[월간수소경제 박상우 기자] BMW has developed a burner that can be used by blending natural gas (NG) and hydrogen at its plant in Leipzig, Germany.
BMW announced on the 20th (local time) that it has developed a burner capable of co-combusting gas and hydrogen, will install it in the paint process at the Leipzig plant and will start test operations.
These burners can use natural gas or hydrogen alone or a mixture of both. The fuel can also be changed during operation. This provides the energy needed by the paint dryer used in the painting process.
The burner was jointly developed by Saacke, a German manufacturer of hydrogen burners, and the Fraunhofer IFF, Magdeburg, Germany, which mainly deals with research on the fourth industrial revolution, robots, automation and process intelligence.
The hydrogen currently supplied to the burner is hydrogen reformed from natural gas and green hydrogen will be supplied via pipelines starting in 2024.
BMW plans to convert all burners used in the paint process at the Leipzig plant to these burners when the test is successfully completed and sufficient green hydrogen is supplied.
