TOTeM 52, entitled ‘Oxy-fuel combustion and CCUS’, was held last week on 27-28 May 2026 in Essen, Germany. Organised by the IFRF French Committee and hosted by GWI, the event attracted close to 60 participants from some 12 countries – mainly from Europe but also including participants from China and Japan.  Industrial organisations represented exactly half of the attendees, reflecting the important role of both IFRF and GWI in providing a forum for both industry and academia to interact on energy-related topics.

The event itself included  4 keynote lectures, 16 oral presentations, 13 posters, and a visit to the GWI pilot facilities. As usual, copies of the presentations and the photo gallery will be made available to all participants in the coming weeks on the IFRF website.

In wrapping up the TOTeM, David Honoré of CNRS noted that the programme has confirmed that oxyfuel combustion is still a hot topic, especially for the decarbonisation of industry. 

Progress was presented in a variety of applications including high temperature processes, power and heat generation, and the manufacturing industry. Burner configurations presented included jet flames, swirl, flameless, multiple flames, pulverised solid fuel burner, and grade furnace. Presentations also covered a variety of fuel uses where oxyfuel combustion can help to improve flame stabilisation and efficiency, from biomass and waste as alternative solid fuels to hydrogen and ammonia as zero-carbon fuels. CCUS concepts addressed included Chemical Looping Combustion and CO2 diluted oxyfuel combustion.

Across all topics, complementary approaches were presented with numerical simulations from the single particle level, up to full industrial plant scale. This included lab-scale experiments with canonical burner configurations and advanced optical diagnostics, semi-industrial experiments in pilot facilities, and full-scale industrial demonstration projects. As further noted by David, the success of the TOTeM illustrates the aim of the IFRF community to cover and bring together all aspects of industrial combustion.

I would like to thank Fives, who sponsored the event, and the IFRF French Committee and GWI for their excellent organisation. GWI were fantastic hosts, providing a conference dinner, outdoor barbecue, a tour of their test facilities, and the opening keynote lecture from Jörg Leicher.