Weltleitmesse für Wasser-, Abwasser-, Abfall- und Rohstoffwirtschaft 30. Mai – 3. Juni 2016, Messe München World’s Leading Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Management May 30 – June 3, 2016, Messe München, Germany www.ifat.de

Munich, March 2016 Press Release

IFAT 2016

Sabine Wagner PR Manager Tel. +49 89 949-21478 sabine.wagner@ messe-muenchen.de

Green chemistry: from vision to practice 

Resource efficiency and chemical safety are closely related



Integrated water management gaining in importance



Chemical parks manage material cycles

Can “chemistry” be sustainable? Is there any such thing as “green” chemistry? Of course this is possible, says the VCI (German Chemical Industry Association): The German chemical industry is expressly committed to sustainable waste management. And it has reduced its absolute energy consumption in the past 20 years by around 20 per cent – notwithstanding a more than 60 per cent increase in production. Closely associated with resource efficiency solutions is chemical safety – an additional challenge for the industry, as demonstrated at the international conference “Sustainable Chemistry 2015: The way forward”. The international community must make every endeavor, it said, to make the production and use of chemicals worldwide safer and protect people and the environment from harmful effects. The Federal Environ Ministry (BMUB) is planning to set up an international center of excellence to advance the international process.

Notwithstanding increasing production, water consumption in the chemical industry has remained stable over the past 15 years. Overall, however, the quantities used are not inconsiderable. According to a report by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Karlsruhe, water consumption in the chemical industry is approximately 3000 million m3, of which 80% however is used purely for cooling. Only 20% is used as a reaction

Messe München GmbH Messegelände 81823 München Germany www.messe-muenchen.de

Page 2 medium, solvents or cleaning agents, and contaminated in the process. Specific water consumption fell by just less than one fifth between 1996 and 2009.

Despite that, water processing costs remain high. A number of industrial plants in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain are working on a significant reduction in their fresh water requirements within the framework of the EU E4Water project, the world’s biggest research project into integrated water management in the chemical industry. At Solvic NV or Dow Benelux different companies’ water flows are networked with one another – meaning that one plant’s treated sewage is used to feed the other plant. The objective is a reduction of up to 50% in the fresh water requirement.

In February a closed-loop pilot plant for saline process waste waters entered operation with materials manufacturer Covestro (previously Bayer Material Science). The new plant enables saline waste water to be purified to the point that it is available for reuse and capable of being used as a raw material in electrolysis. The savings effect in resource consumption is considerable: recycling the wastewater enables economies of up to 30,000 t of sodium chloride and 400,000 t of completely desalinated water each year. The climate protection benefit is also very respectable: the lower resource consumption is accompanied by an annual reduction of 6200 t of CO2 equivalent.

The production of hair care products entails some highly contaminated and colored waste water, requiring complex, multistage treatment. At the same time, the waste water volumes are frequently around 10 to 20 m³ per hour in multishift operation. Combinations of chemical-physical and biological processes are appropriate as treatment processes in order to achieve the required water quality and fall within permissible limits. In order to be able to plan, build and operate multistage plants of this magnitude with known costs and that are safe to operate, Envirochemie GmbH is incorporating the processes into modular cells. The plants are completely pre-assembled and factory tested in Germany.

Page 3 All that needs to be built locally is a concrete foundation for the room modules and collection tanks.

And the cost of producing water is always under review. The BASF subsidiary inge GmbH has expanded its membrane portfolio. The ultrafiltration (UF) specialist is showcasing a new, even more efficient UF module with a significantly greater active filtration surface area. inge membranes are proving themselves for example in the following project: Wakaf Bunut, Kalimantan, is home to Malaysia's largest communal drinking water production plant based on a combination of river bank filtration and ultrafiltration (UF). The installation, equipped with inge UF technology, entered operation in March 2013 since when it has been producing 14 million liters of drinking water daily for the Tok Bali region. After analyzing all the costs (pumps, pipes and valves etc not included) 1 m³ of drinking water (based on local electricity prices etc.) costs around 0.04 dollars, which in view of the excellent water quality is considered to be a competitive price for Malaysia. The method has therefore proven itself both technologically and financially.

In chemistry, the closed-loop regime is not just of interest as regards water. The Interlinking of materials is also attractive. Logically this is easier to achieve in the chemical parks than it is in individual companies. InfraServ GmbH & Co. Gendorf KG operates Bavaria's largest chemical park. With around 1000 employees, InfraServ offers its customers networked solutions for the chemical and process industry. An example of a project: Dyneon is now able to sell calcium fluoride – previously recycled as waste – as a profitable by-product. ISG’s know-how is also increasingly in demand beyond the industrial park. For example, towns and municipalities are assigning ISG the task of investigating pollution or certifying air cleanliness.

Currenta GmbH & Co. OHG, a Bayer and Lanxess company, is operating five incineration plants and three wastewater treatment plants, two landfill sites and three collection centers for recyclable products as well as a cleaning plant for

Page 4 industrial containers at the three chemical locations. Last year the Currenta environmental business unit disposed of, used and recycled more than 1 million t of special waste and reusable materials. The company also offers to analyze and evaluate waste. In water analytics the service provider offers the full range of techniques for monitoring the chemical park's waste water and cooling water flows as well as groundwater – around the clock if need be. The initial analytical flow measurements already take place in the companies. The channels are also subject to comprehensive monitoring: automatic samplers constantly extract a small quantity of water, which is then subjected to in-depth analysis in high-tech laboratories.

Unfortunately in the case of older chemical sites waste residue is also frequently a "sustainable" problem. Considerable efforts are being made at SaxonyAnhalt's largest chemical complex in Leuna to redevelop dangerous contaminated sites. Following the commissioning of a research and pilot plant by site operator InfraLeuna back in 2007, an industrial scale plant, thus far unique, for the microbiological degradation of methyl tert-butyl ethers (MTBE) has been operating there since June 2014. Purification performance: 600 m3 of water per day. The solution is beneficial both environmentally and economically. It allows the use of technically simple and robust plants using significantly less energy and materials, maintenance is reduced, operation incurs almost no waste.

The environmental technology companies cited here by way of example are all be found at the next IFAT – together with more than 3,000 other exhibitors. The World’s Leading Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Management will be held at the Munich exhibition site from May 30 to June 3, 2016. For 50 years now, this innovation platform has facilitated business-tobusiness contacts at eye level and also brings together, in particular, users from all sectors of industry with the leading international environmental technology suppliers.

Page 5 Additional information is available at www.ifat.de IFAT IFAT is the world’s leading trade event for environmental technology. A total of 3,081 exhibitors from 59 countries, and 135,288 visitors from 168 countries took part in the last event. IFAT is held every two years; the next edition takes place from May 30 to June 3, 2016 in Munich. IFAT worldwide Messe München’s competence in organizing environmental-technology events is demonstrated not only in the world´s leading trade fair for the sector, IFAT, but also in a range of other international trade exhibitions around the world. The spectrum encompasses IE expo in Shanghai, IFAT Eurasia in Turkey, IFAT India in Mumbai and IFAT Africa in Johannesburg. Messe München Messe München is one of the world’s leading trade-show companies. It organizes some 40 trade shows for capital and consumer goods and key high-tech industries in Munich alone. 14 of those events are number 1 in the world in their respective industries. Each year more than 30,000 exhibitors and some two million visitors take part in events held at the Messe München trade-fair center, the ICM – Internationales Congress Center München and the MOC Veranstaltungscenter München. In addition, Messe München organizes trade shows in China, India, Turkey and South Africa. Messe München has a global business presence with affiliates in Europe, Asia and Africa and more than 60 foreign representatives serving more than 100 countries.