The answers to these questions depend to a large extent on how quickly we succeed in becoming independent of fossil fuels and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. It is for this reason that the European Union is calling for climate neutrality by 20501. Germany is expected to become climate neutral as early as 20452. The targets for China and India are 20603 and 20704, respectively.
Their ambitious plans include putting a stop to adding CO2 to the atmosphere much sooner. Car manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz5 and Volvo6 as well as other companies such as Maersk7, Siemens8 or Hewlett Packard9 want to operate on a completely climate-neutral basis by 2040 at the latest. Freudenberg Filtration Technologies is aiming to reduce its own CO2 emissions to zero by 2039. According to climate experts, every tenth of a degree counts if we are to leave future generations with a livable planet.
Reducing emissions is a patchwork process that has to occur in many places at once, so you need to know where which emissions are generated if you want to save CO2. A helpful tool in this regard is the internationally recognized Greenhouse Gas Protocol10, a universally applicable standard developed under the leadership of the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which categorizes greenhouse gas emissions as Scope 1, Scope 2, or Scope 3.
Scope 1 comprises all those emissions for which a company itself is responsible and over which it therefore has direct control. One example is energy sources that are consumed on site for the operation of furnaces or plants, including for the company’s own vehicle fleet.
Scope 2 includes all those emissions that result from purchased energy. One example is electricity that is purchased from power plants for the operation of HVAC systems. Another example is district heating that is purchased to heat office buildings.
Scope 3 is the trickiest area and is often excluded from climate-neutral labels. It includes those indirect emissions that result from the manufacture of upstream products as well as those from downstream use of the company’s own products. Such emissions are difficult to calculate and the options to regulate them are limited. One way of controlling them is to use supplier requirements.
Many emission sources (e.g. HVAC systems, which supply rooms and processes with constantly clean air) cannot simply be switched off. Saving energy through sophisticated, high-efficiency filtration systems are particularly important in this case.
Energy-efficient filters and intelligent filter management can contribute substantially to savings: Streamlined filter elements with a low pressure drop reduce energy consumption. Long-life filters, with pressure drops that increase only slightly over their lifetime, save resources, as the desired performance can be maintained with fewer filter changes. Freudenberg Filtration Technologies regards itself as being responsible for filter development and is aiming to make its production sites energy-efficient and climate-friendly wherever they are in the world and whatever sector they serve.
If you want to recondition an old filtration solution or are planning a new one, you can significantly reduce your plants’ energy footprint using digital support and innovative concepts, such as eee.sy, the energy-efficiency enhancement system. As well as providing efficient energy enhancement for intake air in gas turbines and compressors especially in hot regions that are unfavorable for turbine efficiency, this turnkey filtration and cooling system also meets the stringent requirements of modern large-scale plants. It achieves this by measures such as using usable waste heat for even lower energy consumption.
Standardized supply air systems are often oversized and not adapted to the respective conditions on site. To find an individually optimized solution, Freudenberg engineers use the digital tool e.FFECT when designing multi-stage filter systems. This maps reality in a digital model and analyzes the most efficient filter combinations possible based on various site data and performance parameters. An important parameter of e.FFECT is also the energy efficiency calculation. The energy consumption is already calculated in the planning phase to make a recommendation for an economical an sustainable operation of the filtration system. More sustainable calculation parameters will be added to e.FFECT in the future.
Find out more about filter efficiency calculation with e.FFECT
This will be achieved by a complete switch to renewable energies in the production process and using smart concepts to reduce packaging materials and logistics costs. In doing so, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies not only helps its customers to implement energy-efficient air filtration; it also reduces emissions throughout the entire value chain and contributes towards preserving the planet.
Sources:
1 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/de/press-room/20210419IPR02302/eu-klimaneutralitat-bis-2050-europaisches-parlament-erzielt-einigung-mit-rat
2 https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/klimaschutz/klimaschutzgesetz-2021-1913672
3 https://www.energiezukunft.eu/politik/china-will-bis-2060-klimaneutral-werden/
4 https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/klimapolitik-staaten-schliessen-regenwald-allianz-indien-will-bis-2070-klimaneutral-werden/28808522.html
5 https://group.mercedes-benz.com/nachhaltigkeit/klima/ambition-2039-unser-weg-zur-co2-neutralitaet.html
6 https://www.volvocars.com/de/v/sustainability/climate-action
7 https://www.maersk.com/sustainability/our-priorities/the-environment/climate-change
8 https://new.siemens.com/global/en/company/sustainability/carbonneutral.html
9 https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2021/hp-inc-announces-ambitious-climate-action-goals.html
10 https://ghgprotocol.org/about-us
11 http://ventilatorentausch.de/ (Source: Flyer Jede Kilowattstunde zählt)