Current trends in chemical process technology as part of the accompanying research of the research network Energie in Industrie und Gewerbe (EE4InG) are presented. We assume that the trends circular economy and accelerated globalized innovation (modularization, process intensification and digitalization) will have an impact on the chemical industry by 2030. Technology development based on these trends will enable chemical engineering to make decisive contributions to the flexibilization and defossilization of value chains in the future.