For his project “Beyond the Hydrogen Leak: Advancing Understanding of Ignition and Flame Propagation to Inform Mitigation Strategies” (BeLIF), Dr.-Ing. Tao Li has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). BeLIF is set to improve safety in the use of hydrogen as an alternative energy source. The project investigates the entire chain of events arising from hydrogen leaks—from the escape of the gas through ignition to the flame itself—in order to better understand how such hazardous situations can be prevented in the first place. The grant is awarded with 1.5 million euros.

“Hydrogen can only realise its potential for the energy transition if we can manage it safely. With BeLIF, Tao Li is addressing precisely this issue, combining excellent basic research with high technological and societal relevance,” says Professor Matthias Oechsner, Vice President for Research at TU Darmstadt. “The ERC Starting Grant is therefore also a significant accolade for energy research at TU Darmstadt”.

Hydrogen (H2) is one of the great hopes of the energy transition. Yet hydrogen is also tricky. It ignites very easily and across a very wide range of mixing ratios. It is precisely these properties that make it attractive as an energy carrier, but they also demand a particularly well-thought-out safety concept when handling it. A leak in a plant, from which hydrogen escapes under high pressure, can lead to explosions and fires, injuries and catastrophic damage as a result of the slightest external influences.

“A sustainable hydrogen economy can only be built if the safety risks associated with using hydrogen are fully understood,” says Tao Li, head of a research group at the institute of Reactive Flows and Diagnostics (RSM), who secured the ERC grant for BeLIF. “Our mission with BeLIF is to open up pathways to safe use—through a fundamental understanding of ignition and flame propagation, gained from controlled experiments with hydrogen leakage under high pressure.” Until now, the quantitative in-situ laser diagnostics and high-fidelity experimental test rigs tailored to hydrogen safety research needed for this have been lacking.

Proactive safety-by-design approach

BeLIF aims to close this gap by establishing a fundamentals-based understanding of the extremely dynamic processes occurring at a hydrogen leak through the intelligent use of highly advanced experimental methods. To this end, purpose-built high-pressure facilities are to be deployed alongside state-of-the-art in-situ laser diagnostics. A central high-pressure chamber allows for the controlled variation of pressure, turbulence and gas composition in order to replicate real-world environments. This makes it possible to study the thermal, chemical and fluid-dynamic processes that unfold during an uncontrolled hydrogen escape — known as a “loss of containment” — in isolation from one another.

The insights gained in this way can help to prevent unwanted ignition and flame formation at hydrogen leaks. BeLIF will thus create the scientific basis for a paradigm shift in hazard mitigation strategies — away from empirical rules and towards a proactive, scientifically grounded safety-by-design approach.

The project is based within the “Energy and Environment” (E+E) research field at TU Darmstadt and builds on Li's previous research. In particular, it benefits from experimental infrastructure, diagnostic capabilities, and technologies developed through earlier third-party-funded projects conducted by Li’s research group.

About Dr.-Ing. Tao Li
Dr.-Ing. Tao Li has led his own research group at the institute of Reactive Flows and Diagnostics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at TU Darmstadt since 2024. The group addresses fundamental scientific questions related to the energy transition, with a particular focus on turbulent high-pressure combustion of carbon-free fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. Li completed his doctorate and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at TU Darmstadt. As a visiting researcher, he spent time at leading research institutions such as Princeton University (USA), the University of Cambridge (UK) and Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore (USA). Li is strongly connected internationally, publishes prolifically and is dedicated to teaching and supervising students and doctoral candidates. Through his research, he is, among other contributions, a scientist on the BMWK-funded Wotan project (hydrogen combustion technology for next-generation propulsion systems, 2022–2025), a member of the Clean Circles project (funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science, 2021–2025), and part of the Oxyflame Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio funded by the German Research Foundation (Development of methods and models to describe solid fuel reactions within an Oxy-Fuel atmosphere, 2018–2025). Alongside numerous other honours, Li was awarded the prestigious Bernard Lewis Fellowship of the Combustion Institute in 2024 and named an Athene Young Investigator of TU Darmstadt in 2025.
 

ERC Starting Grants
ERC Starting Grants are awarded by the European Research Council to researchers from all disciplines within ten 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.

Source:  FCW Team