4. Environmental impacts of application purpose
TOPIC LEAD: VICE PRESIDENT SALES SYSTEMS DIVISION
Our target for 2027: We want to reach an order intake of 40% in applications supporting the energy transition.
Our core competence is mastering gas compression technologies for a wide range of gases and applications. Gas plays a crucial role in the process industry and energy supply, with applications ranging from conventionial energy supply to industrial gases to renewable energy systems. A significant part of the indirect environmental impact of our business activities is linked to the application purpose.
We have the potential to conbribute to three of our strategic Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy, SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production, and SDG 13: Climate action). The main impacts of this topic are related to the use phase of our products and services.
Largest green H2 production facility in Europe uses cutting-edge compressors from Burckhardt Compression
We have been selected to provide three advanced oil-free hydrogen compressors for a groundbreaking green hydrogen project in France. The project, a 200 MW electrolyzer plant, is scheduled to commerce production in 2026. With a projected annual output of 28’000 tons of green hydrogen, it represents a step toward a more sustainable future by annually reducing carbon dioxide emissions of around 250’000 tons.
Our approach
We are committed to the long-term alignment of our business activities with a sustainable economic system. We identified four positive impact areas:
- Climate change mitigation
- Energy transition
- Circular economy
- Environmental pollution prevention
We have developed a sustainability screening approach to analyze our business activities from an environmental impact perspective. This classification system makes use of international standards such as the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities or South Korea’s K-Taxonomy, without claiming to fulfil all their technical requirements. The main purpose of our screening system is to serve as a compass for the development of our business activities towards a sustainable energy future.
We are expanding the range of application for our customers and supporting the transition to a sustainable economy through our continuous innovation in compressor systems, materials, components, and services. The current focus lies on:
- Solar energy value chain, where our compressors are key equipment for the production of a thin ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) film on top of a solar panel and for the polysilicon production of the core.
- Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a short- and medium-term bridge energy for replacing coal, ensuring energy security during the transition or as a fuel for marine applications, replacing carbon-intensive heavy fuel oil until zero-emission solutions are available.
- Hydrogen as an important component of a sustainable energy future, in which our compressors play a key role in meeting the specific technical challenges of these new applications. The technological advantages of reciprocating compressors for this application are unrivaled efficiency and long service lives.
First mover green ammonia import terminal in Rotterdam realized with Burckhardt Compression technologies
We are awarded to deliver two process gas compressors for a pioneer import terminal in Rotterdam. The imported green ammonia will be cracked to obtain hydrogen. The two compressors are needed to purify the residual gas after the cracking process which contains around 12 percent of remaining hydrogen. As a result, the overall hydrogen output will increase by 10%. The project is an important infrastructure foundation for the energy transition in Europe.