Minister praises machinery partners’ progress on green hydrogen
Germany’s Economics and Climate Protection Minister Mona Neubaur has visited textiles finisher EVT to get a first-hand view of how the textile industry is adapting to a changing landscape and hear an update on how green hydrogen is being tested as an energy source for textiles finishing.
The three-year WasserSTOFF project, launched in November 2022, is sponsored by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and also includes machinery maker Monforts, industrial partners Pleva and NTB Nova Textil, and has academic input from the Hochschule Niederrhein and the Technical University of Freiberg.
The project will first involve tests on laboratory equipment and the results will then be transferred to a stenter frame at the Monforts Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Germany.
Monforts managing director Gunnar Meyer said: “Green hydrogen’s potential as a clean fuel source is tremendous, but there is much we need to explore when considering its use in the textile finishing processes carried out globally on our stenter dryers and other machines.
“Everybody knows that textile finishing is a high energy consuming process and to make the processes more efficient, we already offer several solutions, but as a technology leader we are also rising to the challenge of exploring alternative heating options to be ready for the future.”
ETV’s relative proximity to the Monforts headquarters in Mönchengladbach makes it an ideal site for the WasserSTOFF project.
ETV managing director Dirk Tunney said: “The project for a hydrogen-powered coating stenter frame is very suitable for our region. Germany’s textile industry has a long tradition and with more than 1,400 companies, is not unimportant to the country, but without support from politics, both ideologically and financially, something like this cannot be done.
“If we want decarbonisation, paths must be identified and funds made available. We absolutely have to remain open to technology in order to position ourselves in the best possible way. Otherwise it will result in deindustrialisation, which none of us want.”
Ms Neubaur added: “Innovative ideas strengthen our competitiveness and make a significant contribution to becoming the first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe. Green hydrogen will play an important role in this and I am very pleased that through companies like ETV and Monforts and their partners, we are now moving quickly from preparation to action.”
Image: Mona Neubaur (third left), with members of the ETV and Monforts management teams, including Dirk Tunney (far left) and Gunnar Meyer (far right). Image courtesy ETV.
