Machine Learning Accelerates Simulations for the Energy Transition
Dr.-Ing. Arne Scholtissek Receives ERC Starting Grant for “ProtoMan” Project
2025/09/04
The research project “Protocol for Data-Driven Manifold Generation, Validation, and Utilization in High-Fidelity Combustion Simulations” (ProtoMan) at TU Darmstadt has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Dr.-Ing. Arne Scholtissek, Senior Academic Councillor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will receive around €1.5 million in funding over five years. He is developing advanced simulation approaches that aim to support the substitution of fossil fuels with carbon-neutral alternatives.
A future powered by clean energy requires profound innovations in combustion technologies. These remain essential for providing high-temperature industrial heat, powering aviation and marine transport, enabling heavy duty applications, and ensuring long-term energy storage. Advanced numerical simulations of reactive flows play a key role in accelerating the transition of these sectors to carbon-neutral or carbon-free fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. Numerical simulations provide unique insights into the dynamics of turbulent reactive flows and can, for example, support the development of more efficient aircraft engines or the optimization of industrial furnaces for operation with green hydrogen.
Simulating complex combustion processes
However, high-fidelity simulations of turbulent reactive flows require substantial computing resources, specialized software, and expert knowledge. Due to the complexity of combustion processes, even large research institutions with high computing power face trade-offs between significant model simplifications and long simulation runtimes – limitations that reduce the applicability of reactive flow simulations in development processes.
“Manifold-based models offer a promising solution for reducing computing costs without compromising accuracy,” says Scholtissek, Deputy Head of the Institute for Simulation of Reactive Thermo-Fluid Systems in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In numerical flow simulation – particularly in combustion modeling – a manifold represents complex chemical reaction mechanisms in a mathematically optimized and physically consistent way. Put simply, a manifold functions as a clever shortcut: instead of recalculating each combustion process from scratch, the model exploits the self-similarity of reactive flows, accelerating simulations by a factor of 10 to 1,000.
Despite this considerable potential, there is currently no straightforward approach to generating manifolds for general conditions – the model development often requires expert knowledge and considerable development times. The project ProtoMan, now funded by an ERC Starting Grant, seeks to unlock the potential of manifold-based models by combining recent advances in combustion research with machine learning techniques.
“With ProtoMan, I want to make manifold models more accessible and easier to use for scientists and development engineers,” explains Scholtissek. “This could significantly speed up the development of carbon-neutral technologies in energy systems, environmental protection, fire safety, and modern industrial processes.”
About
Arne Scholtissek joined the Simulation of Reactive Thermo-Fluid Systems group at TU Darmstadt as a doctoral candidate in 2017. After completing his doctorate, he became a research group leader there and, since 2019, has served as Senior Academic Advisor and Deputy Head of the group. Scholtissek is principal investigator in numerous research projects, including the Collaborative Research Center/TRR 150 Turbulent, Chemically Reactive, Multi-Phase Flows near Walls, funded by the German Research Foundation. In 2021, he was named an Athene Young Investigator, a TU Darmstadt program that promotes the scientific independence of early-career researchers and enables them to supervise doctoral students. His main research interests include modeling and simulation of chemically reactive flows, ignition phenomena, thermochemical conversion of metallic energy carriers, and efficient numerical methods for simulating reactive flows.
ERC Starting Grants
ERC Starting Grants are awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) to researchers from all disciplines within seven years of completing their doctorate. With these grants, the European Union aims to support outstanding research and promote early-career scientists. The Starting Grant targets researchers at the beginning of their independent careers who have already demonstrated scientific excellence and seek to establish their own research projects or research groups.
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