The International Flame Research Foundation as an Example for International Industrial Joint Research

The "energy crisis" may be said to have become effective in late 19 74 with the international realization that the premium fuels, viz. high quality fuel oils, natural gas etc. which had been freely available in the immediately preceding decades at relatively low cost, would gradually disappear from the market. This fact and the consequent escalation of primary energy costs have promoted research into the production of fuels which in the past would not have been considered to be economically viable. In this category may be included a full spectrum of fuels ranging from those of higher calorific values such as fuel oil and natural gas which occur in deeper wells or further off-shore, to low quality fuels such as oil shales which contain relatively small proportions of combustible materials or low calorific value byproduct gases, for example from the steel industry. In addition many countries which have been heavily dependent upon imported or home-produced fuel oil and natural gas, are planning to consume an increasing proportion of coal, particularly in view of the more recent international disfavour which has arisen with respect to electricity production from nuclear fuels. The problems which arise in the utilization of these "replacement" fuels and in particular because of the addition of lower grade fuels to the market are exacerbated by a parallel increase in the understanding of the deleterious effect of combustion products upon human beings and the environment in general. This realization has become increasingly international and the rate at which legislation is being enacted against the uncontrolled emission of pollutants is rapidly gaining momentum. Thus the major international combustion research problems for the 1980's may be specified as: - how do we burn efficiently, a new range of fuels which may include for example relatively high ash coals, new refinery residues such as solid asphaltenes or high asphaltene content oils, oil shales, shale oils, gasification process residues, low calorific value gas or gases which had formally been flared, turf, forestry wastes, etc. ? - for all fuels, how do we burn them such that we do not create excessive damage to our environment ? - with-these restraints, how do we optimize heat transfer characteristics and what are the resulting combustion design characteristics ? - how do we translate, with confidence, the results of pilot scale combustion trials to full scale process or power plant utilization particularly since a traditional "gradual chance" approach is precluded due to the urgency of the situation ? The solution of these problems must form the core of combustion research in the 19 80's and indeed progressively during the 1970's, the research programme of the International Flame Research Foundation (IFRF) has been directed more and more towards the specific areas outlined above.