March 2012 – ACHEMA 2012 is close to being a sell-out event which will provide a global showcase for innovation and emerging technologies in the chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology sectors.
Taking place at the Frankfurt Messe venue in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from 18 to 22 June 2012 the 30th ACHEMA event will feature a new two-storey Hall 11 which will increase the available area open to exhibitors and visitors alike. The new hall has enabled the event’s exhibition groups to be reorganized. The positive effect is going to be most visible in the areas focused on measurement, control and automation. A materials research group will also be using the new hall. At the same time, other groups like laboratory and analytical technology, mechanical engineering and pharma, packaging and storage technology will all benefit from extra space, which allow these groups to be presented more coherently and gives them more space for growth.
“The process industries may have had a hard time in 2008 and 2009, but in 2010 and 2011 many of our exhibitors recorded the best financial results ever. Even if there are some uncertainties in the current economic outlook, overall the industry has emerged stronger than before, and we believe ACHEMA 2012 will equally see very positive progress,” explained Thomas Scheuring, CEO of DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH.
Focus on environmental protection
From the outset ACHEMA adopted environmental protection as a broad-based topic, and today this applies more than ever before. “Nowadays, environmental protection does not stand for end-of-pipe technologies, but is an integral part of industrial processes,” commented Scheuring. “This is our approach, and I am convinced that this gives ACHEMA a singular position among all the ‘green’ events happening today”.
“Among the 3,800 exhibitors expected in Frankfurt, Germany from June 18-22, 2012, there will only be a few that are not working on solutions in the field of environmental protection,” explained Professor Kurt Wagemann, Executive Director of DECHEMA (The German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) which is co-organizer of ACHEMA 2012. “Biotechnology, for example, is not only a way to make new resources and new chemical structures available efficiently and under mild conditions, but it also leads to energy savings and reduces the global dependence on fossil fuel resources. New materials and chemical technologies are indispensable for the recycling of resources such as rare earth or precious metals. Renewable energy requires the development of new storage technologies in order to be a true alternative to coal or nuclear energy. Innovations and solutions in all these areas will be presented in the exhibition and the congress. The whole event is truly a global summit for chemical technology, biotechnology and environmental protection”.
Two key questions will be the focus of attention at ACHEMA 2012. The first question is ‘How can we limit climate change and at the same time secure a stable energy supply?’ The other key question is: ‘Will the transformation to a sustainable bioeconomy be successful?”
“The answers to these vital questions will define where our future and that of many generations to come will be decided,” suggested Professor Wagemann. “The solutions discovered at ACHEMA 2012 will help set the long-term course that might change the world. Despite all the current headlines, we should not forget this. We want to use ACHEMA 2012 to bring important questions to the top of the agenda – for a good future for our industries and for the quality of life of generations to come.”
A winning combination of best practice coupled with innovation
Overall, ACHEMA 2012 is a winning combination of proven best practices and innovation. Running alongside the exhibition is the congress which is featuring about 900 lectures on relevant topics. A large number of workshops and guest events are part of an interactive mix that stimulates a myriad of networking opportunities. A new online partnering tool enables ACHEMA 2012 delegates and exhibitors to get in touch and schedule meetings well in advance. Together with the established planning tools for exhibition and congress, each participant is provided with an enormous number of options.
“ACHEMA offers the chance to see current state-of-the-art technologies in a breadth and depth you won’t find anywhere else in the world,” suggested Scheuring. “There is no other platform worldwide where a decision maker in our industry has a better chance to meet the one single supplier who has the perfect solution for his specific problem. That’s one reason why we see 175,000 people every three years here in Frankfurt, and even if not all of them are decision makers, our visitors’ survey indicates that everybody leaves the event pretty inspired.”
“We have extended our support offerings. An ACHEMA App enables smartphone users to have all relevant information right in their pocket. The online presentation has been re-launched with improved functions and is much more user-friendly. The partnering tool is certainly extremely helpful at an event with 3,800 exhibitors and 175,000 visitors where you still want to find the right people to talk to”.
Broadening ACHEMA’s international appeal
Addressing the whole supply chain ACHEMA is no longer just the focus of European engineers, but is seeing a strong increase of exhibitors from China and India as well as from South Korea and Turkey.
The foreign visitors include high-level decision makers from the international technical community as well as end users, contractors, distributors and other key people in the supply chain.
“The important political and societal goals of the future cannot be reached without input from technologies such as chemistry, biotechnology and process engineering. Technological innovation and the structural change in the resource base set big challenges for the global process industry. At the same time they also offer tremendous opportunities. New methods, new processes and new products open up new possibilities across global markets. The preconditions for ACHEMA 2012 could hardly be more exciting,” summarized Professor Wagemann.
Visit www.achema.de for more information.
Featuring 140 000 m² of exhibition space ACHEMA 2012 will run alongside an international congress featuring 900 lectures focused on state-of-the-art developments.
Around 3800 global exhibitors from 50 countries are anticipated to attract about 175 000 visitors from more than 90 countries to ACHEMA 2012 which takes place at Frankfurt Messe exhibition in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 18 to 22 June 2012.
ACHEMA 2012’s organiser DECHEMA e.V.(The German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) and DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH are once again predicting a significant influx of visitors from China, India and South Korea including a number of government delegations.
The previous ACHEMA event saw a rise of 30 percent in visitor numbers from outside Germany. There was also a 20 percent increase in non-German exhibitors. The number of Asian companies exhibiting saw a 100 percent increase. The Laboratory and Analytical Techniques section of ACHEMA 2012 is expected to attract 40 000 visitors alone which makes it the largest single laboratory industry event worldwide. Having always been an integral part of ACHEMA since the event’s launch, the analytical instruments section remains one of the key focal points of ACHEMA and accommodates more than 15% of all ACHEMA exhibitors which equates to about 700 enterprises active in the laboratory and analytical arena. The philosophy behind ACHEMA is to bring the whole value chain of chemical processing together, and analytical instruments are a part of this value chain that have become more vital than ever following the trend towards online and inline analytics and increasing process automation.
Visitors and exhibitors in ACHEMA’s analytical instrument and laboratory equipment hall all profit from this integrated view on the value chain. By using the information they discover in Laboratory and Analytical Techniques section attendees can easily move to other adjoining exhibition sections like process equipment or automation to see an instrument of their interest being integrated into their specific applications. The extensive congress programme also helps to provide added practical insights into a number of laboratory and analytical topics. A case in point is the joint expert discussions such as the ‘Automation in focus’ panel organized by NAMUR and partners.
