Heraeus Precious Metals, a leading company in the precious metals industry, has been awarded first place in the prestigious German Award for Sustainability Projects 2024 (Deutscher Award für Nachhaltigkeitsprojekte 2024). With its project, the development of the world's first electric chamber furnace, the company is setting new standards in sustainable precious metal recycling.
The German Award for Sustainability Projects honors companies and organizations that promote sustainable projects and are committed to the environment and society. It is awarded under the patronage of Brigitte Zypries, former Federal Minister of Economics, by the German Institute for Service Quality in co-operation with the news channel ntv and the DUP Unternehmer. Taking into account the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, a renowned jury from business, science and politics honors the best projects in 29 categories.
Heraeus Precious Metals won in the ‘Technology - Energy’ category with its innovation, the world's first electrically powered chamber furnace for precious metal recycling. Until now, chamber furnaces, in which materials containing precious metals are thermally processed have been heated with fossil fuels. Together with a manufacturer, the project team has developed an electrically powered chamber furnace, thereby significantly reducing the dependence of recycling processes on natural gas. In addition, around 60 percent of the energy used can be recovered via the connected exhaust gas treatment. In total, around 570 tons of CO2e and 2.25 million kilowatt hours of energy are saved each year. The furnace is currently being built and is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2024.