News from the IOB

The IOB on the Algarve coast: 14th European Conference on Industrial Furnaces and Boilers

Every two years — tra­di­tio­nal­ly in the week after Eas­ter — the Euro­pean Con­fe­rence on Indus­tri­al Fur­naces and Boi­lers (INFUB) takes place in Por­tu­gal. This year, almost 180 repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from rese­arch and indus­try came tog­e­ther on the Algar­ve coast from April 2nd-5th to dis­cuss the latest deve­lo­p­ments in ther­mal pro­cess tech­no­lo­gy. The IOB was repre­sen­ted by Prof. Her­bert Pfei­fer tog­e­ther with Nico Schmitz, Domi­nik Büsch­ge­ns, Fabi­an Scheck, Johan­nes Losa­cker, Nico Rade­ma­cher, Lukas San­kow­ski and Mari­us Philipp.

The con­fe­rence kicked off on the evening of April 2nd with the first key­note speech by Ceci­lia Sebas­tia­ni from Bab­cock Wan­sons entit­led: “Envi­ron­ment and Inno­va­ti­on: Obs­ta­cles, Chal­lenges, Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Indus­tri­al Ther­mal Engi­nee­ring”. At the sub­se­quent wel­co­me din­ner, the par­ti­ci­pan­ts exch­an­ged ide­as with old acquain­tances and many new faces in a rela­xed atmo­sphe­re. Over the fol­lo­wing three con­fe­rence days, the­re were a fur­ther five key­notes, as well as a total of 100 spe­cia­list pre­sen­ta­ti­ons and 31 pos­ters. The focus was par­ti­cu­lar­ly on decar­bo­niza­ti­on and the use of alter­na­ti­ve fuels such as hydro­gen and ammo­nia. Both initi­al fin­dings from rese­arch and rea­dy-to-use con­cepts for indus­tri­al appli­ca­ti­on were pre­sen­ted. Our col­le­agues pre­sen­ted the cur­rent sta­te of their rese­arch work in the fol­lo­wing talks and posters:

  • Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons of radi­ant tube arran­ge­ments and their effect on radia­ti­on exch­an­ge in hori­zon­tal fur­naces
    Domi­nik Büsch­ge­ns, Her­bert Pfeifer
  • Simu­la­ti­on model of a strip anne­al­ing line to impro­ve pro­duct qua­li­ty in pre­cis­i­on strip pro­duc­tion
    Nico Rade­ma­cher, Chris­ti­an Küh­nert, Domi­nik Büsch­ge­ns, Moritz Eick­hoff, Her­bert Pfei­fer, Tho­mas Bernard
  • Expe­ri­men­tal stu­dy on a H2/Natural Gas fired pro­to­ty­pe self-recup­er­a­ti­ve bur­ner – fun­da­men­tal per­for­mance, com­bus­ti­on effi­ci­en­cy, NOx emis­si­ons
    Lukas San­kow­ski, Han­nah Kai­ser, Chris­to­pher Wün­ning, Nico Schmitz, Her­bert Pfeifer
  • Deve­lo­p­ment of a Low-Emis­si­on Com­bus­ti­on Con­cept for Hydro­gen in Mul­ti-Fuel-Bur­ners
    Mari­us Phil­ipp, Nico Schmitz, Her­bert Pfei­fer, Albert Kowert
  • Weigh­ted Sum of Grey Gases Radia­ti­on Model for Air and Oxy­fuel Com­bus­ti­on of Hydro­gen-Metha­ne Mix­tures at Atmo­sphe­ric Pres­su­re (Pos­ter)
    Johan­nes Losa­cker, Alex Gar­cia, Fran­zis­ka Ott, Nico Schmitz, Her­bert Pfeifer
  • Oxy­gen sepa­ra­ti­on with MIEC mem­bra­nes on a lab sca­le Oxy-fuel fur­nace (Pos­ter)
    Fabi­an Scheck, Nico Schmitz, Her­bert Pfei­fer, Ralf Krie­gel, Mar­tin Demuth, Wolf­gang Bender

In addi­ti­on to the fruitful dis­cus­sions in the con­fe­rence rooms, the sup­port­ing pro­gram offe­red the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy the sun­ny wea­ther and good com­pa­ny on a tour of a winery in near­by Alb­ufei­ra, fol­lo­wed by a wine tasting. The con­fe­rence was roun­ded off on the last evening with the fare­well din­ner. Except for to the 3‑course meal, the high­light was the musi­cal and dance per­for­mance by a local stu­dent cul­tu­re club.

We would like to thank the orga­ni­zing com­mit­tee and the com­pa­ny Cen­er­tec for the excel­lent plan­ning and hos­ting of the con­fe­rence. We look for­ward to see­ing ever­yo­ne again in two years’ time when INFUB lures us back to Por­tu­gal. The venue will then most likely be in the north of Por­tu­gal, in the coas­tal city of Porto.