Our Story

The story of the software package DETCHEM started in summer 1998 in the desert of New Mexico. Olaf Deutschmann worked there in a business of his own to develop a computer code for the implementation of detailed surface chemistry models into CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) codes after being a Postdoc with Lanny Schmidt at the University of Minnesota. The name of the software came up when one of the first users, an American petro-chemical company, requested a name for the product it was about to acquire; the name is simply derived from DETailed CHEMistry. The development and use of microkinetic reaction schemes in the computer simulation of chemical reactors has been a core task right from the beginning. The development of DETCHEM would not have been possible without learning from the famous pioneers in the field, Ulrich Maas, Robert J. Kee and late Jürgen Warnatz.

Over the years, the package has been growing in terms of modules, stand-alone codes for special purposes such as simulation of monolithic catalysts and fuel cells, coupling to CFD codes, and a broad range of applications reaching from chemical and process industry to the energy and mobility providers and, recently, even to the bio-technology sector.

Today, DETCHEM stands for computer codes coupling detailed chemistry models with CFD codes, the models (reaction mechanisms) themselves, and digitalization of kinetic information by the new tool CaRMeN.

Many enthusiastic scientists, engineers, and programmers contributed to this success story. Among the names given in the authors lists of the products and publications, we would especially like to express our sincere appreciation to Steffen Tischer (software) and Luba Maier (mechanisms).

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