Fraunhofer IPA and University of Stuttgart compare efficiency of electroplating operations

Where are the electroplating companies in Germany? What can companies improve and how sustainable are they? A benchmarking study for electroplating plants by the University of Stuttgart and Fraunhofer IPA provides some answers.

A few weeks ago, the project "Benchmarks for the Comparable Assessment of the Energy and Resource Efficiency of Electroplating Plants" (BenG) was completed. Initial trends show how electroplating companies in Germany are faring. The aim was to record and process the energy consumption and resource use of a large number of electroplating companies. Up to now, the electroplating companies themselves have often not known how high the average energy and resource consumption is in the industry, nor how they compare with other companies. "In addition to quantitative data, we also asked qualitative questions, such as whether there is an energy management system, which energy efficiency measures have already been implemented in recent years or whether the company generates its own energy, be it with photovoltaics, solar thermal energy or a combined heat and power unit," reports Dr Ekrem Köse, who was involved in the project as a research assistant at the Institute for Energy Efficiency in Production at the University of Stuttgart.

In order to make the different electroplating processes comparable with each other, the researchers used so-called correction factors. One of the results is that solar thermal energy and photovoltaics reduce CO2 emissions, but combined heat and power plants have a much greater impact. The simultaneous generation of electricity and heat, especially if you can use the electricity yourself and feed little into the grid, saves a lot of CO2. In electroplating plants, there is very often a high demand for electricity and heat at the same time. If you also use renewable energy sources such as biogas or - in the future - hydrogen, you gain twice as much. All the companies involved benefit from such a benchmarking project. That is why it should also continue for the electroplating industry.