The Euro­pean cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion tar­gets, ancho­red in the Euro­pean Green Deal, envi­si­on a dra­stic reduc­tion in CO₂ emis­si­ons in num­e­rous sec­tors. In indus­try, this is equi­va­lent to swit­ching from fos­sil fuels for pro­cess heat gene­ra­ti­on, which curr­ent­ly accounts for a lar­ge share of total emis­si­ons, to car­bon-free alter­na­ti­ves. Com­ple­te elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on of ther­mal pro­ces­ses is not fea­si­ble for every appli­ca­ti­on, so that the use of alter­na­ti­ve fuels, such as (green) hydro­gen, is being inten­si­ve­ly discussed.

The com­bus­ti­on pro­per­ties of hydro­gen dif­fer signi­fi­cant­ly from tho­se of fos­sil fuels. In par­ti­cu­lar, the fla­me speed, the adia­ba­tic fla­me tem­pe­ra­tu­re and the igni­ti­on limits should be men­tio­ned here, which dif­fer from natu­ral gas by seve­ral orders of magni­tu­de in some cases. If hydro­gen is to be used as the main fuel for indus­tri­al pro­ces­ses in the future, exten­si­ve adapt­a­ti­on of the bur­ner tech­no­lo­gy used is requi­red in order to pre­vent an increase in NO_x emis­si­ons in addi­ti­on to redu­cing CO₂ emissions.

The future mar­ket demand for very low-pol­lu­ti­on indus­tri­al bur­ners that allow low CO₂ and NO_x emis­si­ons is obvious. This appli­es not only to sin­gle-fuel bur­ners but also to mul­ti-fuel bur­ners. Espe­ci­al­ly in the field of mul­ti-fuel bur­ner tech­no­lo­gy, the­re are signi­fi­cant advan­ta­ges for the con­ver­si­on from fos­sil to rene­wa­ble fuels. A defi­ned admix­tu­re of hydro­gen to redu­ce CO₂ emis­si­ons from pro­ces­ses is pos­si­ble at any time. At the same time, it is pos­si­ble to use a secon­da­ry fuel in cri­ti­cal pro­ces­ses if hydro­gen is not available. In the case of mul­ti-fuel bur­ners, it must also be con­side­red that the heat release of the fla­me must not fun­da­men­tal­ly chan­ge when swit­ching from pri­ma­ry to secon­da­ry fuel in order not to influence pro­cess sta­bi­li­ty. In the case of hydro­gen, a chan­ge in radia­ti­ve heat trans­fer is to be expec­ted, sin­ce the flue gas com­po­si­ti­on chan­ges signi­fi­cant­ly. In addi­ti­on, the­re is a risk that a chan­ge in fla­me for­ma­ti­on will occur. This must be con­side­red in the deve­lo­p­ment of mul­ti-fuel bur­ners that are ope­ra­ted with hydro­gen. Such bur­ner tech­no­lo­gy is not curr­ent­ly com­mer­ci­al­ly available.

The main objec­ti­ve of the rese­arch pro­ject is to deve­lop a low-pol­lu­ti­on com­bus­ti­on con­cept for hydro­gen for inte­gra­ti­on into mul­ti-fuel bur­ner sys­tems. The con­cept aims at a seam­less inte­gra­ti­on of the bur­ner tech­no­lo­gy for hydro­gen into exis­ting mul­ti-fuel bur­ner con­cepts. The suc­cessful imple­men­ta­ti­on enables the fle­xi­ble use of hydro­gen as a fuel for pro­cess heat gene­ra­ti­on in many indus­tri­al appli­ca­ti­ons. Thus, the poten­ti­al for a sub­stan­ti­al con­tri­bu­ti­on to emis­si­on reduc­tion in indus­try is created.

A novel com­bus­ti­on con­cept for hydro­gen with an alter­na­ti­ve fuel feed and pri­ma­ry mea­su­res to redu­ce NO_x emis­si­ons is being deve­lo­ped. For this pur­po­se, an opti­miza­ti­on of the basic con­cept with regard to the heat release of the fla­me, the fla­me sta­bi­li­ty as well as the NO_x emis­si­ons is to be car­ri­ed out. Fur­ther­mo­re, the sca­ling of the con­cept for lar­ge bur­ner capa­ci­ties is to be inves­ti­ga­ted and a com­pa­ri­son with exis­ting bur­ner con­cepts for fos­sil fuels is to be car­ri­ed out.