“36 degrees and it is getting even hotter.” Those are the words to a German pop song that radio stations play again and again every summer. But the real-life echo of this lively hit tune is unsettling. Even in temperate latitudes, the 40°C (104°F) mark is regularly breached. New records continue to be set, and 2023 has been among the hottest years since climate tracking began. The planet has a fever. The climate is threatening to lose its equilibrium – with far-reaching consequences, ranging from extreme weather events such as drought, forest die-offs, fires, storms, and flooding, to displacement of entire populations. The reason: Vast tracts of land are becoming arid and uninhabitable. Industrial companies are investing in their “footprint,” or sustainable production, and their “handprint,” or technical innovation. Both investments are the key to limiting global warming and shaping a positive future. Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) has much to offer here.
Then meteorologists and climate researchers talk about the climate, they mean the weather. But not the high- and low-pressure centers or precipitation yesterday, today and tomorrow. No, they look at longer timeframes such as decades and even centuries, and they average values to show changes over time. One example would be the trend in temperatures. To put it simply, climate is the statistical approach to weather.
The picture emerging from these analyses is not promising. The long-term trends raise concerns: Temperatures are rising almost continuously year on year. This can be shown unequivocally in black and white. Compared to other epochs in the planet’s history, it is also true that the rise has been extremely rapid, especially since the turn of the millennium. So when people talk about climate change today, nothing less than the planet’s health and continued human life on a sustainable basis are at stake.
Natural and Man-Made
The mechanisms and interactions in the climate system are extremely complex. It takes considerable expertise to understand them. The overwhelming majority of scientists agree that purely natural processes cannot explain the current rapid global changes in the climate. In light of these scientific observations, they are talking about an anthropogenic, man-made greenhouse effect. It is important to know that the earth’s atmosphere works like the roof of a hothouse to produce a natural greenhouse effect. Its impact is a temperature difference of 30°C (88°F), which is what makes life as we know it possible. It is basically water vapor, along with gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, that are responsible for this natural phenomenon.
The escape of additional gases into the atmosphere adds to this natural greenhouse effect. The most significant emissions are the many billions of tons of CO2 that we humans create. It is released as we drive, fly or use other means of transportation, generate electrical power and heat for buildings, and produce goods in industry and foods in agriculture. So far, it has mainly been fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas that have been used for these purposes. Their combustion gradually warms the planet year after year. This year, the consequences have become clear to everyone as the growing number of storms and natural disasters, such as the devastating forest fires in Canada and Greece or the severe flooding in Libya
Electricity as an All-Around Source
The solutions are obvious. Above all, they require an awareness of the problem and a willingness to take responsibility and action. Freudenberg is onboard. It has set ambitious climate goals, first of all, involving the minimization of the company’s own ecological footprint, especially by means of greater energy efficiency. One example can be found in this edition of SEALING WORLD: FST is using waste heat from production facilities to heat buildings and production processes (see here).
Secondly, FST is putting the expansion of new technologies, especially for sustainable energy production and storage, at the center of its research and development. The tried-and-tested maxim is to build bridges to the future with ingenuity and innovation. Freudenberg’s sustainable innovations and products are already reducing its “handprint” for customers. They are lowering CO2 emissions and the consumption of natural resources, whether in conventional applications such as advanced internal combustion engines in cars or in forward-looking technologies such as batteries and fuel cells. FST has created incubator teams that target the development and market introduction of products that it considers especially important and promising from a strategic standpoint in the current conditions. The key products here are wave guide antennas, busbars, cell caps, thermal barriers and H2 energy stacks.
Electric power from renewable sources plays a key role in all these cases. Green energy is the all-around power source for climate-friendly cooling and heating as well as sustainable manufacturing, transportation and global communication. To reduce its “footprint,” Freudenberg sees the systematic electrification of processes as one of the four steps leading to its goal of climate neutrality. FST products that reduce its “handprint” reflect the trend toward electrification. They include seals for wind turbines and innovations for battery-electric vehicles that FST has worked intensively on for years.
FST is also ready with promising solutions for the hydrogen economy that extend far beyond classic sealing. FST’s goal is to apply its technology to hydrogen production in electrolyzers that rely on green electric current. Scenarios of this kind represent hope and optimism for the planet while offering FST excellent prospects for ongoing profitable business.
