For Marcel Schreiner, Global Segment Director Energy, the path to the hydrogen economy is mapped out. “The hunger for green hydrogen as an alternative to oil and gas is an irreversible trend. Green hydrogen enables the decarbonization of large industrial sectors,” he says, assessing the situation. This offers great opportunities for Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST).
Freudenberg has been involved with fuel cells for decades, developing high-tech seals and building up valuable material, design and processing expertise in applications for hydrogen-powered “power plants”. But that’s not all. “For some years now, we have been looking at the topic of hydrogen not just in terms of the fuel cell, but holistically along the entire value chain,” explains Schreiner.
At the very beginning of this chain are electrolysers that produce hydrogen from water using green electricity. FST is currently paying particular attention to their technologies. Similar to fuel cells, large numbers of stacked cells need to be sealed inside electrolysers. “By 2050, we will need an electrolysis capacity of at least 1,200 gigawatts worldwide to even come close to achieving our globalCO2 targets. Today, this electrolysis capacity is closer to three gigawatts,” says Schreiner, explaining the scale of the task – and the business potential that lies behind it for FST.
The transportation, distribution and storage of hydrogen via pipelines also involves pumps, valves and compressors, all of which also need to be sealed. If hydrogen is alternatively converted into transportable and storable ammonia or e-methanol, sealing expertise is also required. The same applies to direct H2 combustion in conventional engines.
“It won’t work without hydrogen.”
Electrolysis: major projects already underway
In short: for a sealing specialist like FST, the H2 economy offers a wide range of opportunities. At the same time, these tasks are enormously challenging. On the one hand, economically. For example, the investment costs for the production of green hydrogen are still very high. There is a lack of standardized technological processes in production, but also for test runs. Only high volumes will allow cost-reducing automated processes. “Similar to years ago with solar and wind energy, it won’t work without public start-up funding,” Schreiner estimates. The USA – with the Inflation Reduction Act – and Europe – with the Green Deal – have launched funding programs worth billions, which will gradually take effect. In countries in the Middle East, money is already flowing into gigawatt electrolysis projects. In Australia, too, the electrolysis train is already gathering steam. The realization is growing around the globe: green hydrogen is sustainable and helps to replace fossil fuels, store energy and generate heat in a variety of ways.
In addition to the economic challenges, there are also major technological challenges. Hydrogen is a very volatile gas with a low density and small molecular size, which means that it penetrates and travels through solids (technical term: permeation), including sealing materials. It also has to be compacted enormously for transportation. High pressure, high temperatures, high speeds in dry-running piston compressors – today’s seals still wear out too quickly in the face of this. In other words: For hydrogen applications, their service life must be extended, often many times over! Not many providers can do that.
“We know our way around such requirements. By solving such technological challenges, we generate a USP, a unique selling point for us,” says Schreiner confidently about FST’s innovative strength. Together with its partners in Japan and China, NOK Corporation and NOK-Freudenberg China, FST is pulling in the same direction, as the “Hydrogen Conference” in Munich this summer revealed(see article: Hydrogen – a joint strategic topic for the future).
Came to stay
The art of engineering in development goes hand in hand with FST’s expertise and experience in the reliable production of small and, above all, large quantities, which will be increasingly in demand. None of this can be achieved overnight, but requires staying power. This long-term thinking is also in Freudenberg’s DNA.
Can the trend towards a hydrogen economy be reversed? “I would say quite clearly: No! Solar and wind energy didn’t ‘fly’ overnight either. Today, it’s impossible to imagine our world without them and they are continuing to grow,” says the energy expert.
More and more electric cars on the roads around the world, the arrival of artificial intelligence and additional digital applications in more and more areas of business and life: Global energy demand is set to multiply. “In view of this, the green hydrogen economy is about nothing less than the future of our planet. Actively helping to shape this future as a component supplier is a highly exciting and rewarding task,” says Schreiner.
