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Environmental Prize awarded to R744 development |
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Konvekta founder, Carl H. Schmitt, and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Köhler, from the University of Braunschweig, received on Sunday 28 October Europe's most renowned distinction for environmental protection. Their long-time work on CO2-based air conditioning is at the basis of key changes in the industry. |
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2007-10-30 |
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In a ceremony broadcast live on German TV channel 3sat, the German Environmental Award 2007 was given to 4 key experts for their work on climate protection. Together with international climate research and emissions reductions in the city of Heidelberg, R744 Technology was at the centre of the event held in Aachen.
Reactions: origins and future potential of R744
Konvekta founder and CEO, Carl H. Schmitt, commented on early developments on CO2 Technology. He admitted that investing in R744 in the early 90's "meant a financial risk, but we believed it could be a good solution already by that time." He went on to congratulate the team in Konvekta who made this development possible.
Concerning the prospects of the refrigerant, Schmitt believed that a higher initial investment required by CO2 is still perceived as the main obstacle. The American market was mentioned as key for a global adoption of a new refrigerant: "In the U.S., the issue of climate change has been a relatively new priority since only one year. We have therefore asked Al Gore to support the adoption of natural refrigerants, and he committed to study the issue in depth."
Jürgen Köhler, former Development Manager at Konvekta, and currently the Director of the Institute for Thermodynamics of the Technical University (TU) Braunschweig, referred to all other applications where CO2 has the potential to become the standard refrigerant: "In supermarkets, switching to CO2 can improve the efficiency by 10-20%, and the prospects are also very promising in heat pumps. We will keep investigating different applications for CO2 Technology, since it has an enormous potential," he concluded.
Schmitt and Köhler praised the VDA decision last summer to adopt CO2 as a refrigerant for the next-generation mobile A/C systems, which could have important knock-on effects for the adoption of the technology in other segments. As it was pointed out during the presentation, replacing current applications using chemical blends with natural refrigerants could save a total of 4% of global emissions.
German President expects Kyoto successor
Horst Köhler, Germany's Federal President, was scheduled to personally present the awards, although he was finally unable to attend due to mechanical airplane problems.
In his official statement, however, he congratulated the winners for their contribution to climate protection. He also urged world leaders to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol at the upcoming international climate change conference in December in Bali. "The threats presented by climate change make it clearer than any other issue that there is no reasonable alternative to cooperation in global politics in the 21st century", President Köhler concluded.
Background
This year's prize has been awarded to 4 different experts with a long career working to provide solutions to global warming. The award to Schmitt & Köhler for their work on CO2 Technology was also shared with:
- Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel. He is one of the key figures of current climate change research, and leading part of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), providing intelligence to the UN and governments worldwide.
- Beate Weber, Heidelberg's former mayor and a pioneer in communal environmental politics, who helped Heidelberg reduce its CO2 emissions by 35 percent in the mid-1990s.
With 500,000 EUR, the German Environmental Award is Europe's highest-endowed Environmental Prize. Previous winners include Klaus Töpfer, former Head of the UN Environmental Programme, and Paul J. Crutzen, later winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for his research on the ozone hole.
More information:
Read the R744.com Interview with Prof. Dr. Köhler
See the profiles of Carl H. Schmitt & Jürgen Köhler
More about the Institute of Thermodynamics in our Services Section
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