Jan 26, 2026 (MarketLine via COMTEX) --
The DREI project was awarded the Gold Prize in SNCF's TGV 2025 CSR Challenge for sustainable innovation.
The DREI project has been awarded the Gold Prize in the TGV 2025 CSR Challenge, the French railway operator SNCF’s national award for sustainable innovation. The project is led by Technicentre Est Européen (TEE), a technical centre within SNCF, in collaboration with SNCF’s Directorate of Industrial Operations (DOI) and Aerowash.
The award is given to initiatives that clearly contribute to SNCF’s sustainability goals through innovation, environmental benefit and industrial feasibility. The DREI project was named gold winner by the national jury after evaluating 15 finalist projects out of a total of 88 submissions from across the organization.
The project aims to develop a completely waterless solution for the exterior cleaning of trains, with the potential to eventually eliminate water consumption in the washing process. For SNCF, this corresponds to a potential annual water saving of up to 12 million liters.
Aerowash contributes with its commercially proven drywash technology, based on the company's solutions in the aerospace industry, which enables effective cleaning without water.
"We are very proud of this award. The fact that the DREI project is awarded gold not only represents strong recognition of our technology, but also that the project now receives increased strategic priority within SNCF. It strengthens the conditions for continued development, industrialization and future rollout. For Aerowash, this is an important step towards establishing our waterless cleaning technology as a new standard in the railway sector," says Niklas Adler, CEO of Aerowash.
The gold award strengthens the project's strategic importance and confirms Aerowash's role as an important partner in SNCF's long-term work for a more sustainable and resource-efficient railway.
The collaboration between Aerowash and SNCF was established in October 2025, when the parties signed a framework agreement for the development and delivery of a new environmentally friendly mobile train washing system. The agreement runs for five years with the possibility of extension and marks the start of a new business vertical for Aerowash in the train sector, with significant international potential and clear synergies with the company's existing aviation business.
Within the framework of the agreement, SNCF is financing the development of a first prototype with final tests planned in France in the spring of 2026. After tests have been completed, SNCF intends to order a number of systems for delivery to its depots.
DREI is an acronym for the French expression Désencrassage préservant la Ressource en Eau par l'Innovation, which translates to "innovative cleaning that preserves water resources".
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