Awarded for Outstanding Research Contribution

Chemnitz thermodynamicist Prof. Dr. Markus Richter received this year's Ared Cezairliyan Best Paper Award as part of an international research team - Fundamental research for competitive use of liquefied biomethane as green energy carrier

For his outstanding research contribution on the density measurement of two liquefied biomethane-like mixtures, Prof. Dr. Markus Richter, head of the Professorship of Technical Thermodynamics at Chemnitz University of Technology, is part of the international research team honored with the Ared Cezairliyan Best Paper Award on August 1, 2022. The award will be presented at the virtual Asian Thermophysical Properties Conference in September 2022.

The Ared Cezairliyan Best Paper Award has been awarded annually since 2020 by the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Thermophysics for the best research paper of a year. The prize is named after the founding editor of the journal - Ared Cezairliyan - and is endowed with 1,500 euros.

The award is special for researchers in the field of thermodynamics, as the journal is one of the recognized professional bodies in the field of thermopyhsical property research and is an excellent platform for publishing technical papers.

The award-winning paper was published in 2021 as an Open Access contribution under the title "Density Measurements of Two Liquefied Biomethane-Like Mixtures over the Temperature Range from (100 to 180) K at Pressures up to 9.0 MPa".

Important foundations laid for competitive use of biomethane

In their work, the researchers are laying important foundations that can help liquefied biomethane (LBM), for example, become more competitive. Biomethane can already be used today as a climate-neutral and locally produced gas by end consumers or by (heating) power plants with gas access. It comes either from biogas processing or from a power-to-gas application. This involves methanization processes in which hydrogen and carbon dioxide are converted to methane and water.

At present, however, there is still a major challenge in accurately determining the quantities of LBM supplied in custody transfer. This would be a prerequisite for its widespread use as an energy source. The award-winning work makes an important contribution here, because for the first time, the density of biomethane in the liquefied state has been measured at very low temperatures down to -173 °C over a wide pressure range. This data, which plays a key role in billing, is unique worldwide.

Professor Richter comments: "The award-winning paper is the latest in a series of papers we have published within the scope of the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) on the subject of liquefied natural gas and LBM, and is based on many years of cooperation between several research institutions." The Ared Cezairliyan Best Paper Award is a great appreciation of the elaborate experiments and data analyses, which is why the entire team is very pleased to receive the award, Richter says. "In particular, I'm happy for the PhD candidates who did most of the complex lab work."

Publication: Cavuoto, G., von Preetzmann, N., Eckmann, P. et al. Density Measurements of Two Liquefied Biomethane-Like Mixtures over the Temperature Range from (100 to 180) K at Pressures up to 9.0 MPa. Int J Thermophys 42, 43 (2021).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-020-02791-9.

For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Markus Richter, Professorship of Technical Thermodynamics at Chemnitz University of Technology, tel. +49 371/531-38050, e-mail m.richter@mb.tu-chemnitz.de.

(Translation: Brent Benofsky)

Matthias Fejes
29.08.2022

All "University News" articles