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Olaf Deutschmann is a German physicist and Professor for Chemical Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. He serves as director at the Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry and the Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology at KIT. He significantly contributes to the development of environmental and climate-friendly chemical technologies.

Life and Academic Background

Olaf Deutschmann studied physics at the Technical University of Magdeburg and the Humboldt University Berlin, earning a Master's degree in Physics with a thesis in the field of chaos theory in 1991. He then went to the University of Stuttgart (1992-1994) and Heidelberg University, where he obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 1996 under the supervision of Jürgen Warnatz. During his post-doctoral research with Lanny D. Schmidt at the University of Minnesota and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (1997-1998), Deutschmann worked extensively on modelling chemical processes and high-temperature catalysis. After moving back to Heidelberg, he obtained the venia legendi (habilitation) in Physical Chemistry at Heidelberg University in 2001. After joining the faculty at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2003, he further expanded his research into electrochemical applications such as solid-oxide fuel cells, focusing on-anode hydrocarbon fuel-reformation catalysis and automotive catalytic exhaust-gas after-treatment. In 2006, he became Full Professor, holding today the Chair in Chemical Technology at KIT and has been an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Chemical Engineering at KIT since 2016 and is the Coordinator at KIT of the DFG Collaborative Research Centres SFB/TRR 150. Since 2020, he has been the Co-Spokesperson of the Consortium NFDI for Catalysis-Related Sciences (NFDI4Cat).

Research

The Deutschmann group works on the development of climate and environmentally friendly chemical technologies. These research activities include carbon-free chemical energy carriers, emission control, fuel and electrolysis cells, reaction engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, material synthesis, and multiphase flows. The methods used range from laser spectroscopy and kinetic measurements over digitalization and software development to numerical simulation and optimization of technical reactors. The development of detailed multi-step surface chemistry, and its incorporation into computational reacting-flow simulation, is a unifying theme in over 30 years research of Deutschmann.

To increase the impact of his substantial scientific contributions in fundamental aspects of catalytic chemistry, Deutschmann makes his extensive library of validated reaction mechanisms freely available online.

Software Development

Deutschmann places a special emphasis on the development of advanced experimental tools for a better understanding of chemical reactors, coupled with mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of technical processes. Under his guidance, the software packages DETCHEM^TM, CaRMeN, and Adacta have been developed.

Awards and professional activities

In 2018, he was recognised as a Fellow of The Combustion Institute in Pittsburgh, USA, for his pioneering research in heterogeneous catalysis supporting combustion and energy-conversion technologies. He received the DECHEMA Award of the Max Buchner Research Foundation in 2004.

Deutschmann is Founding Director of the Emission Control Center Karlsruhe, Director of the Steinbeis Transfer Center Reactive Flows, an enterprise of the Steinbeis GmbH & Co. KG für Technologietransfer, Stuttgart, Germany.

He has been serving in many Editorial and Advisory Boards of scientific journals such as “Progress in Energy and Combustion Science”, “Applications in Energy and Combustion Science”, "Journal of Emission Control Science and Technology" and "The Proceedings of The Combustion Institute". He is an organiser of the bi-annual MODEGAT conference series.

Selection of major publications

1. O. Deutschmann, R. Schmidt, F. Behrendt, J. Warnatz. Numerical Modeling of Catalytic Ignition. Proc. Combust. Inst. 26 (1996) 1747-1754.

This research introduced to the combustion community novel approaches for detailed numerical simulation of the ignition of catalytic combustion systems using elementary-step based reaction mechanisms. The role of adsorbed species in the ignition process was elucidated. The paper initiated many experimental and theoretical research studies on catalytic and catalytically supported combustion systems over several decades.

(492 citations by google scholar)

2. V.M. Janardhanan, O. Deutschmann. Numerical study of mass and heat transport in solid oxide fuel cells running on humidified methane. Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 5473-5486.

The research combines models for heterogeneous thermochemical and electrochemical reactions with heat and mass transport models leading to a better understanding of the temperature gradients in high-temperature fuel cells. It paves the way for an advanced design of SOFCs when operated with direct reforming of non-H₂ fuels in the anode of the cell.

(134 citations by google scholar)

3. S. Angeli, S. Gossler, S. Lichtenberg, G. Kass, A. Agrawal, M. Valerius, K. P. Kinzel, O. Deutschmann. Reduction of CO₂ emission from off-gases of steel industry by dry reforming of methane. Angew. Chemie Intl. Ed. 60 (2021) 11852-11857.

A new concept and proof-of-principle of a novel process is presented for the reduction of CO₂ emissions occurring in the steel industry. The potential of using off-gases of the coke oven and blast furnace for the dry reforming of the CH₄ to valuable syngas is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Meanwhile the technology is commercialized and can lead to 0.5% reduction of global CO₂ emissions if installed worldwide.

(26 citations by google scholar)

4. M. Börnhorst, O. Deutschmann. Advances and challenges of ammonia delivery by urea-water sprays in SCR systems. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 87 (2021) 100949.

This article reviews the two decades development of SCR systems for automotive NO_x removal focusing on the challenges of injected urea-water spray summarizing the critical aspects of spray evaporation and impingement, liquid film and deposit formation; the latter one being responsible from a technology point fo view for one of the biggest scandals in automotive engineering. The multi-phase chemical models introduced by the Deutschmann group are the basis today for controlling film and deposit formation in the technical exhaust-gas aftertreatment system.

(46 citations by google scholar)

5. P. Lott, M.B. Mokashi, H. Müller, D.J. Heitlinger, S. Lichtenberg, A.B. Shirsath, C. Janzer, S. Tischer, L. Maier, O.Deutschmann. Hydrogen Production and Carbon Capture by Gas Phase Methane Pyrolysis: A Feasibility Study. ChemSusChem 16 (2023) e202201720.

Methane pyrolysis is one of the most promising processes for simultaneous hydrogen production and carbon capture from hydrocarbon feedstocks. This experimental and modeling work was the basis for upscaling (BASF pilot plant). Many of the models (gas-phase reaction kinetics, soot formation) used in this and other feasibility studies originate from the work of the combustion community over the last decades. The study exemplarily shows how the methods, knowledge and skills of the combustion community is successfully used in today’s energy transition.

(13 citations by google scholar)

Alternative publications:

• H. Zhu, R. J. Kee, V.M. Janardhanan, O. Deutschmann, D.G. Goodwin. Modeling Elementary Heterogeneous Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells. J. Electrochemical Soc. 152 (2005) A2427-A2440. https://dx.doi.org/10.1149/1.2116607 (660 citations by google scholar)
• V.M. Janardhanan, O. Deutschmann. CFD analysis of a solid oxide fuel cell with internal reforming: coupled interactions of transport, heterogeneous catalysis and electrochemical processes. Journal of Power Sources 162 (2006), 1192-1202.https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2006.08.017 (425 citations by google scholar)
• M. Borchers, P. Lott, O. Deutschmann. Selective Catalytic Reduction with Hydrogen for Exhaust gas aftertreatment of Hydrogen Combustion Engines. Topics in Catalysis (2022).https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-022-01723-1(42 citations by google scholar)
• L. Maier, B. Schädel, K. Herrera Delgado, S. Tischer, O. Deutschmann. Steam Reforming of Methane over Nickel: Development of a Multi-Step Surface Reaction Mechanism. Topics in Catalysis 54 (2011) 845-858.https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11244-011-9702-1  (241 citations by google scholar)
• S. Gossler, L. Ruwe, W. Yu, J. Yang, X. Chen, S. Schmitt, L. Maier, K. Kohse-Höinghaus, Fei Qi, O. Deutschmann. Exploring the interaction kinetics of butene isomers and NOx at low temperatures and diluted conditions. Combust. Flame 233 (2021) 111557.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2021.11155 (9 citations by google scholar))
• H. Gossler, S. Drost, S. Porras, R. Schießl, U. Maas, O. Deutschmann. The Internal Combustion Engine as a CO₂ Reformer. Combustion and Flame 207 (2019) 186-195.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2019.05.031 (31 citations by google scholar)