More than 60 participants gathered on September 15 at the Höchst Industrial Park in Frankfurt am Main to discuss with Process-X the role that secure data exchange plays in the future of the process industry. The focus was on specific use cases, technological solutions, and the question of how companies can better utilize their data in the future to remain competitive.

The starting point is challenging: The European process industry is under considerable economic pressure. High costs and a difficult market environment are limiting room for investment. At the same time, there is a growing need to digitize production processes and make them more efficient. The key insight from the workshop was therefore that data has long since become more than just a byproduct of industrial processes. It is increasingly evolving into a strategic asset.

Yet many companies do not lack data. Rather, information is often stored in different systems and is used only to a limited extent. Only through secure, standardized, and interoperable data exchange can value be created that extends beyond individual companies. Value creation is increasingly taking place within interconnected ecosystems. Strategic partnerships, distributed expertise, and new sustainability requirements make data exchange a critical success factor.

The Höchst Industrial Park illustrates particularly well why this is relevant in practice. About 90 companies there share central infrastructure such as the steam supply and wastewater treatment. Efficient operations require that information can be exchanged securely and reliably among different stakeholders. Data rooms provide the necessary foundation for this. Access and usage rights are regulated transparently, and all data flows are documented in a traceable manner. Security and data sovereignty are at the heart of this process.

During the workshop, it also became clear how various data room initiatives are interconnected. While Factory-X lays the groundwork for digital assets, Process-X enables data exchange within industrial value creation processes. Together with Chem-X, solutions are also being developed for the Digital Material Passport, which makes information available throughout supply and value chains. This creates a networked ecosystem that makes data usable across company boundaries.

The potential this holds is already evident in the use cases implemented by Process-X. These include digital calibration certificates, the digital material passport, the Automated-As-Built solution, and the verification of the intrinsic safety of plant components. The predictive calculation and provision of process steam were also presented as examples. These use cases make it clear that data exchange is not an end in itself. It lays the foundation for efficient and sustainable processes in industry.

At the end of the workshop, participants had the opportunity to experience the technologies up close at the IDEA test facility in the Höchst Industrial Park. There, they saw firsthand how digital interfaces and interoperable data flows work in practice.

The tour underscored the day’s central message: The data already exists. The crucial step is to make it secure, standardized, and usable across companies. This is precisely where a key driver for the competitiveness of tomorrow’s process industry lies.