30.10.2025

DFG: Priority Programme “A contribution to the realization of the energy transition: Optimization of thermochemical energy conversion processes for the flexible utilization of hydrogen-based renewable fuels using additive manufacturing”

Deadline: 31 March 2026

The Senate of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) established the Priority Programme “A contribution to the realization of the energy transition: Optimization of thermochemical energy conversion processes for the flexible utilization of hydrogen-based renewable fuels using additive manufacturing”.The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites proposals for the second three-year funding period.

The use of carbon-free chemical energy carriers such as hydrogen and ammonia in high-temperature thermochemical processes is essential for the transformation of the energy system toward carbon neutral energy conversion. These fuels offer significant advantages. They avoid greenhouse gas emissions, they can be produced with good efficiency from renewable electricity and they are flexible in their use. Potentials of thermochemical energy conversion also arise when hydrogen is mixed with natural gas, as hydrogen can be successively added to the existing natural gas infrastructure, enabling a low-risk transition to a carbon-free energy economy. Here, the term “hydrogen-containing fuels“ refers to fuel mixtures of hydrogen, ammonia and hydrocarbons with high hydrogen or ammonia content.

Compared to conventional fuels, hydrogen and ammonia have fundamentally different combustion properties, which are reflected, for example, in different burning rates, flammability limits, ignition energies and pollutant formation characteristics. The advancement of hydrogen-containing fuel technology is important in all sectors, including, for instance, power generation in gas turbines and the supply of process heat with industrial burners. It requires the joint optimisation of thermal efficiencies and pollutant emissions, while considering stability, fuel flexibility and safety. This optimisation should be achieved in this Priority Programme by a combination of simulation-based design with innovative manufacturing processes, e.g. additive manufacturing, which offer new degrees of freedom in materials and geometric shaping. For this integrated approach, however, many of the relevant fundamental aspects are not yet sufficiently well understood.

The overarching aims of the Priority Programme are to develop the domain-specific knowledge and methods, to create an interdisciplinary research field between combustion science and manufacturing, and to demonstrate the approach both computationally and experimentally. The specific goals of the Priority Programme include the advancement of methods, since the design of highly complex AM-manufactured burner concepts and appropriately adapted operating strategies requires an integrated process combining predictive simulation, AM and experimental analysis.

The purpose of the Priority Programme is to connect different disciplines. Hence, there should be preference for collaborative proposals in which complementary expertise is directly linked. To support the necessary interdisciplinary approach, it is desirable that a project consists of three parts and includes one experimental and one theory/simulation/modelling subproject from the combustion field, and additionally one AM subproject.

Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 31 March 2026.

The DFG strongly welcomes proposals from researchers of all genders and sexual identities, from different ethnic, cultural, religious, ideological or social backgrounds, from different career stages, types of universities and research institutions, and with disabilities or chronic illness. With regard to the subject-specific focus of this call, the DFG encourages female researchers in particular to submit proposals.

Further information:
https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2025/ifw-25-80