Gas consumption by German companies has fallen drastically – on the one hand because production is being shut down. But Germany’s economy is also discovering clever ways of using less energy. The inventors are now being used in the corporations.
There are probably no miracles, but some things sound like this: there has been a fight against climate change for years, it’s about efficient production and saving – but the whole thing is only progressing with difficulty. And then this happens: Under the impression of a lack of gas deliveries from Russia and the harbingers of a cool winter, the industry suddenly saves gas.
And not a few percent, but up to a fifth of their previous gas consumption. In September, industrial consumption was around 14 percent below the average of previous years, and in July and August it was even more than 20 percent less. This makes industry the area in which gas has been saved the fastest and most.
But the miracle is man-made, and it is not always a reason for joy. The industry achieves the goal that the federal government has specified as a recommendation, namely in two ways. One is no reason to be happy: Because energy prices are so high, many companies cannot avoid shutting down their production. They shut down machines, which ultimately leads to red figures in the balance sheet. For example, the Industry Association for Plastic Packaging warns of “mass shutdowns of production”. The chemical association calculates that its member companies have already reduced production by ten percent this year. The glass manufacturers put it in a nutshell: no glass, no gas.
Aluminum manufacturers have their backs to the wall. The victims of the energy crisis are already being counted here. Aluminum producers have extremely high energy costs and cannot simply shut down their plants. Sudden cooling would make it impossible to start up again. One of the largest manufacturers, Speira, has decided to limit 50 percent of its production at the “Rheinwerk” near Düsseldorf until further notice. This decision was made due to the rising energy prices in Germany.
Shutdown began at the beginning of October and half of production is expected to be shut down by November. “Energy prices have reached too high a level in recent months,” says Speira boss Einar Glomnes, “and we do not expect them to drop in the near future. This development requires that we cut back half of our production until further notice in order to preserve Speira’s added value.”
The second way is much more constructive. Industrial companies no longer run machines under full load, use heat from production and switch from gas to oil or coal when it is burned quickly. Screw manufacturer Würth is currently converting its furnaces, which harden the screw material, from gas to electricity. The glass manufacturer Wiegand Glas and the Veltins brewery announced that they would be able to switch from gas to heating oil in their production.
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Companies like the medium-sized company Lenze in Lower Saxony have specialized in introducing energy-saving processes in industry. Lenze boss Christian Wendler reports how something like this can work: “The German engineer always thinks with buffers.” This creates a chain of reserves in a process that can ultimately make work processes inefficient. With precise data on what is needed, this could be prevented.
And what’s more: motion sequences could be improved. “I always compare it,” says Wendler, “with a car: when it sprints from a red light to a red light, it uses a lot of energy. If it drives slowly and thus catches the green wave, it gets to its destination just as quickly, but consumes significantly less.”
Martin Brudermüller is someone who also has to search intensively for an answer to the high energy prices. He is the boss of the largest German gas consumer: the chemical giant BASF. At the Ludwigshafen site alone, the group requires around four percent of the gas volume in Germany. That corresponds to what the whole of Switzerland burns.
Brudermüller warns and acts. If gas becomes scarce at BASF, the company puts its “special natural gas alarm plan” into effect. It stipulates in detail how the huge plant in Ludwigshafen reacts to natural gas cuts or pressure fluctuations. In short, it says: If the supply remains at more than half of the maximum natural gas requirement, the plants could continue to be operated with a reduced load. Conversely, this means that if the delivery is less than 50 percent, operations will be stopped.
Brudermüller describes the consequences as follows: “If we were no longer allocated gas, we would have a few hours to shut down the Ludwigshafen site. Then the huge site would stand still for the first time in its history. If the pressure in the lines falls below 38 bar, the systems switch off automatically. It is not trivial to cool down a system that is operated at high temperatures in a controlled manner within hours.” After Brudermüller said this, the share price collapsed.
But Brudermüller also acts: Half of the natural gas that BASF consumes in Ludwigshafen is used as a raw material and flows into fertilizer production, for example. Hardly anything can be changed here: no fertilizer without gas. But there is something to be done about the other half. The hope rests on heat pumps, but not the size of a moving box, like the ones you sometimes find in the neighbor’s garden, but containers the size of a truck. While the moving box generates a maximum of 95 degrees Celsius, the high-temperature truck-sized heat pump already manages 300 degrees in pilot tests. And that’s where it gets interesting for BASF and others.
That is why Brudermüller is pushing ahead with the construction of the world’s largest heat pump together with the VW subsidiary MAN Energy Solutions. It is said to generate 150 tons of steam per hour and drastically reduce gas consumption. A feasibility study is expected to be completed later this year. MAN boss Uwe Lauber speaks of a “huge lever” that both companies wanted to use.
The problem: those changes in industry that really bring something, take time. The gas storage facilities in Germany are full, but not infinite. If the big savings don’t come soon, there’s only the other way and that means: Production disappears. Real miracles look different.
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*The article “The amazing gas miracle of German industry” is published by WirtschaftsKurier. Contact the person responsible here.
