CRI WINS ENERGY GLOBE WORLD AWARD 2021
CRI has been recognised once again for the progress we have achieved in increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our Emissions-to-Liquids (ETL) technology is the winner of the Energy Globe World Award in the ‘Air’ category.
The Energy Globe Awards are the world’s most prestigious awards for sustainability, with projects submitted from over 180 countries. The Award categories this year were ‘Earth’, ‘Fire’, ‘Water’, ‘Air’, ‘Youth’ and ‘Sustainable Start-up.’ Their aim is to highlight and promote the many feasible solutions being created for environmental issues.
CRI’s ETL technology was submitted as it is a proven solution to the challenge of reducing CO₂ emissions, capturing CO₂ from industrial waste streams and converting it into renewable methanol. This is now technically feasible and being implemented at scale.
Renewable methanol is a clean and sustainable liquid fuel that fits very well with current infrastructure as it is cheaper to handle than gases or batteries. It has an important role to play in decarbonising heavy goods transport, marine transport and aviation. Renewable methanol will also help the chemical industry reduce its use of fossil fuels. Methanol is already used to produce a wide range of products, from plastic bottles to building materials, and is currently derived mostly from coal, oil and natural gas. The global methanol market is forecast to grow to 500 million tonnes per annum by 2050.
CRI have overcome some significant challenges during the development of its ETL technology into a proven solution. CO₂ can now be captured and purified from differing waste streams and by-products across different industries. Renewable energy sources – used to produce hydrogen by electrolysis – commonly fluctuate, but ETL safely follows varying load. It is scalable and modular, making it applicable to diverse locations and industrial plants. Crucially, it presents a small environmental footprint, operates stably and with low energy consumption.
Now proven at an industrial scale, CRI’s ETL technology is enabling project partners to construct renewable methanol plants in China and Europe, that will each reduce emissions by more than 150,000 tonnes per annum of CO₂.
CRI’s CEO Ingolfur Gudmundsson commented:
“We are proud of the recognition that this prestigious award brings. It motivates us further in our efforts to bring climate friendly technology solutions to global markets.”
The Energy Globe Awards are held annually at a prestigious ceremony and past presenters have included Kofi Annan and Mikhail Gorbachev. This year, due to travel restrictions, we were delighted to receive the award at our Head Office in Reykjavik.
For more information about the Energy Globe Awards, see:
Ingólfur Guðmundsson, CRI’s CEO receives the Energy Globe Trophy and prize money on behalf of the company for the virtual awards ceremony.