The audience at the WTO meeting last week in Geneva included representatives for 17 countries plus 28 countries of the European Union.    

The Fluid Sealing Association's Technical Director, Henri Azibert, presented to this audience on the issue of the effectiveness of sealing devices in containing methane emissions.  Other presenters included Professor Alexander Riedl of Muenster University in Germany, John Morton of John Crane and the European Sealing Association's Vice Chair, and David Edwin-Scott, ESA's Technical Director.   

The "Environmental Goods" agreement is a project sponsored by the World Trade Organization to eliminate trade barriers and export tariffs for goods that are beneficial to the environment. The unimpeded international trade of such goods would lead to their greater use, and therefore to a cleaner environment.  The FSA presentation explained that sealing products, which are used to seal all types of equipment used in the production industrial products and thus contain harmful emissions, would fall under that category.

One of the oldest sealing devices, compression packing is still very common in modern industries such as oil and gas, petrochemical, agriculture, pulp and paper, power generation, and mining. Compression packing is made from a range of soft and pliable fibrous yarn materials - from vegetable and animal fiber to many high-performance synthetic fibers. Most compression packing is formed by braiding fibrous materials such as carbon, PTFE, graphite, aramid and acrylic yarns. Each braid structure - round, square or braid over braid - is unique and intended for specific performance.

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