At an award ceremony in Düsseldorf on November 23rd, MAN Energy Solutions won the 16th German Sustainability Award as one of the winners in the ‘Mechanical and Plant Engineering’ company category. In its statement, the adjudicating jury emphasised the company’s “particularly effective, exemplary contributions to the transformation, thereby setting an example and sending the right signals to its industry and beyond.”
MAN Energy Solutions offers technologies for eliminating so-called 'unavoidable residual emissions', that is, CO2 emissions that cannot easily be saved or replaced. As an example, the production of cement releases a large amount of carbon dioxide, making this industry alone responsible for around 8% of global emissions. Technology from MAN Energy Solutions makes it possible to separate and capture this CO2 during the production process, stopping its escape into the atmosphere. MAN technology is also used in the decarbonisation of shipping, energy and heat generation, and in the chemical industry.
Martin Oetjen, COO of MAN Energy Solutions, said: “We work for key global industries that contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions, but are difficult to decarbonise. Our product portfolio and our new solutions enable us and our customers to have a significant impact on the global energy transition and thus the decarbonisation of the world.”
Technologies for a climate-neutral future
One of MAN Energy Solutions’ globally acclaimed applications is large industrial heat pumps for decarbonising heat supply, which can be used to supply industrial plants or even entire cities with climate-neutral heating and cooling. In the Danish city of Esbjerg, the company is currently commissioning two heat pumps that will eventually supply 25,000 households with green heat. The plant will replace a coal-fired power station and save 120,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
It is also developing large engines for ships and power plants that can run on synthetic fuels, such as methanol, ammonia and synthetic natural gas (SNG). Danish shipping company, A.P. Møller-Maersk, recently commissioned the world's first container ship powered by MAN B&W engines and fuelled by green methanol. Currently more than 150 MAN methanol engines are ordered by customers. If all of these engines will run on green methanol, they have the potential to save a total of almost 12 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
The Augsburg-based company is also setting important milestones for climate protection in the cement industry. In 2024, the world's first plant for the capture of CO2 from cement production will go into operation in Brevik, Norway. This will enable the operator, Heidelberg Materials, to reduce its plant emissions by over 400,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, corresponding to the annual CO2 emissions of over 200,000 cars.
German Sustainability Award
The German Sustainability Award is organised by the German Sustainability Award Foundation in cooperation with the DIHK, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, and other partners.
The award is the most comprehensive, national sustainability competition with over 5,000 companies researched and assessed for its purposes. From this pool, 150 jurors from the fields of research, industry associations, consulting and civil society selected “pioneers of sustainability” in 100 sectors of the German economy. From the experts' point of view, these companies are pioneers of sustainable transformation within the German economy.
