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Photovoltaics and Batteries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
FST is now pursuing exactly the same goal with its \u201cFossil Fuel Elimination Plan,\u201d and it is doing it systematically. That means it can build on its long experience as it carries out its decade-long plan to end its use of fossil fuels worldwide. FST can also add more elements, such as photovoltaic systems, to its tried-and-true approaches. They were implemented along with waste heat recapture in the redesign of FST facilities in Emmerich, Germany, and Chennai, India. If production comes to a stop in Emmerich on a winter weekend, an electric heat pump goes into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stationary batteries are yet another way to improve energy efficiency: At the FST facility in Berlin, Germany, this approach to energy storage, called a microgrid, is already in use. For the upcoming new construction project in Morinda, India, FST is exploring the use of a large battery fed by photovoltaic cells. In the event of electrical blackouts, the battery could temporarily supply the entire plant with energy until emergency power generators kick in. That would help the plant avoid the loss of time and materials, not to mention the extra cost of machine cleaning after unplanned stoppages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kloos and Karl Ludwig Stein, also from Lean\/GROWTTH & Sustainability, are both aware that investments in sustainability are not amortized overnight. Kloos stressed the long-term implications of the current decisions. \u201cThe protection of the climate requires that we act sustainably, that is, stop burning fossil fuels as completely and quickly as possible. We consider the impact of each of our investment decisions on our CO2 footprint. In building technology, our investment decisions will follow us for the next 40 years. What we decide today will last more than an entire generation,\u201d he said. Both Kloos and Stein are looking at the \u201cFossil Fuel Elimination Plan\u201d and the numerous efforts on behalf of energy efficiency and CO2-neutrality at FST all the more positively. \u201cIt\u2019s all going in the right direction,\u201d Stein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renewable Wood instead of Fossil Gas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
On the question of CO2-neutrality: The fossil fuels currently used at FST\u2019s facilities are primarily needed for heating. \u201cUp to 85 to 90 percent of the heat energy produced with fossil fuels flows into the heating systems in manufacturing and administration buildings,\u201d Kloos said. The majority of the company\u2019s hydraulic presses are already powered electrically. At its Oberwihl facility, FST has just replaced its last oil-fueled building heating system worldwide \u2013 except for emergency power generators \u2013 with an environmentally friendly woodchip heating system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stein is looking ahead. \u201cNatural gas heating systems are next on the agenda.\u201d Hamburg, Germany, is the first facility whose energy systems are being brought into line with the resources of the \u201cFossil Fuel Elimination Plan.\u201d A series of large vulcanization presses, for example, have been operating in Hamburg using process vapor generated with natural gas. The same is true of the absorption facility that the facility uses to recapture solvents. Even the heat for the building\u2019s climate-control system still comes from natural gas. \u201cVarious heating tasks are involved in different fields of application, with different requirement profiles and temperature levels. So it could absolutely make sense for the energy to come from various energy sources here,\u201d Kloos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The details are now being examined. The spectrum of potential energy sources and types of generation for a facility-specific solution range from biogas to heat pumps. One way or another, the preference is for heating systems that are as small as possible \u2013 and thus cost the least \u2013 and that can be operated at low temperatures, and accordingly consume little energy. Among other things, this requires efficient building insulation, which can only be installed at all locations in close cooperation with Freudenberg Real Estate.<\/p>\n