting are state-of-the-art. Yet smart digital workflows in a fully connected lab are still a long way off most of the time. To achieve these workflows requires at minimum a powerful IT environment and fully integrated equipment; it can also go as far as changing the layout of the lab space. Research and quality assurance labs may follow different approaches. Thus, a modular setup is as desirable for the lab as it is for production plants. Both lab types are generating a huge amount of data whose analysis calls for a big data approach.

Focal Topic Product and Process Security

IoT-devices are increasingly becoming part of operation and production processes. With every valve that has an IT interface and with every ‘intelligent’ pump sending data to the cloud, IT- and cyber-security is rising to the top of the list of things to be concerned about. While occupational safety systems are well established and the number of accidents in which a person is injured is decreasing steadily, cyber-attacks are becoming even more prevalent. Industry 4.0 and IoT call for an intensified effort to make interfaces between the physical and the virtual world secure. Identifying, assessing and addressing the vulnerabilities of your business is the first step towards secure products and processes. In addition, the entire value chain needs to be covered, starting from the procurement of raw materials and reaching as far as the recycling of products at the end of their life.

Focal Topic Modular and Connected Production

Manufacturing processes in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry need to be flexible, fast and cost-efficient. This is best achieved with modular process skids, which can be prefabricated and tested in the workshop and then assembled on site. Skids are available with their own programmable logic controller or can be integrated into an overarching process control system. The automation industry is working on an open standard interface - such a module type package (MTP) will allow for true interoperability. Modular plants are the key to meeting customer’s needs for small batches of varying products. They allow for an effortless adjustment of the plant design to ever-changing requirements and are also the way to change from batch to continuous production.

The topics of digitalisation and climate neutrality that are on everyone’s mind, are moving even more into the focus of ACHEMA with the ‘Digital Hub’ and the ‘Green Innovation Zone’ where an open forum encourages discussion. Founders and young entrepreneurs will be able to meet in the Start-up Area.

Closer integration between exhibition and congress programme

For the first time ACHEMA 2022 will fully integrate the congress into the exhibition halls: all lecture sessions will take place either on stages directly in the exhibition halls or in the immediate vicinity of the specific exhibition groups. Also new to the Congress are five themed days instead of the previous three. This means that none of the topics that are of concern to the process industries will be left out.

"True to the ACHEMA motto 'Inspiring Sustainable Connections', we are bringing together what belongs together," says Dr Andreas Förster, Managing Director of DECHEMA and thus organiser of ACHEMA. "Application and research will go even more hand in hand at ACHEMA 2022 thanks to the close alignment of topics within their exhibition groups and reflected in the congress programme shown in the sector-dedicated halls." 

The focal topic of ACHEMA, ‘The Digital Lab’, will be showcased with its own themed programme on Wednesday, 24 August 2022 with topics around ‘Perspectives in Laboratory & Analytics’. This highlight session will complement a visit to ACHEMA.

The ACHEMA Congress, offering 115 sessions in total, enables researchers, developers and users to discuss the latest technical developments and solutions for the current challenges faced by the process industries.

While the congress sessions focus on application-oriented research and development ranging from proof-of-concept to commercialisation, the PRAXISforums pinpoint current issues of production, best practice and ready-to-use technologies illustrated in short presentations, always with their application in mind.

Together with the exhibition and the closer integration in 2022, ACHEMA offers the full 360-degree perspective on all trends and technologies in the process industries.

Hot off the Press

This Spring ACHEMA will host two ‘Inspiring Sustainable Connections’ networking events and meet with industry, trade representatives, associations and stakeholders in Ireland and the UK.

The events will be held:

• on 24 May in Cork, Ireland
• on 25 May in Manchester UK

Anyone who would like to find out more, would like to attend or is interested in becoming involved should contact ACHEMA’s UK and Ireland representative Nele Andersch on +44 (0)1243 884 389.

We look forward to seeing you on location.