The Schwank Group is celebrating the first unrestricted H2-compatible tube heater. For this purpose, the Cologne R&D team led by Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Schlösser equipped a Schwank tube heater with a completely new burner technology. Beforehand, the ignition and combustion behavior of hydrogen in a closed, small-volume systems was simulated on the computer using complex calculation models. “As soon as the theoretical approaches were transferred to the practical environment of the laboratory, it quickly became clear what makes the use of 100% hydrogen so difficult. It is the nearly unpredictable behavior of the fuel itself. What was deemed functional on the computer was no good in practice. So, with a lot of intensive work and countless live test series, we have developed the first functioning tube heater virtually from scratch,” says Prof. Schlösser.
H2 as a Logical Step in the Energy Transition
On the occasion of the European Hydrogen Days 2021 in Brussels, Schwank CEO and Head of R&D Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Schlösser highlighted the importance and necessity of hydrogen for the envisaged energy transition. Like Schlösser, many experts share the opinion that only hydrogen can master the ambitious environmental goals of the coming years. As the energy carrier of the future, hydrogen could take advantage of storage and distribution via existing gas networks.
