The first international trade fair for industrial and commercial decarbonisation, decarbXpo, came to a successful close today. Around 100 exhibitors from 15 countries presented their technologies and solutions in Hall 9 of Düsseldorf’s exhibition centre. Together with three concurrent conferences, the trade fair demonstrated both investors’ and industrial users’ appetite for an intensive exchange of information on new technologies and cooperation around climate protection. Occurring at the same time as glasstec, the glass industry’s leading event, served to attract additional attention: production companies from the glass industry visited decarbXpo to discuss reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions as well as energy storage.
"The first ever decarbXpo proved itself as a networking and infotainment platform by successfully connecting decarbonisation technology providers with user industries. The global relevance of the topic and the trade show was also confirmed by visitors of more than 45 nationalities," said Bernd Jablonowski, Executive Director, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH.
"decarbXpo’s very well-attended accompanying conferences and forums reveal the high demand for knowledge and exchange among the fair’s exhibitors and visitors," added Malte Seifert, Director of decarbXpo. “We would like to thank all partners as well as speakers for their support and cooperation.”
Start-ups and innovation in particular demand
At this first edition of decarbXpo, start-ups showcasing innovation related to decarbonisation came into special focus. The spectrum of solutions on display extended from hydrogen technologies to industrial heat in high temperature ranges to technologies for carbon dioxide capture.
"Start-ups can bring tremendous innovation to established industry to get decarbonisation projects off the ground quickly. decarbXpo provides us with an effective platform to bring established companies from a range of industries together with our young, innovative companies," explained Uwe Kerkmann, Managing Director of Europe's first hydrogen innovation hub, H2UB.
As part of a close cooperation with both the Economic Development Agency of the state capital Düsseldorf and the leading start-up network Plug and Play, the fair drew additional international start-ups as exhibitors and also as keynote speakers at the Forums.
"I was very pleased to see such great interest in innovation and cooperation at decarbXpo. Our start-ups met with potential industrial users, possible partners, and investors – a successful start for the event. We would also like to thank the Düsseldorf Economic Development Corporation for the opportunity to exhibit here," said Adrian Grussendorf, Co-Founder of the Plug and Play Sustainability NRW innovation platform.
In addition to young companies, established industrial suppliers also took advantage of the trade fair for networking and customer discussions related to industrial decarbonisation. The SMS group, for instance, a system supplier in the steel industry with a 150-year history, presented its solutions at the fair.
"Energy-intensive industries are facing perhaps the biggest change in their history. In the future, production processes will be required to be climate-neutral. The technologies needed for this transition must be made visible across all industries. This is exactly what decarbXpo achieved in a bundled form for the first time," said Burkhard Dahmen, CEO of the SMS group and Chairman of next year's leading trade fair METEC.
Hydrogen as an enabler for decarbonisation across many industries
The production and application of hydrogen in a variety of industries was a focus topic of the event, both on the part of exhibitors and at the parallel conferences IRES, ecoMetals Day, and #P2X Conference. To further develop this focus, Messe Düsseldorf, as the organizer of the leading trade fairs for the glass, metal, and plastics industries, will continue to leverage its comprehensive network of several hundred thousand contacts. The exhibition company is thus committed to the use of green hydrogen as an enabler for decarbonisation in process industries.
"The first decarbXpo has lived up to its claim of offering an effective platform for networking the hydrogen economy with users from various process industries. I am taking away many new ideas for further work at the VDMA, both from our #P2X conference as well as from the discussions with exhibitors and trade fair visitors," commented Peter Müller-Baum, Managing Director of the Power-to-X for Applications Working Group at the VDMA.
The next decarbXpo will take place in Q4 of 2023 at the Düsseldorf exhibition centre, Messe Düsseldorf.
