The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Technologies Office (ITO) has selected NETL and its partners at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to receive $10 million in funding to develop the Burner Laboratories to advance fuel utilisation for thermal energy (BLAZE) Centre.

The BLAZE facilities will serve as a national testbed to accelerate industrial combustion technology to improve technology robustness and increase energy security by using advanced fuel blends for improved fuel flexibility.

Energy-intensive industrial heating processes underpin everything from metal production to food processing, making advancements in fuel-flexible burner systems essential for reliable manufacturing and for bolstering industrial competitiveness.

At its core, BLAZE will offer state-of-the-art experimental facilities tailored for advanced fuel formulations that include natural gas, preheated air, and additional gaseous feedstocks driven by industry relevance and interest. These facilities provide an open and dynamic environment for industrial partners to rigorously test a diverse array of combustion technologies, from advanced industrial burners and sensors to refractory linings and novel materials. 

BLAZE is designed to apply to the metals, glass, cement, chemicals, and food/beverage industries, while ongoing engagements with these stakeholders will maintain BLAZE’s relevance in ever-changing markets.

Equipped to handle fuel-flexible burner technologies at industry-relevant scales from 0.5-1.5 MWs, the testbeds feature advanced instrumentation for precise characterisation of combustion performance and safety for single and multi-burner configurations. Test furnaces at NETL and ANL will be highly configurable to test process-heating concepts for an array of industrial applications, including direct-fired, indirect-fired, and a specialised materials furnace for long-duration testing in challenging combustion environments. In addition, BLAZE will offer an adjunct boiler testbed at GTI Energy, broadening the scope of industrial heating applications with advanced fuel blends.

BLAZE includes computational fluid dynamics capabilities, which are instrumental in the intelligent scaling of promising technologies. These capabilities harness sophisticated diagnostics and tools, unique to the two national laboratories, to simulate complex operations in direct and indirect burners, furnaces, and boilers.

To ensure broad industry engagement and knowledge dissemination, BLAZE offers a comprehensive service centre, providing open access to a wealth of digital resources focused on fuel flexibility. This central hub is dedicated to sharing critical information on safety protocols, technological breakthroughs, and actionable insights. Key service functions include:

• Combustion Gas Safety — Leveraging decades of national laboratory expertise to offer guidance and connect industries with essential resources.
• Sensors — Supporting the development and scaling of advanced sensors for demanding combustion environments.
• Controls — Providing expert guidance on combustion controls, digital twin development, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Materials — Facilitating material testing for reliability against embrittlement and moisture effects.
• Systems Analyses — Conducting thorough technoeconomic, life cycle, and market analyses.
• Training and Workforce Development — Developing targeted resources and webinars for the industrial combustion sector.
• Modelling and Simulations — Robustly validating computational models and “best-practices” for scaling burner designs for a variety of fuels.