Innovative burner reduces natural gas consumption and enables use of hydrogen

Many industrial sectors need large amounts of heat for the manufacture of their products, which until now have been generated primarily from natural gas. But the supply of this important energy source is on shaky ground. The best insurance against supply bottlenecks in the short term is a significant reduction in gas consumption. In the long term, the goal is to move towards renewable energy sources for thermoprocess heat – also to avoid greenhouse gas emissions. Jens te Kaat, Bernd-Henning Feller, and Dan-Adrian Moldovan have created a system that can provide a basis for this.

Bern-Henning Feller, Jens te Kaat and Dan-Adrian Moldovan

The three have been nominated for the German Future Prize. This is because they developed a burner that can provide the heat required for various industrial applications from natural gas much more efficiently and thus more economically than with conventional devices. This also makes it possible to significantly reduce emissions of climate-damaging CO2 as well as nitrogen oxide compounds that are harmful to the environment and health.

In addition, the system offers the possibility of using not only natural gas but also other gases as fuel – especially hydrogen, which is considered a key element for the energy transition. Jens te Kaat is managing partner at Kueppers Solutions in Dortmund, Bernd-Henning Feller is a development engineer and member of the management board, Dan-Adrian Moldovan is head of development and simulation at the company.

With the iRecu recuperative burner, the three nominees have developed a system that is suitable for most industrial applications in the thermoprocessing industry. Where it is used, it reduces the demand for natural gas – and thus CO2 emissions – by 12 to 50 percent compared to conventional burners. It also reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by more than half in some cases.

The reason for the new system's low emissions, which are harmful to the climate, environment, and health, lies in its high efficiency. This in turn is achieved by a particularly effective recovery of heat from the exhaust gases of combustion – and is the result of a combination of several innovations.

This includes the use of a heat exchanger with a triple-periodic minimum surface. In addition, the iRecu contains a new type of gas-air mixing unit. It is responsible for evenly distributing the gases involved in the reaction in the burner, thus ensuring precisely metered and low-emission combustion. As a further innovation, all components, even very complex ones, are produced by 3D printers. This makes it possible to produce any conceivable shape of burner components – adapted to the respective operational requirements. In this way, existing plants can be converted to modern technology within a few weeks and at manageable costs.

Finally, the system created by the team at Kueppers Solutions uses a so-called dual-fuel technology. It makes it possible to obtain industrial process heat not only from natural gas but also from biogas or hydrogen, for example. The fuels can be used either in pure form or as a mixture of any composition – or can alternately fire the burner. With this great flexibility, the system paves the way for switching from fossil fuels to those from renewable sources – especially hydrogen.

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