Pioneering technology from Perlach - But innovation creates violent headwinds

In the Perlach industrial estate, the Freudenberg Group wants to develop drive systems of the future for heavy trucks and cruise ships. The plans are met with skepticism because there would have to be a novelty in Munich.

• The research and development of alternative drive technologies is in full swing.
• In Perlach, a company focused on fuel cells wants to expand its innovation center .
• However, there is headwind due to the looming heavy goods traffic .

Munich / Perlach - A cruise ship from whose chimney no toxic black smoke billows - thanks to a technology that was developed in Perlach : This could soon become a reality. The Freudenberg Group and its subsidiary Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) want to expand their innovation center at Unterbiberger Straße 53, which is already based in Munich.

Fuel cells for cruise ships and Flix buses

For this purpose, an expanded technology center with a gas farm is to be built in the decommissioned die casting plant, which was used by the ARRI cinema equipment supplier until January. Test laboratories are to be inserted into the hall as closed container modules. 50 to 60 employees are to develop a new generation of alternative energies with "zero emissions" here, said Freudenberg representative Tobias Umseher, who presented the project to the Perlach district committee. "We develop CO2-free drive systems for buses, heavy commercial vehicles and ships, especially cruise ships."

In an ocean-going passenger ship with a fuel cell system , according to the company, the pollutants of 1,000 cars are saved in one fell swoop. FST is already working with the largest German shipyard. The first tests with the AIDA-Nova, which is already underway with low-emission liquefied natural gas, are planned from 2021. The company also wants to cooperate with a well-known Bavarian bus and truck manufacturer. Environmentally friendly Freudenberg fuel cells are to be used in the vehicles of the long-distance bus operator Flixbus . The global company has an annual turnover of 9.4 billion euros.

Fuel cells from Munich-Perlach: worry about heavy goods traffic

For the

Development of fuel cells

the group needs several large tanks at the Perlach location: a 15 meter long methanol tank with a capacity of 100,000 liters will probably be installed horizontally. "It is the first methanol tank to be realized in Munich," said Umseher. A hydrogen tank could be of similar size, but possibly built upright and then with a base around 20 meters high. "Safety is the top priority," assures the AGVS representative. Tankers come to fill up about every two weeks.

The district politicians see this location's biggest problem as heavy traffic . Because the Perlach industrial area can only be reached via residential streets. "It won't work without a traffic concept," says BA boss Thomas Kauer (CSU). There are already big problems with the trucks to the recycling center and other companies in the industrial area.

With the car toll, Andreas Scheuer was slowed down - the transport minister is pushing the gas with his plan to advance a Bavarian mobility center - with many millions.

Carmen Ick-Dietl