Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced the acquisition of Fluence Analytics, a U.S.-based startup that provides real-time analytical solutions to global polymer and biopharmaceutical companies. Since signing the investment and cooperation agreement in August 2021, the two companies have been exploring potential business opportunities. With this acquisition, Fluence Analytics will integrate its operations with Yokogawa’s existing operations and further enhance its technology capabilities. Starting today, Fluence Analytics will operate as Yokogawa Fluence Analytics.

Fluence Analytics is a leader in the monitoring and control of polymerization reactions *1 with its Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization Reactions (ACOMP) products that measure and analyze multiple polymer properties in real time. ACOMP’s data streams provide new insights into material properties, enabling customers to optimize and control polymerization processes to improve product quality, increase yields, and reduce energy consumption and material waste. Based on the average size of the polymerization reactor, the ACOMP system is expected to generate $1.5 million *2 per year.

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The preliminary agreement between the two companies, reached in August 2021, has generated intense interest from global chemical companies seeking to leverage automated digital technologies to transform their operations. Fluence Analytics is currently developing the next generation of ACOMP products, which will be part of Yokogawa Electric’s OpreX family. The two companies are exploring how to integrate the next generation of ACOMP with Yokogawa’s advanced control solutions and the digital technologies of KBC, another Yokogawa Electric group company. Yokogawa’s global network will undertake engineering and systems integration tasks and provide after-sales field services for ACOMP systems.

Kenji Hasegawa, Executive Director and Head of Product Headquarters at Yokogawa, said: “Polymers are used in almost every aspect of modern society in the form of plastics, rubber, paints and more. Combining Fluence Analytics’ ACOMP systems and other technologies with our industry knowledge will allow us to work with customers to digitize and automate aggregation processes that currently require manual monitoring and adjustment. This will help customers improve worker safety, profitability and environmental performance. We also plan to apply this technology to polymer reuse. We believe this will be a huge game-changer for the industry.”

In addition to ACOMP, Fluence Analytics’ product portfolio includes an innovative laboratory instrument designed to significantly accelerate and optimize the development of novel biologic therapeutics. The instrument enables rapid assessment and real-time monitoring of the stability of therapeutic proteins, peptides and other biopolymers under a variety of thermal, mechanical and chemical stress conditions.

“Joining forces with Yokogawa allows us to fully leverage the value of our unique data set, and we can’t wait to deliver this added value to our customers.” Together, we will promote the autonomous operation and digital transformation of the polymer and biopharmaceutical industries.” Jay Manouchehri, CEO of Yokogawa Fluence Analytics, commented.