Iron can be used in a cyclic process as a carbon-free energy carrier. Energy release occurs through the oxidation of iron with air, resulting in the formation of iron oxides. Conversely, energy storage is achieved through the reduction of iron oxides using green hydrogen. Our recently published study primarily investigates the oxidation behavior of iron powders under mild conditions and examines the impact of cyclic operations. Detailed insights into the processes are obtained through thermogravimetric analysis, wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), Mössbauer spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). 27.09.2024

Renewable methane is a versatile energy carrier that holds significant promise as a sustainable fuel. Within the MethQuest project, we have investigated an array of power-to-methane process chains to find novel ways to enhance the efficiency of the technology. The study supports the future development of commercially viable energy storage facilities and has recently been published in Applied Energy. 15.08.2024

DECHEMA

Doctoral student Ahmet Celik won the Young Talent Award at the “Annual Meeting of Reaction Engineering and Electrochemical Processes” in Würzburg, Germany.  He impressed the audience as well as a jury of members of the Early Career Reaction Engineers (NaWuReT) with his lecture on the topic "Process Development of Climate-Friendly Hydrogen Production by Pyrolysis of Methane and Biogas: From Reaction Engineering to Techno-Economic Studies". Congratulations! 15.05.2024

Ten members of our group presented their latest results from catalysis research in a talk (Sofia Angeli et al.), several short talks and seven poster presentations at the 57^th Annual Meeting of the German Catalysis Society in Weimar from March 13 to 15, 2024. Congratulations to Patrick Lott, who has been awarded the "Red Lion" for his continuous contributions to the GeCatS annual meetings in recent years. 03.04.2024
 

At the annual meeting of the DECHEMA subject division Multiphase Flows 2024 in Bremen, our doctoral candidate Andrea Düll received the Best Presentation Award for her talk on the “Experimental characterization of the three-dimensional wave dynamics of falling film flows on structured surfaces”. Her research project is a cooperation with the Institute of Thermal Turbomachinery (ITS, KIT) and is supported by the Friedrich and Elisabeth Boysen Foundation. 23.03.2024.

Rinu Chacko et al. published an invited concept paper on Interconnected Digital Solutions to Accelerate Modeling of the Reaction Kinetics in Catalysis in ChemCatChem. The article highlights tools for efficient storage of research
data, establishment of automated workflows, algorithms for advanced model development for catalytic reaction systems such as Adacta, CaRMeN, DETCHEM, RMG. 19.03.2024

In collaboration with the Waseda University in Tokyo and Japanese automobile manufacturers, a new process has been developed to increase the efficiency of the three-way catalytic converter in a hybrid-electric vehicle at low exhaust temperatures. Inhibition of the catalytic converter by blocking the active sites at low temperatures can be prevented by periodic lean-rich switches of the exhaust gas. The work contributes to a better understanding of periodic processes in exhaust gas catalysis and has recently been published in Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 14.02.2024.

SMS group

In cooperation with our industrial partner Paul Wurth SA we have demonstrated how 0.5% of the global CO2 emissions can be reduced with moderate investments by modernizing existing blast furnace technology for steel production.
In the process, CO2 is recycled from the blast furnace gas and converted with coke oven gas into synthesis gas, which can be used as a coke substitute in the blast furnace. It was demonstrated and validated in a pilot plant at the stock company of Dillinger Hüttenwerke (Dillinger) in Saarland. Further details are published in Energy Advances. 23.01.2024

Iron is a promising, recyclable energy carrier that allows energy to be stored in large quantities and over long periods of time. The project Clean Circles investigates the iron cycle with an integrated approach in cooperation with the TU Darmstadt and further partners. The energy is stored by reducing iron oxides with green hydrogen. Based on experimental results, a reaction mechanism and accompanied kinetic data for this process were derived and recently published. 23.03.2023

At the Annual Digital Catalysis & Catalysis-Related Science Conference 2022 of NFDI4cat, Johannes Riedel and Hendrik Goßler received the Best Poster Award for the contribution “Automatization of Interdisciplinary Research Data Management for Catalysis”. More information on the newly developed tool Adacta can be found in the recent CIT paper. 25.05.2023

At the Annual Meeting on Reaction Engineering in May 2023 in Frankfurt, our newest research results were presented by a tandem plenary lecture (together with S.A. Schunk, hte/BASF) on Digitalization in Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, an oral (Lukas Wehrle on NH3 fueled SOFCs, see also) and eleven poster presentations.16.05.2023

In April 2003, Olaf Deutschmann became Professor for Chemical Technology at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH), now KIT, where his group’s work focuses is on the development of climate and environmentally friendly technologies in chemical industry, traffic, transportation, and the energy sector. 01.05.2023

A new patent on an electrochemical device for converting nitrogen oxides NOx into ammonia and/or hydrogen was recently granted to J. Dailly, A. Banerjee, O. Deutschmann. This invention is based on a strong collaboration between EIfER and KIT operating jointly the EnerMat Lab located at ITCP. The patent, WO2022171663A1, is now used by EdF. 24.05.2023

At the annual German Catalysis Meeting 2023 in Weimar, our PhD student Rinu Chacko received the YounGeCatS Poster Workshop Award for her research on Automating the Optimization of Catalytic Reaction Mechanism Parameters using Basin-Hopping. More information on the topic can be found in our recent paper in J. Phys. Chem. C. 31.03.2023

CRC TRR150

After a successful evaluation, the SFB/TRR "Turbulent, chemically reacting multiphase flows near walls" started into the 3rd funding phase (2023-2026) on January 1, 2023. The working group of Olaf Deutschmann, the coordinator of TRR150 at KIT, is currently working on subproject B05 "Modelling and numerical simulation of multiphase chemical reactions". 01.03.2023

High-temperature pyrolysis of natural gas is a highly attractive approach for large-scale carbon capture and  hydrogen production. In a new feasibility study, (Lott et al.) published in ChemSusChem, the process is shown to successfully work in the gas-phase without a catalyst obtaining over 90% conversion of methane towards hydrogen and solid carbon. Industrial-relevant operating conditions are systematically  varied and the reaction flow is analyzed. 22.11.2022.

P. Lott / O. Deutschmann

An invited plenary lecture on “Heterogeneous Chemical Reactions - A Cornerstone in Emission Reduction of Local Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases” was given by Patrick Lott and Olaf Deutschmann at the 39th International Symposium on Combustion in Vancouver, Canada on July 26, 2022. The corresponding open access paper discusses emission control of natural gas and hydrogen fueled engines, use of CO2 in chemical and steel industry, hydrogen production by pyrolysis of methane, small-scale ammonia synthesis and use, and recyclable carbon-free energy carriers. 6.10.2022

KIT / CIW

Daniel Hodonj receives the „Emil-Kirschbaum-Studienpreis“ for the outstanding completion of his Master's degree in chemical engineering. He has been a doctoral student in our working group since February 2022 and conducts research on the topic of emission control of hybrid vehicles. 06.10.2022

C. Kuhn

At the Annual Meeting on Reaction Engineering 2022 in Würzburg, our PhD student Carola Kuhn presented her current research results on iron as renewable energy carrier within the project Clean Circles.  She received the Young Talent Award for her presentation with the topic "Iron as recyclable metal fuel: Reaction kinetic analysis of iron oxide reduction with hydrogen". 01.10.2022

O. Furst

Oscar Furst, Junior Scientist in the Deutschmann research group, received a grant from ProcessNet within the NaWuReT call "Virtual Research Residency Reaction Engineering 2021". In cooperation with Dr. Yuqing Wang, Assistant Professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, he is implementing a transient boundary layer solver for more accurate simulation of solid oxide cells, especially for their operation as clean energy storage devices. 12.01.2022

Erdogan et al.

Computational Fluid Dynamics is a promising approach to support the design of industrial bubble columns operated at elevated pressures and temperatures. Nowadays such computations are often limited to lab-scale bubble columns and aqueous liquids at ambient conditions. Of special importance is reliable modeling of turbulence, which differs from that in single-phase flows. In a recent paper, Erdogan et al. present a systematic framework for the development of improved statistical turbulence models for bubble-driven liquid flows at technically relevant conditions. It combines scale-resolved (direct) simulations of swarms of millimeter-sized bubbles with scale-reduced simulations of an industrial pilot-scale bubble column, where numerical results for organic systems under elevated pressure are compared with measurements reported in literature. 12.01.2022

Technological challenges that commonly accompany high temperature systems prevented a commercialization of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) in the mobility sector so far. Still, the traditionally used PEM fuel cells face severe thermal management issues that are critical for larger scale transport applications. Inspired by the rapid recent progress in SOFC electrode design and stack development, L. Wehrle et al. have published a detailed multi-scale modelling approach in ACS Environmental AU rigorously coupling single cell, stack and system level, to optimize the cell architecture of SOFCs and re-evaluate the technologies role for transportation. 10.12.2021

ITCP / S. Tischer

Unser langjähriger Mitarbeiter Dr. Günter Schoch ist am 7. August 2021 unerwartet im Alter von nur 68 Jahren verstorben. Herr Schoch hat sich nach seiner Promotion mit vielfältigen Themen aus dem Bereich der Chemischen Technik an unserem Institut beschäftigt. In den letzten Jahren vor seinem Ruhestand widmete er sich unter anderem erfolgreich der Herstellung von Kohlenstoffverbundwerkstoffen und der Reduzierung von Stickoxidemissionen aus Verbrennungsmotoren. Wir trauern um einen lieben Kollegen, den wir in guter Erinnerung behalten werden. 13.09.2021

M. Börnhorst, O. Deutschmann

Preparation of the reducing agent ammonia from urea-water sprays in SCR systems still represents a challenge in aftertreatment engineering as complex interactions of multi-phase physics and chemical reactions have to be handled. Increasingly stringent emission legislations and the ongoing development of fuel-efficient engines and close-coupled aftertreatment systems raise high demands to SCR systems. M. Börnhorst and O. Deutschmann have published a comprehensive review of advances and current challenges in urea SCR related research, now available in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. 09.08.2021

Climate-friendly hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines still produce NOx emissions because H2 is oxidized using air. The recent efforts of Borchers, K. Keller, P. Lott  to clean these NOx emissions from H2-engines by the elegant way of direct H2-SCR are now published in Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.. Collaborating with many engine manufacturers and supplier industry we will continue to support the development of novel technologies for clean transportation vehicles. 12.05.2021

MethQuest

Germany’s Economics Minister Peter Altmaier presented the Federal Energy Research Report 2021 to the federal cabinet, in which the MethQuest project is mentioned in the chapter Interfaces of energy research to mobility and transport (p. 28). In this successful project, our group (Lukas Wehrle et al.) together with EIfER are responsible for developing  solid oxide electrolysis cells for hydrogen production. 06.05.2021

Angeli, Gossler, Lichtenberg et al.

Together with Paul Wurth SA, Luxembourg, we developed a novel process to reform the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 from steel industry into valuable hydrogen. The proof-of-concept was successfully shown, S. Angeli, S. Gossler, S. Lichtenberg et al. in Angew. Chemie Int. Ed., using our recently established high-temperature-high-pressure lab reactor and detailed numerical simulations with DETCHEM and CaRMeN. Now, the concept is about to be transferred  into an industrial technology; carrier options. 05.05.2021

A thermodynamically consistent microkinetic model of methanation, a key process in Power-to-Gas technologies, has been developed by Daniel Schmider and Luba Maier published in Ind. & Eng. Chem. Res. The mechanism features multiple paths for the conversion of both CO and CO2 with H2 to CH4 over Ni-based catalysts, including a carbide pathway and the direct hydrogenation of CO2. 28.04.2021

KIT/ ITCP

The next international symposium on Modeling of Exhaust-Gas After-Treatment (MODEGAT) will be held in 2022. The organizers believe that the interactive and collaborative spirit of MODEGAT is best created through face-to-face contact and have therefore decided against a virtual format. MODEGAT VII will take place September 11-13, 2022, in Bad Herrenalb/Karlsruhe, Germany. For updates regarding a call for abstracts, registration, and more visit the conference website www.modegat.org. January 2021.

VAA – Führungskräfte Chemie/Maria Schulz

Deutschmann group Senior Scientist Dr. Patrick Lott received the Excellence Award of the VAA Foundation during a small, festive ceremony in Cologne. The prize, which is endowed with € 5,000, is awarded once a year in recognition of outstanding dissertations with industrial application relevance. 09.12.2020

KIT/ ITCP

The DFG funds a new Collaborative Research Centre (CRC 1441) “Tracking the Active Site in Heterogeneous Catalysis for Emission Control” (TrackAct) for the understanding of catalytic processes. The vision of TrackAct is to design noble metal catalysts with atomic precision and to monitor and control the active site in the reactor and the technical application. Sofia Angeli and Olaf Deutschmann are among the 23 principal investigators of this new CRC. 02.12.2020.

Marion Börnhorst

Dr.-Ing. Marion Börnhorst, senior scientist in the Deutschmann group, was selected by KIT's internal selection committee for this year's dissertation award of the Friedrich and Elisabeth Boysen Foundation. Currently, she is head of the research group "Multiphase Processes and Reactors" with five PhD students and is working towards her habilitation. 25.11.2020

Our recent study on Spatially and Temporally Resolved Measurements of NO Adsorption/Desorption over NOx-Storage Catalyst by Sui Wan et al., published as #VeryImportantPaper by ChemPhysChem revealed the potential of PLIF as very useful tool to investigate the interaction between surface kinetics and the surrounding gas flow, especially for transient catalytic processes. 29.10.2020

Marion Börnhorst et al.

The Friedrich and Elisabeth Boysen Foundation has approved funding for a joint initiative on mass transport enhancement in CO2 absorption processes. The project under direction of Dr. Marion Börnhorst will investigate potentials for an increase in interfacial mass transport by surface structure induced mixing and will be conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Thermal Turbomachinery at KIT. 4.11.2020

Olaf Deutschmann et al.

Our new paper “Dry and Steam Reforming of CH4 on Co-Hexaaluminate: On the Formation of Metallic Co and Its Influence on Catalyst Activity” by A. Giehr, L. Maier S. Angeli, S.A. Schunk, an d O. Deutschmann has been selected as a highlight on the cover of the most recent issue of Industrial & Engineering Chemical Research. The work was part of a joint project that led to the ICIS Innovation Awards 2019 for BASF and Linde for the climate-friendly Dryref process. 27.10.2020

A group of more than fifty German scientists and engineers in the field of chemically reactive flows and energy process engineering published a position paper on the energy system transformation (Energiewende). 8.7.2020

Today, the Federal Government and the States of Germany (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz, GWK) have selected the NFDI4Cat initiative (National Research Data Infrastructure for for Catalysis-Related Sciences) as one of nine initiatives to be funded on the basis of a funding recommendation by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Three Professors from ITCP at KIT have contributed to this success: Olaf Deutschmann (Co-Speaker of NFDI4Cat), Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt, and Felix Studt. 26.06.2020

Olaf Deutschmann et al.

The Exhaust-Gas Center Karlsruhe found that toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is formed over SCR catalysts used in climate-friendly natural gas engines. More information: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 10.1002/anie.202003670. 30.04.2020

Aayan Banerjee

Dr. Aayan Banerjee, PhD student in our group from 2014 to 2018, now at Imperial College, London, has accepted a faculty position as Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology (TNW) at the University of Twente, where he will work in the ”Process and Catalysis Engineering” cluster.14.05.2020

Olaf Deutschmann et al.

Joint study on emission control of methane and formaldehyde from gasoline, diesel and natural gas engines published by the Fuels, Engine and Emissions Research Center (FEERC), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), USA, and the Exhaust-Gas Center Karlsruhe, ITCP (KIT) in Appl. Catal. B: Env. 15.01.2020.

The FVV project „AdBlue Deposits“ investigated the interaction of AdBlue sprays with hot tail pipe walls, the resulting wall film formation and the precipitation of solid deposits from liquid film. Besides experimental investigations, new models for urea decomposition, spray/wall interaction, heat transfer and an approach to substantially speed-up 3D-CFD simulations were developed. The work was supported from 01/2017 – 04/2019 by BMWi through the AiF based on a decision by the German Bundestag. 13.01.2020