Technological innovations are key to the long-term success of our Engineering Division in a globally competitive environment. The central research and development (R&D) department supports the units responsible for each type of plant in making constant improvements to their processes. In order to measure its own performance, this department has devised Key Performance Indicators (Glossary) (KPIs): e.g. for competitiveness, the use of resources, the ability to cooperate with others, contacts both internal and external, and the capacity to innovate, as well as quality, safety and environmental protection. In future, indicators will also be adopted for eco-friendly process technologies.

All the companies in the Engineering Division have their own suggestion scheme which awards prizes for outstanding ideas. A centralised patent department ensures that Linde’s rights to innovative technical solutions are protected at an early stage.

The Engineering Division spent a total of EUR 31m on research and development activities in the 2008 financial year (2007: EUR 29m). Most of these funds are applied to the development of new and existing technologies for the following product lines: air separation plants, olefin plants, natural gas plants and hydrogen plants as well as synthesis gas and adsorption plants.

Given the scarcity of conventional energy sources, our development activities are continuing to focus on investigating alternative ways of supplying raw materials. Especially important here is the impact that the processes have on the climate and on the environment. Particularly in industrial nations such as Germany, but also in fast-growing economies such as China, coal-fired power stations are very important for maintaining energy supplies in the medium term. For this reason, we have continued to pursue our clean coal activities in the energy sector in the 2008 financial year. Linde has, for example, entered into a technology partnership with Vattenfall Europe Technology Research GmbH, a subsidiary of the Vattenfall Energy Group, to continue to drive forward CO₂ capture from coal-fired power stations. In 2008, the coal-fired oxyfuel pilot power station in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany, for which we built an air separation plant and a CO₂ liquefaction plant, was officially inaugurated by Vattenfall.

One of the main aims of our research and development activities is to reduce waste gases which damage the climate and the environment. To protect the environment, the maximum permissible limits for emissions of pollutants discharged into the atmosphere are being reduced worldwide. The same applies to nitrogen oxides (NO_x), which can cause acid rain. As a result of increasing technological requirements, especially with regard to the upgrading of existing plants, our Engineering Division is working together with partners from science and industry to develop a new system to denitrify fumes, which could potentially be applied, for example, in the cracking furnaces of olefin plants. Instead of the ammonia used in conventional DeNOx stages, the new concept uses a non-toxic reducing agent for the catalytic reduction (Glossary) of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen. Unlike conventional systems, this process can easily be used even at the temperatures at which fumes are normally discharged, of 100 to 150°C.

In addition to coal, there are other raw materials which will be available to replace oil, with different time horizons for use. One completely new source which may be used in the distant future is methane hydrates. These are interstitial compounds (clathrates), in which water molecules surround methane, a guest gas, in an ice-like structure. To form methane hydrate, high pressure and low temperatures are required. It is suspected that huge quantities of methane hydrate exist in the maritime continental slopes and in permafrost soils. It is estimated that the energy this could produce exceeds that which can be produced from conventional coal, oil and natural gas reserves worldwide. Against this background, 30 partners from science and industry have joined forces, under the aegis of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel in Germany, in order to discover new ways of using underwater hydrate deposits. This research forms part of the joint SUGAR (SUbmarine GAs hydrate Resources) project funded by the German government. The objective is to develop a complete methane hydrate infrastructure, starting with the exploration of deposits in marine sediments, then moving to the extraction of those deposits while at the same time sequestering carbon dioxide and, finally, transporting the fuel to the centres of consumption. Our Engineering Division is working together with partners on the sub-project “Gas hydrate transport in pellet form”.

Given the need for sustainable energy supplies which do not harm the climate or the environment, the efficient use of biogenic sources of raw materials is becoming increasingly important. We have therefore embarked on a development project in the field of adsorption technology and are working on an efficient process to separate CO₂ from biogas (Glossary) (biogas upgrading). In this process, methane is extracted from waste material from various organic sources (e.g. sewage sludge, waste products from the food industry and slurry) for use in energy production. Using a pressure swing adsorption process, the methane produced is of such quality that it can be fed directly into supply networks or used in internal combustion engines (fuel grade methane, FGM). The conversion of the biogas into FGM can take place in decentralised plants, which require only minimal investment and have low operating costs.

In 2008, we continued the work we began in the previous year on a thermal BTH (Biomass To Hydrogen) process for the production of hydrogen from biomass waste. The process is currently being implemented in the form of a prototype production plant for Hydromotive GmbH & Co. KG in Leuna, Germany, to meet the demand for liquefied hydrogen for demonstration projects in the automobile sector.

Our R&D activities are also focusing on increasing the energy efficiency of processes. This is an approach we adopt for all our product lines, but most particularly for air separation plants. The adsorptive extraction of oxygen and nitrogen offers a viable alternative to conventional cryogenic processes in this field, especially for smaller product streams. By continuing to develop these processes, we have reached new milestones, both in terms of plant size and in terms of the product purity we are able to obtain. The new generation of Linde O2-VPSA technology offers oxygen plants with product streams of up to over 6,000 scmh (standard cubic metres per hour). Compact plants with a capacity of up to around 2,000 scmh will be available in a container design.

We have developed a new plant concept for the production of the noble gases krypton and xenon, based on experience obtained from previous projects. The separation takes place – based on an enriched stream of liquefied krypton, xenon and oxygen from an air separation plant – in a sequence of adsorptive and distillative purification steps. Both noble gases are extracted from the air and are used, for example, in lighting and laser technology. We plan to build the first plant based on this concept in 2009 in Beilun, China, for Linde Gas Ningbo.