UP TO NOW ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES HAVE LED JUST A SHADOWY EXISTENCE at the Hanover Trade Fair, the world’s largest industrial technology showcase. But that will change when the new IndustrialGreenTec trade fair platform is launched by Hannover Messe in April 2012. “We’re clearly spotlighting sustainability,” says Oliver Frese, Senior Vice-President of Hannover Messe, because manufacturing industry is obviously focusing more sharply on sustainable solutions involving energy and material efficiency. “Now that we’re recognizing progressive climate change, we’re all being challenged to reconsider our actions and the related global consequences,” he adds. And this message is being transformed into technological reality in many different respects. The spectrum of exhibition themes is correspondingly broad: it ranges from sustainable recycling, water, soil and noise protection, air pollution control, techniques for the efficient use of renewable energies and materials to environmental measuring technology. The concept has convinced the Central Association of the German Electrical and Electronics Industries (ZVEI): “IndustrialGreenTec is not only creating an entirely new platform for companies to present their products, but also to engage in interchange at the highest level,” says Klaus Mittelbach, ZVEI’s head.
The new trade fair provides further visible evidence that environmental technologies are developing into a key industry. German companies in particular are adding impetus to the trend with their innovative solutions. Their world market share in photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, wind and hydro power is somewhere between 20 and 35%. A total of 90% of all biogas plants come from Germany. “The sector has developed even better than expected,” says Torsten Henzelmann, green tech specialist at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Over the next ten to fifteen years he expects to see average growth rates of 6.5% in this sector in Germany, together with the creation of roughly one million new jobs during the same period. “Green technology is and remains a job engine,” says Henzelmann.
How the subject is changing whole industries at a breathtaking pace is clearly illustrated by Siemens. The Munich-based technology company is steadily expanding its green business units. Company head, Peter Löscher, defines the approach: “We shall be strengthening our position as a green infrastructure giant.” And that’s not just an empty phrase: one in four of Siemens 400,000 employees is working directly or indirectly on processes and technologies in the field of environmental technology. This accounts for almost one third of the company’s turnover, and the trend is rising. The target for 2011 is 25 billion euros – in 2010 the company’s total turnover was almost 76 billion euros. So it’s hardly surprising that Löscher likes to refer to “gigantic growth opportunities for green technologies”.
Economic stimulus programmes and legislation, such as the Renewable Energy Resources Act, are also making their contributions. “The sector has experienced strong growth as a result,” says Claudia Kemfert, Head of the Department of Energy, Transportation and Environment at the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. Apart from the few big players, the sector is driven by small and medium-sized enterprises. The expert, Torsten Henzelmann, reckons that a good 90% of Germany’s approximately 10,000 green tech companies are small or medium-sized firms. He says that each of these companies is a leader in one or two technologies within a total of roughly 100 different technology areas, so the overall field is strongly fragmented. But it is precisely this high level of specialization that creates a fertile environment for innovative ideas that are increasingly in demand abroad.
One good example is Uhde GmbH. The Dortmund-based chemical and industrial plant construction company is helping former environmentally damaging factories to engage in more sustainable and resource-efficient production. Uhde’s know-how is currently being applied to a hydrochloric acid electrolysis plant belonging to the Chinese polyurethane producer Yantai Juli Isocyanate. The processing of the hydrochloric acid, which is a by-product in plastics production, will be environmentally friendly in two respects: a third less energy will be used during the electrolysis process compared with conventional methods, and the hydrochloric acid will be converted into pure chlorine with a high level of energy efficiency. Uhde receives about 90% of its contracts from abroad. “Modern, energy-efficient plants are an absolute export hit,” says Michael Thiemann, Chairman of the Uhde Executive Board. “Raw materials are gradually becoming scarcer and more expensive. The circumspect use of resources is a key concern of our customers throughout the world.” Most calls for tenders now definitely specify the inclusion of energy-saving technologies.
Similarly, recycling and reprocessing are playing an increasingly significant role and the accompanying technology is becoming more and more sophisticated. Waste management companies have long since made the transition from simply collecting the contents of waste paper containers. Together with plant manufacturers they now run high-tech recycling operations to reclaim materials for industry, for instance even the smallest quantities of valuable metals or rare earths. Germans are in fact world champions in waste separation, no matter whether it takes place at home or in highly complex industrial plants. The legislative framework for waste recycling stimulated the growth of a world-leading sector that supplies the waste disposal industry with sorting, reprocessing and low-emission incineration plants. Two-thirds of the automatic separation plants sold around the globe come from Germany. This modern technology is good news for waste workers. After all, companies such as LLA Instruments from Berlin-Adlershof are gradually making the arduous hand-sorting of various plastics in stuffy, smelly halls a thing of the past.
LLA has developed the centrepiece of automatic sorting plants: spectrometers. In other words, sensors that can quickly and accurately identify various plastics even under adverse conditions, for instance, a yoghurt carton made of polystyrene, a PVC coating or a shampoo bottle made of polyethylene. This small business has quietly become the market leader in this niche within just a few years. From Adlershof it supplies customers in countries throughout the world, including the USA, China, Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Japan, Korea and Australia. “Our strength lies in the fact that we develop and produce everything ourselves, from the measuring device, to the electronics and the evaluation software,” says Managing Director Hartmut Lucht. However, despite their current technological lead, German green tech producers should not rest on their laurels for too long. “Competition in green technologies has long since set in,” says Claudia Kemfert from the DIW in Berlin – as we shall see at IndustrialGreenTec 2012.///
