Burner Laboratories to Advance Fuel UtiliZation for Thermal Energy (BLAZE) – Overview of a new US DOE Testing Platform

The new Burner Laboratories to Advance Fuel UtiliZation for Thermal Energy (BLAZE) platform is designed to accelerate the commercial adoption of fuel-flexible combustion technologies within the energy-intensive industrial heating sector.  BLAZE offers industry leaders unparalleled access to state-of-the-art testbed facilities and capabilities uniquely offered within the US Department of Energy National Laboratories. These facilities include test furnaces equipped with advanced instrumentation, enabling the rigorous evaluation and validation of novel combustion, sensor, and materials technologies, particularly for industrial heat applications using advanced fuel blends of natural gas, hydrogen, biogas, and ammonia.

This webinar will outline how testing and developing technology within the BLAZE platform can help U.S. industries enhance energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and boost competitiveness by enabling the use of a wider range of fuels. We will discuss the project's capabilities in leveraging computational modeling for retrofits and scaling, and the comprehensive Service Center providing access to critical information, and support in areas such as hydrogen safety, advanced sensors, and workforce development.

IHEA's Sustainability and Decarbonization webinar series focuses on carbon producing heating processes and provide methods to optimize their efficiency and thereby reduce their carbon emission intensity. Additionally, these webinars cover the various scopes of carbon emissions and the methods to determine your site, or specific equipment, carbon footprint. The available DOE tools and other resources for determining and reducing your carbon footprint will be presented. Overall, this webinar series gives the attendees an excellent overview of carbon emissions, how to determine them, and how to reduce them.  Learn more about IHEA's Sustainability Initiatives by clicking here.

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026

Time: 11:00 AM Eastern

Cost: Free!

Registration:  CLICK HERE to register.

Presenter: Kristyn Johnson May, National Energy Technology Laboratory, US DOE

Dr. Kristyn Johnson May is a Research Engineer for the US Department of Energy (DOE) at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia on the Thermal Sciences team under the Advanced Turbines program.  Her work at NETL and research interests are focused on machine learning and large dataset analysis applications for advancing fuel-flexibility of industrial combustion technologies and experimental rotating detonation engines.    She earned her BS in Aerospace Engineering and BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 from West Virginia University.  She completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2023 studying the development of computer vision diagnostics applied to rotating detonation combustors for power generation.