Address: RWTH Aachen University
Depart­ment for Indus­tri­al Fur­naces and Heat Engineering
Koper­ni­kus­str. 10
52074 Aachen
Pho­ne: +49 (0) 241–80 25958
E‑Mail: echterhof@iob.rwth-aachen.de
Room: 01–223

Group Mana­ger Ener­gy and Mass Balances

Research

The main rese­arch inte­rests of Tho­mas Ech­ter­hof include the opti­mi­sa­ti­on of ener­gy and resour­ce effi­ci­en­cy and decar­bo­niza­ti­on of ener­gy and resour­ce inten­si­ve pro­ces­ses like the EAF steel­ma­king. Tho­mas was pro­ject mana­ger in char­ge of the RWTH con­tri­bu­ti­on to seven EU RFCS pro­jects rela­ted to EAF steel­ma­king and was coor­di­na­tor in four of them. He was also respon­si­ble for seve­ral natio­nal fun­ded rese­arch pro­jects. Tho­mas has aut­ho­red or co-aut­ho­red more than 70 jour­nal and con­fe­rence papers as well as num­e­rous indus­tri­al pro­ject reports, pos­ter and con­fe­rence pre­sen­ta­ti­ons. In 2015 he estab­lished the Euro­pean Aca­de­mic Sym­po­si­um on EAF Steel­ma­king — EASES and orga­ni­zed it regu­lar­ly sin­ce then.

Fields of activity

  • Resour­ce and ener­gy effi­ci­en­cy of secon­da­ry steel­ma­king in the elec­tric arc furnace
  • Pro­cess model­ling and simu­la­ti­on of the elec­tric arc fur­nace processes
  • Decar­bo­niza­ti­on of EAF steel­ma­king and down­stream pro­ces­ses by bio­mass and hydro­gen application
  • Pro­cess ana­ly­sis and opti­miza­ti­on of high tem­pe­ra­tu­re processes
  • Inves­ti­ga­ti­on of the nitro­gen oxi­de emis­si­ons of elec­tric arc fur­naces and lad­le furnaces
  • Ener­gy balan­ces of indus­tri­al furnaces

Publi­ca­ti­ons

Teaching

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