Department of Thermal energy

The department is engaged in thermal energy conversion processes. These include combustion, gasification and pyrolysis from energy sources such as fossil fuels, biomass and waste.

Contact person

Petter Egil Røkke

Research Director

About the department of Thermal energy

The department leads HighEFF, which is one of the Norwegian Research Council’s Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research programme (FME). The Centre works to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in Norwegian industry, with a view to make it the world's greenest.

We are involved in other FME centres, namely NCCS (CO₂ capture and storage), Bio4Fuels (bioenergy) and ZEN (zero emission neighbourhoods in smart cities), where we lead work packages, as well as HYDROGENi (hydrogen and ammonia as carbon-free fuels). Research centre LowEmission (emissions reduction on the Norwegian continental shelf) is also on our list of projects.

Around 90% of global energy consumption is derived from the combustion of fossil fuels. The climate crisis means more efficient processes to drastically reduce climate gas emissions, while increasing our use of renewable energy derived from biomass resources.

Our technical work is grounded in classical thermodynamics, flow phenomena, heat and mass transport, combustion engineering and the thermal properties of the fuel in question.

We have extensive expertise in both experimental and numerical applications. Our projects for technology manufacturers and users on the local and international markets include both long-term development projects as well as specialised concepts.