Manuel Barth (center) with his supervisor at the company, Mr. Andreas Kopp (right), and with Prof. te Heesen (left). Copyright: Marco Rothbrust Photography/IHK Koblenz

Every year, the University Award of Business honors practice-oriented bachelor's, master's, and diploma theses and dissertations written in cooperation with a company from the district of the Koblenz Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). At this year's award ceremony, Manuel Barth, a bachelor's graduate at the Environmental Campus and a master's student in the "Environmentally Oriented Energy Technology" program, received one of three honorable mentions for his bachelor's thesis.

Mr. Manuel Barth's bachelor thesis, entitled "Creation of a concept for the energetic and economic optimization of the refrigeration supply at the Michelin plant in Bad Kreuznach", excellently illustrates how current issues of manufacturing industrial companies are answered under the rapidly changing requirements for increasing energy efficiency in the course of the energy transition. In his final thesis, Manuel Barth dealt with the complex topic of increasing efficiency in the use of process cooling in a highly concise and at the same time comprehensive manner. Furthermore, Mr. Barth has justified the central result of the bachelor thesis technically and economically with the highest scientific care. Therefore, the work is of extremely high value for the management of the Michelin plant to make a well-founded decision for the site's development. In addition, the results can be applied to other sites of Michelin Reifenwerke AG & Co. KGaA.