Yokogawa, A*STAR Team Up to Decarbonise Process Manufacturing

Yokogawa Engineering Asia and A*STAR formalised a Master Research Collaboration Agreement in Singapore on November 13, 2025, setting out joint efforts to pursue climate technology solutions and next generation innovations in process manufacturing. The accord targets foundational areas of industrial operations, including sensing, measurement, control and automation, with an explicit aim of advancing decarbonisation in energy intensive manufacturing sectors.

The collaboration aligns a regional arm of a global industrial automation company with Singapore's principal public research agency, combining engineering expertise with applied science capacity. By focusing on core instrumentation and control technologies, the partners are addressing bottlenecks that often keep factories locked into carbon intensive operating practices. Better sensors and measurement systems can reveal inefficiencies that were previously invisible, while more sophisticated control strategies can translate that information into consistent reductions in energy use and emissions.

Process manufacturing is responsible for a large share of industrial greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and many plants operate on legacy measurement and control systems that were not designed for low carbon targets. The Yokogawa A*STAR agreement seeks to close that gap by exploring technologies that improve the fidelity and timeliness of process data, enable more precise actuation of equipment, and support advanced automation strategies that reduce fuel consumption and flaring. These technical improvements can also support compliance with tightening regulations and corporate net zero commitments.

Research collaborations of this type typically blend fundamental laboratory research with applied prototyping and validation in industrial contexts. By pooling resources, academic researchers can test novel sensing modalities and control algorithms while industry partners can offer real world process knowledge, test beds and pathways to commercial deployment. The result can be faster translation from concept to field ready systems that manufacturers can adopt without prolonged development cycles.

The partnership also raises questions beyond pure engineering. As factories generate ever more data and rely on automated decision making, issues of data governance, industrial cybersecurity and workforce transition become central. Ensuring that new sensing and control systems are secure and interoperable will be essential if widespread adoption is to follow. Equally important will be efforts to reskill plant operators and engineers so they can work alongside more advanced automated systems and extract value from richer data streams.

Regionally, Singapore has positioned itself as a hub for advanced manufacturing and climate technology research, and an agreement that pairs local research capability with a major automation company could have ripple effects across Southeast Asia. If successful, the work could offer blueprints for reducing emissions in chemical, petrochemical, food and pharmaceutical plants across diverse markets.

The MRCA formalises intent to explore a suite of technical avenues that, together, promise incremental and systemic emissions reductions. As the collaboration moves from planning into active research, its impact will hinge on how quickly prototypes can be validated in operational environments and scaled to the factories that need them most.