As a member of econsense, the German business forum for sustainable development, Bosch invited representatives from politics, business, and civil society to the Bosch representative office in Berlin to discuss technological developments aimed at cutting the carbon dioxide emissions that are transforming the world’s climate. Of the 3.3 billion euros in total that Robert Bosch GmbH invested in research and development in 2006, around 40 percent was spent on products designed to protect the environment and conserve resources.
The heating market is currently undergoing a technological change that began in 2005. Heinrich Hermann Schulte, former executive vice president of Bosch Buderus Thermotechnik GmbH, spoke about alternative heat technologies over the past 10 years. He explained that 2005 saw unit sales for conventional oil- and natural gas-fired boilers sink to an all-time low, while unit sales for alternative technologies such as solar collectors and heat pumps began to soar in the same year. This development is inextricably linked to the realization among end customers that conventional heating systems are becoming increasingly expensive. As a result, future technological progress is moving in two new directions: Energy efficiency and renewable energies. The current technological revolution goes hand in hand with the replacement of fossil fuels by biofuels. According to one forecast, the use of renewable energy systems could start to overtake the use of their conventional rivals from 2012. Bosch Thermotechnology sees the greatest potential for minimizing CO2 emissions in both system solutions that also incorporate the shell of the building – including insulation and windows – and individual immediate approaches such as greater use of condensing technology and solar energy. For this reason, development models should not be limited to individual energy technologies but instead focus on overall efficiency. Schulte believes that the building energy certificate will become a key measurement tool in this work.
In terms of automotive technology, technological development is focused on safety, eco-friendliness, and cost-efficiency. Bosch’s 3S Program has been leading the way in research and development at the company since the 1970’s. Richard Aumayer from External Affairs at Robert Bosch GmbH explained which technologies the 3S Program will be using to drive down CO2 emissions even further in the future. He claimed that engine-based approaches such as downsizing combined with turbocharging, improved gasoline direct injection combined with a new combustion process, and cylinder deactivation combined with electrohydraulic valve control will help achieve CO2 savings of 10 to 17 percent. Drivetrain technologies and auxiliary systems such as a regenerative braking system, a start-stop system, and thermal management in the cooling system could also lead to further cuts of between 3 and 4 percent. Hybrid systems that operate both an internal combustion engine and electric motor enable CO2 emissions to be reduced by 15 to 25 percent. Taking a middle-class car with a gasoline engine and two liters of engine displacement as an example, Richard Aumayer demonstrated that a combination of different technologies can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 40 percent, from 185 grams to 105 grams. In fact, technological progress has come so far that, if all the vehicles in Germany were just one year younger, the effect on cutting CO2 emissions would be equivalent to that of 4 million new vehicles with an emissions value of 130 grams per kilometer.
