Despi­te the growth of rene­wa­ble ener­gy and wide­spread efforts to pha­se out fos­sil fuels in many indus­tri­al pro­ces­ses, it will not be pos­si­ble to com­ple­te­ly avo­id the green­house gas car­bon dioxi­de (CO₂). The reduc­tion, cap­tu­re, and sto­rage of CO₂, as well as the estab­lish­ment of an effec­ti­ve CO₂ cir­cu­lar economy—known as car­bon management—has beco­me a cen­tral issue for socie­ty, poli­tics, and indus­try. The Inter­go­vern­men­tal Panel on Cli­ma­te Chan­ge (IPCC) views car­bon manage­ment as a neces­sa­ry step toward achie­ving the Paris Cli­ma­te Goals. The Ger­man fede­ral govern­ment and the EU have also pre­sen­ted plans for stra­te­gies. Fur­ther­mo­re, the topic is ancho­red in the stra­te­gic rese­arch and inno­va­ti­on agen­da and, con­se­quent­ly, in future fun­ding pro­grams such as Hori­zon Europe.

The machi­ne and plant engi­nee­ring sec­tor, and in par­ti­cu­lar com­pa­nies in the field of indus­tri­al fur­nace manu­fac­tu­ring and ther­mopro­cess tech­no­lo­gy, are affec­ted by this in two ways: first, as sup­pli­ers and solu­ti­on pro­vi­ders for ener­gy-inten­si­ve plants, for exam­p­le for the steel or non-fer­rous metals indus­try; and second, as users of ener­gy-inten­si­ve plants in their own manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses. It is the­r­e­fo­re of cen­tral importance to ana­ly­ze and quan­ti­ta­tively assess the poten­ti­al of ther­mopro­cess tech­no­lo­gy and indus­tri­al fur­nace con­s­truc­tion against the back­ground of the deve­lo­p­ment of a natio­nal, Euro­pean, and inter­na­tio­nal car­bon manage­ment stra­tegy. The goal is not to con­ti­nue ope­ra­ting con­ven­tio­nal fos­sil-fuel-based ther­mal pro­ces­ses in the long term. Rather, by uti­li­zing rene­wa­ble car­bon sources, the aim is to estab­lish new sus­tainable pro­cess chains—such as CO₂ cap­tu­re and uti­liza­ti­on for che­mi­cal processes—in line with the prin­ci­ples of a cir­cu­lar eco­no­my. Fur­ther­mo­re, com­bus­ti­on should take place with vir­tual­ly no emis­si­ons of pollutants.