VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (BFI) is a non-profit research institute located in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is specialised to applied research topics in the field of process industry with a strong focus on steel industry.
BFI maintains close contacts with many industrial partners and with a huge number of research partners around Europe (in total more than 180 project partners). The institute addresses emerging issues of major relevance for steel industry in areas such as „Energy efficiency and CO2 reduction “, „Process and process chain optimisation “, „Circular Economy“ as well as „Industry 4.0 and sensors“ and makes them the focus of research and development work. By dealing with these four main fields of interest simultaneously many synergetic effects can be realised which is a significant strength of BFI. The institute systematically aligns its structures to the requirements of the customers in order to ensure that the research process will deliver the scientific excellence, creativity, flexibility and speed, and for privately funded projects in addition confidentiality, which is essential for the industry in performance of the research activities.
The staff of around 100 people is organised in seven scientific departments and drives in close and interdisciplinary cooperation the above mentioned four thematic topics.
70% of the staff are scientists and engineers who guarantee, together with technicians and administrative staff, a high level of research quality and project performance e.g., by applying a strict quality management of research proposals and a consequent results-oriented management of projects. Nearly all projects end with practically implemented solutions of research results. Scientific results are presented in around 100 publications per year (scientific papers and contributions to conferences). As a research institute BFI networks extensively on an international scale and is very familiar with all relevant national and European funding programmes. BFI scientists are also involved as evaluators in different research programmes and are members of scientific committees like TGA of RFCS or steering committee of ESTEP. People at BFI have the skills and expertise to build and lead powerful consortia and to tackle new research topics together with industrial partners, whether in privately or publicly funded research programmes.
People
Thorsten Hauck holds a PhD in chemical engineering and has 25 years of experience in applied research in iron and steelmaking with main focus on the exploitation of digitalisation for optimisation of processes and process control. In the last 10 years, the decarbonisation of steel production plays a dominant role, covering not only technical aspects but also the stress fields with aspects of economy and policy. He is head of the department “Process optimisation iron and steelmaking” at BFI.
Maximilian Bernds studied Mechanical Engineering at University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf. He joined BFI as a student in the year 2020 and has been working there as a researcher since 2023. In the project, he will be involved in creating the digital twins and working on the ICT tool. He is also responsible for project coordination within the BFI.
Emanuel Kashi Thienpont studied Materials Science at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. He has 17 years of research experience in structural and fluid numerical simulation and over 11 years of experience in the field of combustion and furnace technology, including laboratory tests and operational measurements in steel plants In recent years, the focus of his research has been on the field of data analysis. He has participated in several national and European research projects as well as in several bilateral projects at BFI. He is also an external PhD student at RWTH Aachen University. He is co-/author of more than 15 publications in journals, proceedings of international congresses and scientific reports.
Kersten Marx studied Mechanical Engineering at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. He has 40 years of experience in research in different fields of iron and steelmaking, on fluid mechanics, physical model trials and numerical simulation in several European and national research projects as well as about 150 bilateral projects at BFI. He is co-/author of more than 30 publications in journals, proceedings of international congresses and scientific reports.
Achille Fabien Nkwitchoua Djangang studied electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University. Specializing in power electronics and electric drives, he developed several solutions for railway vehicles, including patented technologies and a holistic train simulator based on dSpace systems. He has contributed to the successful completion of national and international projects at BFI, covering areas such as renewable energy, powertrain design and monitoring, and steel manufacturing process optimization. His research focuses on smart sensors and the development of digital solutions for process optimization, with multiple contributions to scientific publications.
Andreas Wolff studied Control Engineering at the University of Duisburg / Essen and the University of York. He received his PhD from TU Aachen. He is a senior expert and group leader in advanced control, control theory, operation research, AI-based control, and implementing automation systems in the industrial environment. He has more than 20 years of experience in several European and national research projects and bilateral projects at BFI. He is a co-author of more than 70 publications in journals, proceedings of international congresses, and scientific reports.
Bernd Kleimt studied Electrical Engineering and Automation at University Wuppertal. He joined BFI in 1989, and since 2000 he leads the department “Measurement and Automation Steelmaking”. His research interests comprise modelling and simulation of metallurgical processes, as well as application of process models and measurement techniques for monitoring and control of liquid steelmaking processes. He is author and co-author of more than 70 scientific publications. He is member of the RFCS expert group in TGA1 – Iron and Steelmaking and an active member of the European Steel Technology Platform in the Focus Group “Circular Economy”.
Vera Peiss earned a Bachelor’s degree in Energy and Environmental Technology from the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and a Master’s degree in Data Science from IU International University. She joined VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut (BFI), Duesseldorf, Germany. Her main working areas are the development and application of dynamic models for primary and secondary steelmaking processes, and the characterization and optimal use of steel scrap.