Hydrogen topics dominated the 3rd Aachen Thermoprocess Colloquium
“All good things come in threes” – this was the motto under which the Department for Industrial Furnaces and Heat Engineering (IOB) at RWTH Aachen University organized the Aachen Thermoprocess Colloquium. On Thursday, October 7 and Friday, October 8, 2021, 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. Thanks to the 2G regulation, the colloquium was able to offer a face-to-face event for personal exchange again after a long time.
The colloquium began on Thursday morning with a series of plenary lectures focusing on the topics of hydrogen, the circular economy and sustainability. This was followed by further presentations in two parallel lecture series. In a total of 49 lectures, the current topics of furnace construction and thermal process technology were presented and discussed. The contributions on decarbonization and the use of hydrogen in thermoprocessing systems alone took a prominent position in terms of numbers. These topics were supplemented by presentations on current developments in the field of industrial furnaces and heat treatment plants, automation and modeling of thermal processes, measurement and control technology and 3D-printed components for thermal process technology.
Once again, the SuperC building at RWTH Aachen University with its two lecture halls on the top floor with an interesting view over the city proved to be an ideal venue.
“This colloquium is characterized above all by the increasingly omnipresent topic of “climate change” and the resulting rigid CO2 reduction targets. Thermal process technology is an important player in the reduction of CO2 emissions in the field of industrial energy conversion. Due to the variety of different areas of application for thermoprocessing technology, the question arises as to how this industry can meet the increasing CO2 emission reduction targets. Is it the increase in energy efficiency, the electrification of processes or is it the “regenerative fuel gases” such as green hydrogen or synthetic methane?”, says Professor Dr.-Ing. Herbert Pfeifer. This was already reflected in the topics of the plenary lectures on Thursday morning. Professor Matthias Wessling, Vice-Rector for Research and Structure at RWTH Aachen University, opened the colloquium with a lecture on “RWTH strategy using hydrogen as an example” and presented RWTH’s activities in the field of hydrogen, such as the Future Cluster Hydrogen and the Center for Sustainable Hydrogen Systems. Joachim Wünning, Managing Director of WS Wärmeprozesstechnik GmbH and Chairman of the Board of the VDMA’s Thermal Process Technology Division, presented the industry’s perspective on the “Requirements of decarbonization for thermal process technology”.
Other activities at the RWTH, particularly in the faculty and specialist group to which the IOB belongs, were presented by the Dean of the Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering, Professor Peter Kukla, with a lecture on “Resources, materials and the circular economy in the energy transition – Faculty 5 of the RWTH in transition” and Professor Dr Tobias Kleinert with a lecture on “Digitalization and automation for sustainable technologies”. The plenary lectures were concluded by Professor Pfeifer with a lecture on “Teaching and research at the IOB – present and future”.
The topic of decarbonization and the use of hydrogen also played an important role in the rest of the lecture program on Thursday afternoon and Friday with numerous other presentations. The topics covered ranged from the necessary developments for decarbonizing process heat to furnace concepts for the use of green energy sources, climate-friendly process heat generation using hydrogen in the glass industry, development trends in the use of regenerative hydrogen in thermal process plants and, more generally, the use of hydrogen in burners in industrial furnaces.
However, numerous other presentations were also given beyond these topics of decarbonization and the use of hydrogen. These ranged from optimized heat treatment processes, new furnace concepts and automated heat treatment concepts to the thermal pre-treatment of aluminium scrap, cooling concepts and 3D-printed components for thermal processing plants. Numerous presentations from the colloquium can be accessed on the colloquium website. In addition, the elaborated contributions are summarized in a conference volume and available from the IOB.
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 test halls and to hold initial discussions and cultivate contacts between the test stands. The evening event in the stylish ambience of the ballroom was used to round off the day with a festive banquet. There was another opportunity to discuss the past and future of industrial furnace construction.
The focus of this year’s Aachen Thermoprocess Colloquium was therefore once again primarily on current developments and future challenges for industrial furnace construction around industrial decarbonization. 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 are delighted that we have been able to establish the colloquium as an important industry event and once again contribute to the personal exchange of knowledge between research and industry, especially after the pandemic-related switch to purely online events in recent months. We will therefore be delighted to invite everyone to the fourth Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium again in autumn 2023,” reports Dr.-Ing. Thomas Echterhof, organizer of the colloquium.
Impressions of the 3rd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium [Link to German version]
Program of the 3rd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium [Link to German version]
Program of the 3rd Aachen Thermoprozess Colloquium (PDF) [Link to German version]
Conference proceedings
The papers presented at the colloquium have been 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.