Finishing - July-August 2022

32 PLATING
The case for hydrogen
The Holzapfel Group already has over 20
years of development and plating
expertise in the field of hydrogen
production technologies. Its capabilities
include developing solutions for increasing
effectiveness by saving energy through raising
the efficiency of the catalytic effect of the
platings, as well as approaches for
implementing scalable processes and options
for assembling and testing stacks. In view of
the necessity to reduce carbon emissions,
these solutions for efficiently applying
sustainable platings that have been
successfully tested in various projects are
more important than ever.
Technologies essential for
generating energy on a
sustainable basis
Limiting climate change by reducing global
carbon emissions is one of the greatest
challenges of our time. In order to achieve the
required reduction in carbon emissions, a
wide range of measures are needed, from the
use of innovative, renewable energy systems
to reducing energy consumption in industry,
for mobility and in the private sector (e.g.
buildings). In addition to the use of solar and
wind power, hydrogen is often regarded as a
"key element in the energy transition" , which
can play a crucial role as a "versatile source of
energy" . Above all, hydrogen can make a
valuable contribution to reducing carbon
emissions in industry and the mobility sector,
provided it is produced in a climate-friendly
way (so-called "green hydrogen"). It can also
help to cover at least a part of today's energy
requirement for renewable, carbon-free
sources. As a source of energy that can be
flexibly stored and transported, hydrogen can
make it possible to deploy sustainably
generated energy in other sectors. As a
chemical raw material, hydrogen also offers a
broad range of opportunities for the future of
Germany as an industrial location. Hydrogen
can therefore be used in a great many
applications that go towards reducing the
overall carbon footprint.
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