The digital subsidiary of Norwegian technology group, Kongsberg, has announced that it has won a contract with Shell to provide its digital twin software to Shell's assets globally.

Digital twin?

A digital twin is a virtual replica of an actual production facility that pulls (and unifies) real data from the plant into the cloud. According to Kongsberg, the technology will enable "Shell to improve work processes and optimize facility performance". You can read about how digital twins help out the industry more generally here, or check out a short video demonstration of Kongsberg's version here.

So what is Shell doing exactly?

Shell has agreed to use a specific software Kongsberg provides called Kognitwin Energy after Kongsberg beat out competitors in a proof-of-concept evaluation. Once Kongsberg deploys the software to Shell's operations, "the solution will provide Shell with the ability to access its portfolio assets from anywhere".

Read the press release here.

Dutch chemicals company, DSM, and manufacturer, VDL, have formed a joint venture to produce facemasks and other PPE filter materials.

Why build a plant now?

In their own words, "During the past months, the corona crisis has taught us that you can't tell a pandemic what to do and that it's important for continents to provide for their own needs. This means we owe it to ourselves to create certainties close to home."

The details:

The joint venture is opening two new facilities: a melt-blown polypropylene (PP) plant and a product manufacturing plant. Melt-blown PP is "the critical material layer in medical facemasks that filters viruses, and to produce medical masks". The process produces what looks like enormous toilet paper rolls of facemask fabric, which will then be sent to the other facility to create the final product.

Read the press release here.

Norway-based chemical recycler of plastics, Quantafuel, has started up its very first plant. The publicly-traded company has now surpassed a $1B valuation according to Bloomberg.

How it works:

This plant converts plastic waste into diesel and other fuels by cracking pyrolysis gas. For example, the output can be "distilled into valuable products such as high-quality naphtha—a crucial component in the production of plastics". That would let petrochemical producers source some naphtha from plastic waste (instead of from oil and gas).

Some context:

The company was founded back in 2014 and has since been invested in by BASF, commodity trading giant Vitol, and even LEGO. Now that this site is up and running they are focusing on expansion, and are in the process of building another site in Denmark.

Read more here on Bloomberg.