The ener­gy tran­si­ti­on poses a major chall­enge for ther­mal pro­cess tech­no­lo­gy. The gene­ra­ti­on of CO₂-neu­tral pro­cess heat is only pos­si­ble to a limi­t­ed ext­ent with today’s hea­ting sys­tems. Gas-fired fur­naces can­not be elec­tri­fied wit­hout rest­ric­tion, and a com­ple­te shift from gas hea­ting to elec­tric hea­ting seems out of the ques­ti­on. Pre­vious rese­arch has focu­sed on the use of hydro­gen as an ener­gy source. Howe­ver, this requi­res access to a pipe­line, which is not available at every loca­ti­on and is unli­kely to be available in the future. This affects enti­re regi­ons (e.g., Scan­di­na­via), but small and medi­um-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) also often use sta­tio­na­ry tanks with liquid fos­sil fuels for pro­cess heat gene­ra­ti­on. Loca­ti­ons wit­hout pipe­line access that use com­bus­ti­on as a heat source and want to decar­bo­ni­ze their pro­ces­ses need sui­ta­ble alternatives.

Ammo­nia (NH₃) is a CO₂-neu­tral ener­gy source with high poten­ti­al for the­se appli­ca­ti­ons. Howe­ver, the use of NH₃ for pro­cess heat gene­ra­ti­on poses con­sidera­ble chal­lenges. NH₃ is high­ly cor­ro­si­ve and requi­res spe­ci­al­ly desi­gned peri­pherals made of sui­ta­ble mate­ri­als. The direct sub­sti­tu­ti­on of natu­ral gas with NH₃ in indus­tri­al bur­ners is not pos­si­ble becau­se the com­bus­ti­on pro­per­ties dif­fer signi­fi­cant­ly. NH₃ has limi­t­ed igni­ta­bi­li­ty. Fur­ther­mo­re, com­pa­ra­tively low com­bus­ti­on rates and fla­me tem­pe­ra­tures occur. In addi­ti­on, the com­bus­ti­on of NH₃ pro­du­ces signi­fi­cant NO_x emis­si­ons due to the nitro­gen bound in the fuel if no sui­ta­ble methods are used to redu­ce the­se emissions.

Ther­Mo­nia takes a holi­stic approach to the­se issues. Ther­Mo­nia is divi­ded into three sub­pro­jects with dif­fe­rent focu­ses, which build on each other and are inter­lin­ked. Sub­pro­ject 1 (“Low­NO_x”) focu­ses on expe­ri­men­tal inves­ti­ga­ti­ons of NH₃ com­bus­ti­on. In addi­ti­on to fun­da­men­tal inves­ti­ga­ti­ons into com­bus­ti­on pro­per­ties, the imple­men­ta­ti­on of NH₃ as a fuel with the lowest pos­si­ble NO_x emis­si­ons for the direct and indi­rect hea­ting of ther­mal pro­cess plants is being inves­ti­ga­ted. Sub­pro­ject 2 (“Emi­Pre­dict”) focu­ses on

nume­ri­cal inves­ti­ga­ti­ons and includes work on reac­tion mecha­nisms and their use for the effi­ci­ent simu­la­ti­on of NH₃ com­bus­ti­on using the exam­p­le of the bur­ners and sys­tems used in sub­pro­ject 1. The influence of NH₃ on the mate­ri­als used in ther­mal pro­cess tech­no­lo­gy is inves­ti­ga­ted in sub­pro­ject 3 (“Nitri­Cor”). The results of the expe­ri­men­tal and nume­ri­cal inves­ti­ga­ti­ons from sub­pro­jects 1 and 2 can be used for this purpose.