About ACAA

Champion Award

Tom Hendrix, Founder of the SEFA Group, has been selected as the ninth recipient of the ACAA Champion Award. The award was announced January 29, 2025, by ACAA Chairman John Halm at the Association’s Winter Meeting.

Hendrix received the award “for his lifetime dedication to CCPs’ beneficial use, support of the industry and development of technologies to improve the processing of byproducts, with an emphasis on harvesting resources from ash landfills,” Halm commented.

SEFA was founded in 1976 to market ash to the ready-mixed concrete and public utility industries in the Carolinas, one of many small businesses that started up during the period to address CCP materials that were being generated and landfilled, Halm noted. Over the next 47 years, the company expanded operations to support sales along the eastern seaboard and, at the same time, developed a process to beneficiate ash to meet market needs. This technology has proven to be particularly effective in ash landfill harvesting applications.

“Developing and commercializing his STAR technology was a true achievement for a relatively small company,” Halm said. “The hardest step in developing accepted technology is having a good idea and the conviction and perseverance to see it from concept to full commercialization. Tom personified this. While Tom relied on his staff, his continuous support and grit during a 20-year development period have resulted in tremendous results that I have had a unique opportunity to see firsthand,” he added.

Halm also noted that Hendrix has been a key contributor and supporter of the ACAA. “Tom didn’t seek the limelight but worked behind the scenes, supporting his staff to serve in many group functions, from the board of directors to the technical committee and now the incoming Chair,” Halm commented.

ACAA established the Champion Award in 2012 to recognize extraordinary contributions to the beneficial use of coal combustion products. The recipient is selected exclusively by the Chair of the ACAA Board of Directors and is known only to the Chair until the moment the presentation is made. The recipient may be an individual or individuals; an institution—private or public; a member of the ACAA or a non-member; living or deceased.

ACAA CHAMPION AWARD HONOREES

2012 – John Ward, ACAA Government Relations Committee Chairman

2013 – David Goss, former ACAA Executive Director

2014 – U.S. Representative David B. McKinley

2015 – USDA Agricultural Research Service

2017 – University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research

2018 – Bruce W. Ramme, WEC Energies Group

2020 – Charles Price, Charah Solutions

2022 – Lawrence L. Sutter, Michigan Technological University

2025 – Tom Hendrix, The SEFA Group