The specialty chemicals company will use hydrogen instead of natural gas to dry its iron oxide pigments. This will make the spray dryer one of the first large-scale industrial plants in Germany to use hydrogen as a fuel in continuous operation. The hydrogen is produced during chlorine electrolysis at the neighboring Covestro plant and transported directly to the LANXESS plant via a pipeline. “Switching from a natural gas burner to a hydrogen burner is a significant technological step towards low-greenhouse-gas processes,” says Michael Ertl, Head of the Inorganic Pigments business unit at LANXESS. LANXESS installed the hydrogen burner at the end of 2025 and has gradually brought it online since then.