High-temperature Technology

The high-temperature technology at OWI deals with procedural processes in temperature ranging from 500 °C onwards. Areas of activity regarding industrial furnaces are the development of burners, the control and optimization of components and processes as well as the investigation of materials that are used in the furnace construction. Further research topics are the after-treatment of exhaust gases of motorised applications or the use of innovative evaporation and combustion concepts in a pressurised environment.

A person in a silver thermal protection suit with a protective mask and gloves uses a long metal rod to retrieve a red-hot metal box containing material samples from a hot test furnace in the laboratory of OWI Science for Fuels gGmbH.

Corrosion tests with high-temperature alloys are being carried out in different atmospheres in a chamber furnace. Photo: OWI

How must burners be designed, if they are supposed to generate industrial heat by means of various energy carriers? Which materials are most suitable for the respective operating conditions? How can thermal process furnaces be run energy-efficiently and how can they be further developed? For such issues, OWI experts are very much in demand in the industry, in areas of thermal process technology, materials engineering as well as numerical simulations. By means of analysis and interpretation of data they can help with their know-how on mechanisms which determine the high temperature processes or the life span of thermally highly loaded materials.

Larger scaled analyses and investigations of furnace plants are carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Industrial Furnace Construction of RWTH Aachen University.

OWI is a member of several associations in the high-temperature technology, e.g.:

  • Research Community Industrial Furnace Construction
    OWI is a research centre of FOGI
  • THE COMBUSTION INSTITUTE
    German department e. V.
  • ProcessNet
    VDI – GVC, specialist group high-temperature technology