Energy transition and Industry 4.0 were important topics at the 2nd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium

The IOB organized the Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium for the second time. On Thursday, October 10 and Friday, October 11, 2019, more than 150 participants from science and industry gathered in Aachen to learn about and discuss the current state of research and development as well as the future tasks and challenges facing the industry. In addition to current developments in the field of industrial furnaces and heat treatment plants in general, the colloquium focused on the positioning of the industry in the context of the energy transition and issues relating to Industry 4.0 in furnace construction in conjunction with current developments in the field of measurement and control technology. The topics were covered in a total of 50 presentations, which, apart from the plenary lectures on Thursday morning, were organized in two parallel lecture series. The SuperC building at RWTH Aachen University once again proved to be an ideal venue with its two lecture halls on the top floor with an interesting view over the city.

“Innovative solutions for the future are expected from the industry, even if it is not the absolute focus of daily reporting. This concerns the topics of energy efficiency and low emissions from processes and systems regarding NOx, CO and especially CO2. The large number of presentations should make an appropriate contribution to this,” says Professor Dr.-Ing. Herbert Pfeifer, organizer of the colloquium. This was already reflected in the topics of the plenary lectures on Thursday morning. After an introductory lecture on “Energy transition in thermal process technology?” by Professor Pfeifer, Anna Feldman from the VDMA European Office reported on current developments in climate policy in the EU and Germany. This was followed by two presentations that discussed and presented more specific technical solutions. Professor Dr.-Ing. Marc Hölling reported on “Inductive billet preheating as a way of providing balancing energy” using the example of the ArcelorMittal Hamburg steelworks. This first block on the topic of the energy transition was concluded by Dr. Steffen Schirrmeister, who presented various options for “Power-to-X plants on a technical scale” from the perspective of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG. Further plenary lectures were given by Professor Dr.-Ing. Hans-Jürgen Odenthal from the SMS group and Professor Dr. Marcus Kirschen from the Fraunhofer Center for High Temperature Lightweight Construction HTL, both alumni of the IOB. In his lecture, Professor Odenthal described the current possibilities and limitations of flow simulation in metallurgical process engineering. Professor Kirschen presented thermal process technology and current research topics at the Fraunhofer Center for High-Temperature Lightweight Construction HTL and the University of Bayreuth.

The topic of the energy transition also played an important role in the rest of the lecture programme on Thursday afternoon and Friday, which was organized in two parallel sessions with 10 further presentations. The topics covered ranged from the developments required to achieve emission neutrality in industry by 2050, the tunnel kiln in the focus of the energy transition, potentials for CO2-neutral process heat generation for heating and annealing furnaces, the use of raw biogas, the combustion of pyrolysis oil and, more generally, the future heating of industrial furnaces.

Another focus of the presentations was on Industry 4.0 and the latest developments in the field of measurement and control technology. The presentation topics ranged from predictive maintenance for heat treatment furnaces and safe and networked automation of thermal processing systems to hybrid model-based optimization for firing and furnace systems, model-based control of a furnace and an inline process model for continuous heat treatment to the presentation of new or further developed measurement methods.

However, numerous other presentations were also given beyond these two subject areas. These ranged from optimized heat treatment processes, new furnace concepts or automated heat treatment concepts to the thermal pre-treatment of aluminium scrap and rotary kilns as well as shaft furnaces, cooling concepts and the properties of ceramic insulating materials. Numerous presentations from the colloquium can be accessed on the website. In addition, the elaborated contributions are summarized in a conference volume and available from the IOB.

The lecture program was accompanied by a small poster exhibition on current research projects. Here and during the breaks, participants had the opportunity to discuss detailed questions about industrial furnace construction and make new contacts.

In addition to the core of the colloquium, the lecture program, the event was rounded off by a get-together the evening before and an evening event in the ballroom of the old Kurhaus of the city of Aachen. The get-together on Wednesday evening offered the opportunity to visit the IOB’s test hall and to hold initial discussions and cultivate contacts between the test stands. The evening event in the stylish ambience of the ballroom was also used to pay tribute to the work of Professor Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Köhne, who has shaped the IOB over many decades, in a laudatory speech by Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Küchen on his 80th birthday. Afterwards, the day ended with a festive banquet and there was another opportunity to discuss the past and future of industrial furnace construction.

The focus of this year’s Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium was therefore once again primarily on current developments and future challenges for industrial furnace construction. On the one hand, the event offers a unique range of topics focused on industrial furnace construction and thermal process technology, at least in the German-speaking world. On the other hand, the colloquium brings together a broad spectrum of experts from industry, science and research institutes. “We see great potential to establish the colloquium as an important industry event and to contribute to the exchange of knowledge between research and industry. In addition, the establishment and maintenance of our network via the colloquium is of course also of great interest to us as IOB. We are therefore planning to maintain the biennial rhythm and host the third Thermoprozess Colloquium Aachen in autumn 2021,” reports Dr.-Ing. Thomas Echterhof, organizer of the colloquium.

 

Impressions from the 2nd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium [Link to German version]

Program of the 2nd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium [Link to German version]

Program of the 2nd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium (PDF) [Link to German version]

Conference proceedings

The technical papers of the colloquium were printed and published in a conference volume. The proceedings can be obtained from the Institute. Further information can be found on the conference proceedings page.