For decades now ACHEMA has been acclaimed as the premier world forum of the process industry and has established itself as the trend-setting technology summit for innovation in chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology.    

Taking place in 2012 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the 30th ACHEMA event will once again be the leading international meeting point for decision-makers and experts from a broad spectrum of related industries.  There is already a rush for exhibition space bookings with prospective exhibitors needing to beat the first deadline for prime sites which closes on the 17th November 2010.  Never resting on its laurels the event's organiser DECHEMA (The German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) is planning to provide a fresh platform by extending and improving the facilities offered to exhibitors and visitors. 

The Frankfurt fairgrounds have been substantially enlarged by the introduction of a new two-storey exhibition hall. The Western part of the fairgrounds will benefit from an adjacent new entrance building and new visitor walkway named "Via Mobile".  

The new hall 11 is enabling ACHEMA to take a fresh approach to its hall allocation policy to improve the offer to each of the event's exhibition groups.  At ACHEMA 2012 hall 11 will accommodate the automation and control exhibitors who will appreciate the expanded exhibition space.  

The increased size of the new hall will now enable the accommodation of the pumps and compressors group's expansion which was previously spread among halls 9.1 and 9.2, plus the materials technology group from hall 3.  

The new layout frees more space for the pharma and packaging group in hall 3. ACHEMA's laboratory group will now also be presenting the laboratory and analytical equipment in the expanses of halls 4.1 and 4.2 and marks a significant advance in floorspace compared with the previous event. 

The mechanical process group is also seeing progress being made and is now located in hall levels 5.0 and 6.0 with the addition of 5.1. 

At ACHEMA 2012 the theme of the Special Show event will be ‘Innovative Energy Carriers and Storage' and will focus on concepts for efficient energy storage and transport; chemical energy storage, solar chemical processes; photovoltaic materials and applications; innovative batteries and supercapacitors; advances in fuel cell technology; e-mobility; as well as addressing the hydrogen economy. 

"Although we know the whole hall allocation procedure may seem like a giant chess game we believe we have hit on a winning strategy for all concerned," declared Thomas Scheuring, Head of Exhibition-Congresses, DECHEMA.  "We are looking to build on the firm foundations we established at the last event held in 2009 which emphasised the international importance of ACHEMA despite the event taking place in the midst of a major global recession.  In terms of exhibitors and visitors the 29th ACHEMA was more international and successful than ever before. As many as 46.6% of the 3,767 exhibitors and 25% of the 173,000 visitors came from abroad". 

ACHEMA addresses the whole supply chain and is not just the focus of European engineers, but is increasingly pulling in more and more visitors from emerging markets such as Asia and elsewhere.  The foreign visitor component also features high-level decision makers from the international technical community as well as end users, contractors, distributors and other key people in the supply chain.  

"Although the 30th ACHEMA is more than 18 months away, the exhibitor booking process is already well under way.  The majority of exhibitors will have finalised their commitments by the end of 2010," said Scheuring. "To ensure securing a good position in the most appropriate hall for their business new companies looking to exhibit at ACHEMA 2012 need to make a decision as soon as possible."