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Industrial company to invest 50 million euros in Bielefeld

The industrial company "Sauerstoffwerk Friedrichshafen" is having a modern air separation plant built at its Bielefeld site. It is scheduled to go into operation at the beginning of 2020.

The new plant breaks the air down into its components nitrogen, oxygen and the noble gas argon, which together account for over 99 percent of the air. The remainder is comprised of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and various noble gases. The gases are liquefied and filled into vacuum containers at the end of the process. A total of 90 million cubic meters of gases will be produced and shipped each year at the 33,000 square meter site in Bielefeld.

The customers of "Sauerstoffwerk Friedrichshafen" (SWF) are craft enterprises as well as industry, food industry, medicine and pharmaceutical companies. "After all, gases are everywhere," explains Managing Director Ulrich Hämmerle. "They are needed in hospitals, for chip bags, cheese packaging, yoghurt cartons or in fish farms. The new plant makes the company economically independent of other companies.

SWF is investing 50 million euros in the new plant. The company dates back to Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who wanted to generate hydrogen for the operation of his airships. Today, SWF supplies around 35,000 customers in Germany and abroad.