Kanthal Award donation

Sunfire, based in Dresden, Germany, won the award for developing a process that converts regenerative power, carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into synthetic gas or a crude oil substitute (e-Crude). According to Sunfire, this innovative process has the potential to satisfy the key need for CO2-neutral transportation fuels in aid of the sustainable society of tomorrow.

The Kanthal Award was announced at a special ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, in October and includes a prize of €5,000, a statuette and a diploma. However, the prize of €5,000 is not for the winner to keep, and was instead to be donated by Sunfire to a charitable organisation that supports the same criteria upon which the Kanthal Award is based: sustainability, health and safety.

Sunfire decided to donate its award to atmosfair. Headquartered in Bonn, Germany, atmosfair actively protects the climate by compensating greenhouse gases through the use of renewable energies. The donation ceremony was held at atmosfair’s offices in Berlin, Germany, on 20 November 2017.

“We would like to use the Kanthal Award donation to set up an application, to communicate with airlines and end users that there is a real solution out there for climate compensation. With €100, you can compensate for a trip from London to New York and back,” said Dr. Dietrich Brockhagen, founder and CEO, atmosfair gGmbH.

“It doesn’t matter for the atmosphere where in the world you do the climate compensation, that’s why we can use donations for climate compensations in setting up renewable projects or small biogas plants for farmers in Kenya, solar plant systems for families in Ethiopia or energy efficient cook stoves for families in Rwanda.”
Nils Aldag, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Sunfire GmbH, added: “Sunfire has developed a solution which, in the future, could potentially reduce CO2 emissions in the aviation sector.

“There is a perfect match between the atmosfair and Sunfire organizations and I think the spirit of we receiving an award and then dedicating it to another great idea basically multiplies the joy of winning the Kanthal® Award.”       

The Kanthal Award is a yearly event and has now been awarded three times.

The first winner in 2015 was the ArcelorMittal Desvres site, in France, for its use of furnace rollers without water cooling. In 2016, the winner was Proton Power Inc, USA for its green and clean energy supply.