Prof. Dr. Johannes Paulus

"Prof. Dr. Paulus is the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and leads the laboratories for Thermodynamics, Energy, and Heat Technology. He has extensive experience in the operational and scientific-technical management of large-scale energy generation plants and has been a member of national supervisory bodies of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, a member of the Reactor Safety Commission (RSK) of the German government, and chairman of the Committee on Plant and System Technology. He was the head of the primary circuit and core testing for the Munich II research reactor and the responsible technical division manager for several nuclear power plants at a utility company. Additionally, he has led key safety analyses in the nuclear sector. His primarily industry-funded research activities have led to significant third-party funding (worth several million euros), focusing on "Application of Analytical and Experimental Heat Flux Analysis," "Hydrogen Technology," and "Energy and Plant Technology" with its many facets. In the area of "Heat Flux Analysis," Prof. Paulus has achieved outstanding successes in industrial projects, including non-destructive thermographic analysis of components, thermal load analysis and simulation of energy cable systems and high-voltage feedthroughs, and thermomechanical evaluation of electric mobility batteries. Nonlinear convective and diffusive heat transfer processes, the coupling of electrical and thermal phenomena, and code development have been carried out, along with corresponding experimental analyses. In the area of "Energy and Plant Technology," his work on the energy transition stands out. Since 2009, he has been instrumental in designing the first industrial Power-to-Gas facility in Bavaria, which went into operation on October 21, 2016, and conducted studies on the use of wind energy and the integration of renewable energy carriers. Furthermore, he has analytically and experimentally studied and developed passive autocatalytic recombiners (PAR) in the hydrogen technology sector. Current projects include the development of a hydrogen fuel cell-based propulsion system for an aircraft (ZIM project, €1.1 million), the development of flexible, bivalent hot gas generators, and a plant for LNG production. For his work, Prof. Paulus was awarded the VDI Promotion Award in 2008 and 2013, and the DUH Environmental Prize in 2013 (Power-to-Gas plant in Haßfurt)."