Kelvion receives the 2015 French-German Economy Award

The 2015 French-German Economy Award was presented, beginning of December, at a ceremony held in the Pavilion Gabriel on the Champs-Élysées, to six winners for their exemplary French-German collaboration in activities involving industry, environment, innovation, human resources, and start-up ventures.

The awards ceremony was attended by more than 400 French and German leaders at the Pavilion Gabriel in Paris in the presence of Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society; Matthias Fekl, French Minister of State for Foreign Trade; and Iris Gleicke, German Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, and Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States, with responsibility for SMEs and tourism.

Kelvion, formerly GEA Batignolles Technologies, won the award for the Innovation category, in recognition of its collaboration with Technip and Wieland in a project involving their innovative DIESTA finned tubes. From 200 candidates, the award for Innovation to the joint venture of Kelvion, Technip, and Wieland is the successful result of strong industrial development toward energy efficiency and optimization in LNG production. It is also based on participation of industrial and academic leaders in the project: most notably, Total, Ademe, and Armines on the French side, and Kassel University on the German side. Kelvion was shortlisted with another German corporate group, BASF, in the category for Innovation and New Technologies.

DIESTA, short for “dual internally and externally structured tube for air coolers,” is an innovative finned tube technology that applies enhanced surfaces. It was developed for dedicated applications in air-cooled heat exchangers, especially in the field of natural gas liquefaction. For use in LNG plants, it offers improvement in heat exchange efficiency of up to 20 %, reduction in CO2 emissions by lowering specific fuel gas consumption, and increase in LNG production as a result of power savings achieved.

This award acknowledges Kelvion excellence and innovation, as well as close French-German collaboration.