LPG is an insurance policy.

One that the Mainz-based company Schott hopes not to need, and in which it is still investing a two-digit million amount.

Because one can hope and advertise to the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Ministry of Economics that the natural gas tap will not be turned off when it does get scarce in winter.

But you don't want to be too sure in Mainz.

Too much depends on your own production running 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Anna Lena Niemann

Editor in the “Technology and Engine” department.

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Schott manufactures special glasses in which medicines and pharmaceuticals are packaged.

The major Covid vaccination campaigns of the past year would have been unthinkable without such glasses.

According to Schott alone, in 2021 glass vials for more than five billion corona vaccinations left its production halls.

The next vaccination rounds are scheduled for this autumn.

But the country and the companies that are supposed to keep it running are also dealing with an energy crisis.

Energy-intensive production

Vaccines, like all medicines, are created along a complex supply chain that requires various preliminary products, including those from the glass, paper and chemical industries.

"With this level of complexity, it is difficult to predict where the 'bottleneck' could be," says Hans-Georg Feldmeier, who chairs the German Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry.

What is clear, however, is that glass manufacturers in particular could get into trouble if the gas crisis worsens.

Their production is extremely energy-intensive, even if one is reluctant to give precise consumption figures for competitive reasons.

"Our gas supply is secured by long-term contracts for the coming months," says a spokesman for Schott.

Nevertheless, we try to prepare

to procure liquefied gas in case of doubt and to set up the appropriate infrastructure for this.

This is not only expensive, but also risky, as Schott says.

Producing special glass is a sensitive process.

Natural gas is and remains the most important source of energy, so that the special glasses can be manufactured without deviations.

So far, this has only been possible with green hydrogen in pilot projects.

Temperatures of more than 1,500 degrees Celsius always prevail in the glass manufacturer's melting furnaces, which are the size of a family home.

If the temperature deviates by just ten degrees, the glasses could blister or crack.

The tubs cannot be turned off either.

Should the gas supply fail, which Schott is not currently assuming, this means that the temperature will drop and the glass will solidify.

It would be a technical and economic total loss, according to the company.

For pharmaceuticals, such as the sensitive mRNA vaccines, the active ingredient and primary packaging must always be approved together.

Because of the packaging, the supply of vaccines is dependent on the energy-intensive glass production continuing.

In order to fill the vaccine in plastic, for example, a new approval procedure would be needed.

And from the Gerresheimer company, which forms the vials for vaccines from the preliminary products from Schott, it is said that plastic could break at temperatures of minus 70 degrees, at which the corona vaccines have to be stored.

They are therefore counting on the fact that the supplier from Mainz will ensure that the supply of so-called tubular glass is secured.

At least the borosilicate glass, which has proven itself in medicine and pharmacy for more than 100 years.

It is resistant to chemicals and temperatures, quite resistant to breakage and shattering.

The glasses are now additionally coated on the inside so that the active ingredients cannot interact with the glass.

In addition, no glass particles, no matter how fine, must get into the liquid.

Otherwise it can be dangerous for the patient.

"We believe that we can get away with the conventional natural gas plan," says Schott's spokesman.

Nevertheless, one does not do without an “absolute back-up scenario”.

If every droplet of vaccine counts, then so does every vial of special glass.