1973:

Construction of the First Waste Water Treatment Plant

After energy costs rose sharply in the early 1970’s, leading in turn to an increase in environmental awareness, a growing market for environmental and energy technology came into existence. Linde Engineering reacted to the growing demand for environmental technology and developed, among other projects, plants for industrial and municipal waste water treatment.

The first Lindox plant, which used pure oxygen for biological waste water purification, was built in 1973 in Erding to the north-east of Munich. Linde built additional facilities for waste water purification in several major German cities, such as Munich, Nuremberg, Karlsruhe, Peine and Bremerhaven.

Over the ensuing decades, Linde also constructed environmental technology plants for waste treatment, water processing and exhaust gas and exhaust air purification. For example, in 1982 Linde turned over the world’s largest PSA hydrogen purification plant to Union Rheinische Braunkohlen Kraftstoff AG in Wesseling near Cologne. In 2007, the environmental technology plant division, which had been headquartered at the subsidiary Linde-KCA in Dresden was discontinued.