Gas technologies with a future

The company premises of Messer Schweiz AG are located just outside the small town of Lenzburg, slightly hidden between the main road and the forest in an idyllic hollow through which the Aabach flows. It was here that the Cartonfabrik Lenzburg was founded in 1891. In 1911, it began producing oxygen, which led to the company being renamed "Sauerstoffwerk Lenzburg AG" in 1961. The Messer company came into the picture in 1971; the cooperation with this German family business - the largest owner-managed industrial gases company in the world, nota bene - finally culminated in 2003 in the complete takeover of the company shares and the renewed change of name to Messer Schweiz AG in 2005. Under this name, the company is one of the leading suppliers of industrial gases in Switzerland. Its customers are industrial companies, hospitals and research institutes. The main gases supplied are nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrogen, helium and gas mixtures. Today, Messer Schweiz AG employs over 100 people.

CO2 recycling for mineral water
A rather recent "hobbyhorse" of Messer Switzerland is the recycling of the greenhouse gas CO2. In cooperation with its subsidiary Asco Kohlensäure AG in Romanshorn, a pilot plant has been developed with which carbon dioxide can be recovered from combustion processes. This process is much more economical than sourcing CO2 from abroad, explains Dr. Hans Michael Kellner, Managing Director of Messer Schweiz AG. "The CO2 market is interesting: there is a great demand for this gas, particularly in the summer - just in the season when refineries are servicing their plants." The high demand in summer comes from the beverage industry, which needs the CO2 for its drinks. This means that there are regular supply bottlenecks - "which is always a strain on us and our customers," Kellner continues. The pilot plant is now running at production capacity, and Messer Schweiz AG is already supplying well-known customers with the CO2 produced on it. "It is supplied in food quality, in accordance with the well-known "Coca-Cola specification". And this means that we can easily close the aforementioned summer gap. The pilot plant can also cover our own requirements during this period. Nevertheless, we are considering the construction of a larger plant," says Hans Michael Kellner.

And again and again: regulations everywhere you look
Whenever a new development is to be put into practice, rules and regulations must be fulfilled. Hans Michael Kellner can also tell you a thing or two about this. He explains: "At first we wanted to set up the pilot plant here on the site in Lenzburg, because we operate a plant here for the production of hydrogen, which emits a lot of CO2 in a purity that could be put to good use. However, the official requirements were so great that they exceeded the value of the plant. We are located in the countryside; we have forests and a river; the distances have to be observed. During the clarifications, the law was changed three times! We also have high-voltage power lines in the immediate vicinity, sewage pipes, etc.. All this would have meant that we would have had to destroy the plant in such a way that its operation would never have been worthwhile. Fortunately, we were able to find a partner with whom we could install the plant after all - and this in the immediate vicinity of the largest purchasers, so that transport costs could be saved".

In principle, the managing director of Messer Schweiz AG experiences the cooperation with the authorities as positive. However, he also notes that there is not always coordination between the authorities. He knows from experience that there are regulations that sometimes contradict each other. "Some laws overlap. According to one regulation, you are not allowed to do something that is actually required by another regulation. At some point you're caught between a chair and a bench, because we want to do everything right." But for a company that deals with a large number of different gases - some of them completely harmless, others flammable - dealing with rules and regulations is, as it were, daily bread.

Safety and quality thanks to high expertise
Quality and safety are a top priority in Lenzburg. In addition, Messer Schweiz AG also offers seminars for customers, where the correct handling of gases is trained. These safety seminars are now well attended - by representatives from all industries, especially as they also attach great importance to safety. "When employees receive practical training - pictures and live experiences are better remembered, as we all know - then this is also safer for them. We also provide proof in the form of a certificate that employees have received appropriate training in the handling of gases - this is also required by the ISO 9001 standard," says Hans Michael Kellner. It goes without saying that Messer Schweiz AG is also certified to ISO 9001. And if you look around the company premises, you never get the impression that there is a latent danger everywhere. This is closely linked to the high level of expertise of the staff - the pride and joy of the company. The longest-serving employees have been with the company for several decades. And if savings ever had to be made, it would certainly not be in personnel, emphasizes Hans Michael Kellner. "We don't make redundancies for operational reasons because our people are very specialised. Our industry is very specialized. We do everything we can to promote and develop our employees and to impart know-how. It would be a big waste to lay people off in difficult economic times and then, when the economy picks up again, to hire new people whose training would take us around two years to bring them up to the necessary level of knowledge. That's why we always look at other options first."

The fuel from exhaust gas
Even though industrial gases may not be particularly "sexy" as products, they nevertheless form the basis for various innovations. One keyword in this context is hydrogen, which Messer Schweiz AG produces itself in its own cracker in Lenzburg. Together with EMPA and the Paul Scherrer Institute, the company is working on the further development of hydrogen engines. Hans Michael Kellner sees hydrogen propulsion as one alternative among many - just like electric propulsion. He points out that the topic of "hydrogen" should be seen in a broader context. Once again he mentions CO2: "With CO2 you can methanate, with methane you have natural gas and thus the fuel. In other words, waste is ultimately turned into a fuelled vehicle. The whole of Europe has now jumped on this bandwagon. If this works like with the electric car, then hydrogen will also become a very interesting medium", believes Hans Michael Kellner. And also in other respects he assesses the economic prospects of the company as not bad. Without industrial gases, many things in Switzerland would come to a standstill. One need only think of the hospitals and their supply of oxygen. Many hospitals are currently investing in the renewal of their supply systems. Messer Switzerland can also play an important role here. "We supply gases, but also everything to do with gas. We are therefore also responsible for all the "hardware" and its installation. That's why we have our own engineering department," explains Hans Michael Kellner. The fact that there is a kind of investment boom right now is no coincidence. "Many of the materials we use come from Germany. There we naturally benefit from a low purchase price, which we also pass on to our customers." But on the other hand, Messer Switzerland also felt the effects of the abolition of the fixed euro- franc exchange rate. This is because export-oriented companies have had to cut back on some of their production, and as a result the demand for industrial gases has also fallen. But overall, Messer Schweiz AG is positioned in such a way that there is always an area in which there is sufficient demand and therefore also profit.