International Flame Research Foundation

The International Flame Research Foundation (IFRF) is a co-operative research organization and network, founded in 1948 in IJmuiden, the Netherlands. Currently IFRF operates from Livorno Italy, where it has shared space with the Enel Research experimental facilities since 2007. IFRF has some 130 organisations as members, these being industrial companies or academic institutions interested in industrial combustion, representing around 1000 persons. Independent professionals may also join as members.
In addition to performing experimental and modelling research in-house to enhance its own data bank, IFRF contracts research from public and private companies, and develops, manufactures, sells and tests measurement probes and systems. IFRF also facilitates access to research capabilities and expertise worldwide, and disseminates information.
For its Members, IFRF facilitates networking both online and face to face, the latter via technical events, conferences, and training courses organized in cooperation with an interconnected grid of IFRF National Committees around the world.
:The IFRF vision is: "To be the international reference point for clean and efficient industrial combustion."
:The mission statement is: "To advance applied combustion research and promote cooperation and information transfer throughout the international combustion community."
Membership
The IFRF Membership Network consists of:
* Industrial companies based in the power generation, petroleum refining, iron and steel, cement, glass, and chemical manufacturing industries; those industries where large quantities of fuel are fired in turbulent diffusion flames for process heating purposes
* Associated combustion equipment manufacturers and service companies
* Fuels and industrial gas producers and distributors
* Companies and research organisations active in the fields of fuel production and utilisation, and energy and environmental matters
* Universities, as organisations, or through the independent membership of individual staff members
* Independent professionals
IFRF Membership is administered by eight National Committees for Flame Research, and also centrally from Livorno via the Associate Members' Group which coordinates services in those regions not covered by the National Committees.
National Committees and the Associate Members' Group together provide services to twenty one countries around the world. The IFRF Membership Network extends from the Americas through Europe to Central and East Asia, and to Australia.
The National Committees are:
* American Flame Research Committee - AFRC (member list)
* British Flame Research Committee - BFRC (member list)
* Finnish Flame Research Committee - FFRCmember list)
* French Flame (Comité Français) - CF (member list)
* German Flame (Deutsche Vereinigung für Verbrennungsforschung e.V.) - DVV (member list)
* Italian Flame (Comitato Italiano) - CI (member list)
* Dutch Flame (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Vlamonderzoek) - NVV(member list)
* Swedish Flame Research Committee - SFRC (member list)
and Associate Members Group - AMG (member list)
History
The basis for the Foundation were laid in 1948 with the establishment in the Netherlands of an International Flame Radiation Research Committee. The use of the word "Radiation" reflected the centre of interest of the Members at that time. The organisation presently known as the International Flame Research Foundation - IFRF - came into being in 1955 with changes in name and structure reflecting growth in the scope of the work and the size of the organisation.
From the early days, the Foundation was an industrially based co-operative research organisation between the British Iron and Steel Research Association (BISRA), the Iron and Steel Research Association of France (IRSID) and, the Royal Dutch Iron and Steel Company (KNHS). This International Consortium provided the basis for the design of handbooks for the steam atomised, heavy fuel oil lances used in the open hearth furnaces of France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom during the fifties and sixties, until the Siemens-Martin process was superseded by LD-steelmaking. This focus was expanded - initially in terms of heat transfer by radiation, and subsequently in the field of flame aerodynamics and chemistry, to encompass flames from other fuels to be applied in combustion chambers in other industries.
Over time the Foundation developed into a membership network representing some twenty countries world-wide including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico, Peoples Republic of China, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and, the United States of America.
The work of the IFRF can be seen in terms of phases. The first decade, from 1950 to 1960, was the decade of combustion aerodynamics; the 1970s was the decade of NOx, mathematical modelling and the introduction of contract research; the 1980s - decade of coal combustion research and near field aerodynamics; and the 1990s, the decade of combustion system scaling, development of specialised research facilities, and numerical simulations. All these phases are described in the book Spirit of IJmuiden, Fifty years of the IFRF, 1948-1998, published by Roman Weber and available from IFRF upon request.
Products and services
In addition to performing experimental and modelling research in-house to enhance its own data bank, IFRF contracts research from public and private companies, and develops, manufactures, sells and tests measurement probes and systems. IFRF also facilitates access to research capabilities and expertise worldwide, and disseminates information.
EU Projects
The IFRF is currently involved in two EU funded technical projects: RELCOM, BRISK and recently completed a third DEBCO.
<big>RELCOM project</big>
RELCOM—Reliable and Efficient Combustion of Oxygen/Coal/Recycled Flue Gas Mixtures
FP7-ENERGY-2010-2 Collaborative project number 268191
The RELCOM project is designed to undertake a systematic and focused series of applied research, development and demonstration activities involving both experimental studies and combustion modelling work to enable full-scale early demonstration oxyfuel plant to be designed and specified with greater confidence as well as providing improved assessment of the commercial risks and opportunities. The project is being undertaken by a consortium of higher education institutions, research centres and industrial partners bringing together the best in research facilities and technology development expertise.
Coal will remain a major fuel for electricity generation worldwide for at least several decades. To reduce the impact of climate change, the power generation industry will be increasingly required to reduce its CO2 emissions. Improvement of cycle efficiency and increased use of biomass will help reduce CO2 emissions in the near term, but the longer term need to move to near-zero emission power generation will require the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
Oxyfuel combustion is a CCS technology where fuel is fired with oxygen instead of air, the flue gases then largely consist of CO2 and water vapour so that CO2 purification is readily achieved. Recycle of flue gas mitigates the flame temperature and helps to avoid unacceptable changes in the slagging and corrosion characteristics of the boiler making oxyfuel combustion suitable for retrofit or new-build coal power plant. Oxyfuel combustion has been demonstrated at 40MWt but commercial-scale demonstration is the next necessary step.
The key tasks within RELCOM are:
* Investigation of underpinning technology: fuel and combustion characterisation; flame radiation and explosion characteristics; high temperature gas-side corrosion; flue gas clean-up; and mercury emissions in oxy/coal/recycled flue gas.
* CFD simulation and validation to develop improved burner designs, flame stability assessment and scaling rules
* Pilot-scale burner trials for assessment of novel burner designs and development of combustion monitoring and control systems.
* Medium-scale burner testing using pilot scale results and scaling criteria developed within the project
* Detailed engineering analysis of retrofit and new-build case studies utilising the fundamental data and modelling tools developed within the project
* Dissemination and technology transfer of findings to project stakeholders
The project has a total project value (including the industrial contribution) of €9,736,057 with the EU contributing €6,468,900 over a project duration of 4 years.
The partners in the project are:
* University of South Wales - Coordinator (UK)
* Abo Akademi (Finland)
* E.On New Build & Technology Ltd. (UK)
* Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany)
* Electricite de France S.A. (France)
* University of Leeds (UK)
* Instytut Energetyki (Poland)
* Universitaet Stuttgart (Germany)
* Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
* Doosan Power Systems Ltd. (UK)
* Enel Ingegneria e Innovazione SpA (Italy)
* Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (Spain)
* International Flame Research Foundation (Italy)
<big>BRISK project</big>
BRISK (Biomass Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge) is an initiative from the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme and aims to develop a European research infrastructure for thermochemical biomass conversion.
BRISK offers three principle activities: Transnational Access; Joint Research; Networking. Transnational Access enables European organisations, including those outside the project partnership, to send their researchers to undertake experiments on any of the laboratories offering access or test facilities. The cost of running the rigs for these activities is met by the EC’s BRISK cofunding.
Further information: BRISK website.
The partners in the project are:
* Åbo Akademi University (Finland)
* Aston University Bioenergy Research Group (UK)
* BIOENERGY 2020+ and Graz University of Technology (Austria)
* Cardiff University (UK)
* Centre for Research and Technology -CERTH (Greece)
* CIUDEN and INERCO (Spain)
* Delft University of Technology and PALL Filter Systems (Netherlands)
* ECN (Netherlands)
* ENEA (Italy)
* Energy Technology Centre, Piteå (Sweden)
* Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway)
* Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland)
* Royal Institute of Technology - KTH (Sweden)
* SINTEF (Norway)
* Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)
* Technical University of Munich (Germany)
* TUBITAK, Marmara Research Centre (Turkey)
* University of Naples Federico II (Italy)
* University of Zaragoza (Spain)
* Vienna University of Technology (Austria)
* Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland)
<big>DEBCO project</big>
DEBCO (demonstration of large-scale biomass co-firing and supply chain integration) project under the FP7 was concerned with the development and demonstration of innovative approaches to the co-utilisation of biomass with coal for large-scale electricity production and/or CHP, at more competitive costs and/or increased energy efficiency.
Much of the work involved the demonstrations of relevant biomass co-firing technologies. Key technical aspects monitored included:
* Fuel supply chains
* Biofuel characteristics (agriculture residues, energy crops, woodpellets, etc.)
* Application of advanced co-firing techniques to power and CHP-plants fuelled by both lignite and bituminous coals
Also evaluated was the role of co-firing in a sustainable energy market, including both the technical and social-economic impacts.
The partners in the project were:
* ENEL (Italy)
* Electrabel (Belgium)
* PPC (Greece)
* Tractebel (Belgium)
* Matuz (Hungary)
* IFK - University Stuttgart (Germany)
* Laborelec (Belgium)
* RSE, previously CESI Ricerca (Italy)
* ECN (The Netherlands)
* ISFTA - CERTH (Greece)
* Agriconsulting (Italy)
* VGB (Germany)
* Doosan Babcock (UK)
* Alstom Power (Germany)
* Techhical University of Wroclaw (Poland)
* PCC Rokita SA (Poland)
Further reading
*Weber, R., (1998) "The Spirit of IJMuiden" ISBN 90-801495-2-7,
*Daimon, J. (1997) "Status and prospects of research in the International Flame Research Foundation (IFRF)" Kgyo Kanersa 34 (3) 25-32 (in Japanese)
*Morfan, M.E., & Roberts, P.A., (1987) "Coal combustion characterisation studies at the International Flame Research Foundation" Fuel Processing Technology 15 173-187
*"International Flame Research Foundation members' conference" (1969) Combustion and Flame 13 (4) 446
Websites
*IFRF home
*IFRF online journal
*IFRF Online Combustion Handbook
*Monday Night Mail
*Solid Fuel Database
*BRISK Project website
*RELCOM Project website
*DEBCO Project website
*American National Committee
*British National Committee
*German National Committee
*Finnish National Committee
*Dutch National Committee
*Global Membership Map

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