How industrial intelligence supports chemicals’ twin concerns of profit and planet
10/04/2025 AVEVA Solutions Limited
Data-driven technologies are transmuting base industrial processes into efficiency gold, cueing up value and sustainability gains, says Stephen Reynolds, Industry Principal, Chemicals, AVEVA
The chemical industry faces a volatile mix of rising costs, supply chain complexities and tightening regulatory scrutiny around decarbonisation. After decades of reliable returns, profits are faltering, and industry returns are trailing broader market indices.
As doing business has become more challenging, evolving digital technologies have begun to offer a strategic path to harmonise robust financial performance with sustainability.
Data-driven technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing can now bring together massive quantities of raw information from across the value chain, enabling them to be analysed, contextualised and visualised as actionable insights—all in real time. When this industrial intelligence is shared around a connected digital backbone, workers have the knowledge they need to make effective decisions and to advance value and sustainability goals with confidence.
Collapsing silos with unified data
In an industry where rapid decision-making can spell the difference between profit and loss, disconnected data systems are perhaps the most underestimated barrier to digital transformation in the chemicals sector.
Unified data systems are helping bridge the gap. They enable end-to-end visibility and faster strategic pivots so companies must do more with less without compromising safety. Evonik has seen this firsthand. Under pressure to create and operate more efficient, profitable and sustainable assets, the German-headquartered global specialty chemicals company identified how legacy data structures left its engineering teams siloed, preventing collaboration and slowing operational performance.
Could unified data help collapse these silos? Evonik deployed an asset information management system to connect data from multiple sources and in varying formats and serve it to users across the business. With seamless and easy access to all plant information across engineering, document management and enterprise resources, teams could securely access, view and validate business data in real time. As the need for checks and rework dropped, efficiency and safety increased across the team and manhours and resource use were reduced. As digital solutions manager Chad Mossak describes it, “Contextualised data is gold.”
Ensuring asset reliability with digital twins
That digital gold becomes easier to harness when contextualised in real time and enhanced by AI. In chemicals production, for instance, sensors can pull together a wealth of rich information about temperature, pressure, and chemical reactions. AI-powered systems can rapidly analyse this data to adjust variables in the production process, ensuring efficiency and consistency.
SCG Chemicals is among those reaping the benefits of leaning into AI with predictive analytics. With one of the largest petrochemical supply chains in Asia, maintaining asset reliability is critical, as the failure of a single asset can be disruptive, leading to significant financial losses. To mitigate this risk, the Thai industrial major created a new reliability platform built around a digital twin, which mirrors physical assets, systems or processes in the virtual space.
By leveraging real-time data from across the value chain together with AI-infused analytics to predict asset health and visualise plant performance, connected engineers can optimise production and maintenance in real time. As a result, SCG has ramped up equipment dependability to 99%, sidestepping downtime costs and keeping the value chain humming. The result: Better resource utilisation, more efficient energy consumption and an impressive 9x return on investment in just six months. The company is now better positioned to tackle business challenges around decentralisation and diversification challenges.
Designing for sustainability with process simulation
In the face of stronger regulations such as the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, data-driven technologies can also address environmental goals more directly and support the industry in its target of reducing CO2 emissions up to 60% by 2030. Industrial intelligence can accelerate the development of greener solutions, allowing companies to iterate faster and de-risk capital projects while advancing their sustainability ambitions.
The global polymers leader Covestro has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2035 and full climate neutrality by 2050 by improving product circularity, and significantly reducing waste and resource consumption. To achieve its goals, the company is focusing on using alternative raw materials such as end-of-life products or bio-based feedstocks, as well as designing new processes and technologies for more effective recycling. A particular challenge has been working with non-standard source materials. Process simulation software has helped Covestro develop custom models to tackle the issue, speeding up design and operation decisions around commercial viability and scalability. The optimised design offers a reliable, cost-efficient plant capable of handling raw material fluctuations while optimising operational efficiency. By improving workflow processes, reducing downtime and maintaining sustainability commitments, it enhances overall performance and profitability.
Solving for planet and profit
The role of industrial intelligence in the chemicals sector will continue to evolve as more advanced technologies emerge. Quantum computing, for example, will speed up research and development at the molecular level, including for green chemicals. And when AI begins to work together robotic process automation, chemical manufacturers will be able to streamline production, quality control and supply chain management.
So far, chemicals producers have been slow to cash in on potential data-driven dividends. But the overwhelming majority (71%) of senior executives in the sector agree that industrial intelligence solutions are required now more than ever to remain competitive in today’s challenging business landscape[1].
As demands for innovation, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness intensify, adopting industrial intelligence can help chemicals players optimise operations, enhance product quality and achieve their sustainability targets. It is the clear path forward for resilient, sustainable and future-focused growth.
[1] https://events.aveva.com/aveva-iii-report-2024
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Alison Patey
AVEVA Solutions Limited
AVEVA Group plc
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Email: alison.patey@aveva.com
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