“The Bright World of Metals,” the slogan for the joint staging of four technology trade fairs – GIFA (15th International Foundry Trade Fair with Technical Forum), Metec (11th International Metallurgical Trade Fair), Thermprocess (13th International Trade Fair and Symposium for Thermal-Processing Technology) and Newcast (6th International Trade Fair for Castings) – will be held June 12-16 at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. Every four years, these trade fairs are the meeting place for companies from around the world. The exhibits will be complemented by a versatile ancillary program consisting of seminars, international congresses, symposia and lecture series.  

This article considers the production deficits, logistics turmoil and demand surges that contributed to supply-chain disruptions that were brought into focus with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Air Products plans to invest approximately $500 million to build, own and operate a 35-metric-ton/day facility to produce green liquid hydrogen at a greenfield site in Massena, N.Y. Commercial operation of this facility is targeted to begin in 2026-2027. Air Products has determined that the market demand warrants the investment in the project, which is expected to create 90 jobs. Further to this proposed facility announcement, Air Products is also investigating the feasibility of establishing a hydrogen fueling station network in the northeast region of the U.S. The company has already announced plans to convert its global fleet of approximately 2,000 trucks to hydrogen fuel cell zero-emission vehicles.

Industrial furnaces are used for various heating processes – from low to very high temperatures – in industries such as steel, ceramics, refractories, glass and many more.

Registration is open for IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating online learning course, which begins October 24 and runs for six weeks. Throughout the online course, students learn safe, efficient operation of industrial heating equipment, how to reduce energy consumption and ways to improve the bottom line. The curriculum includes the basics of heat transfer, fuels and combustion, energy use, furnace design, refractories, automatic control, and atmospheres as applied to industrial process heating.

Nucor Corp. will invest $200 million over a five-year period in mill modernization projects at its Nucor Steel Berkeley division located in Huger, S.C. A portion of the capital investment will include the construction of a new air-separation unit (ASU) for the purpose of supplying industrial gases for the mill’s steelmaking operations. When complete, the ASU will be operated by UIG LLC, a Nucor wholly owned subsidiary that specializes in industrial gas supply. This project will allow Nucor, through UIG, to produce and supply all the gases needed for the steel mill from the new Nucor-owned facility. Nucor Steel Berkeley is currently supplied with industrial gases under a long-term supply agreement. 

Challenges facing annealing operations include rising energy and raw material costs, operations crew turnover and supply-chain constraints. How can the virtual world of the IIoT help operators cope with these real-world challenges? This webinar, hosted by Industrial Heating September 15 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT), will discuss how a cloud-based data management and advisory system conserves resources by moving away from a set-it-and-forget-it mode. See how real-time correction of abnormal furnace conditions with algorithms processing furnace data in the cloud optimizes furnace economics.
 

Recycling your process hydrogen exhaust isn’t just good business, it’s smart business.
SKYRE’s H2RENEW™ is the world’s first on-site electrochemical gas recycling system that captures vented hydrogen and delivers a re-supply of 99.999% pure hydrogen...

The year-over-year U.S. inflation rate through February 2022 hit a 40-year high of 7.9%, eroding purchasing power especially for gas, food and rent.

Air Products helps customers optimize their heat-treating processes by providing controlled atmosphere solutions and enabling equipment, as well as process optimization and troubleshooting.