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Show I J muiden October 1987 1 . 0 INTRODUCTION - 2 - Waste Incineration . Technology The International Flame Research Foundation is a co-operative research organisation studying combustion in industrial heating systems. The IFRF was founded in 1948 by the Netherlands, French and British Steel Industries to supervise a joint research project. Interest in the IFRF grew and more industries in these and other countries wished to participate in the research programme. Ini tially, the Research Station was concerned with heat transfer from turbulent diffusion flames produced from heavy fuel oil firing. From the beginning it was decided to work at a so-called semi-industrial scale with flames of around 2-4 MWt. These were fired in experimental furnaces with heat extraction systems designed to simulate the thermal boundary conditions found in the full scale industrial situation. The work led to the specification of design criteria for industrial burners. After 1955, the research scope expanded to include work on flames produced from pulverised coal and a range of fuel gases, of which natural gas was of particular importance. More recently, the basic emphasis of the work moved away from heat transfer towards the control of atmospheric pollutant emissions. During the .last decade, there was a particular emphasis on burner design requirements for a variety of so-called off-specification fuels, some of which have been relatively difficult to burn in stable unsupported flames. Within this range of fuels were, for example, refinery residues fired both as liquids and solirts and · low calorific value gases produced as by-products from iron making. Today, the Foundation is organised into nine national committees. Each national committee makes an annual financial contribution to ' the IFRF to provide a core fund for research to be carried out at the Research Station in IJmuiden, the Netherlands. The national committees also regularly meet to discuss research results in the member countries and to plan new research directives for the Foundation. Research results are normally discussed within groups of members known as Panels which have been established to consider specific aspects of combustion research. At present there are six Panels concentrating on the scientific aspects of flame aerodynamics, chemistry and heat transfer and technical aspec t s of the firing of gaseous, liquid and pulverised fuels. The subjects of these six panels represent the ongoing research interest .of the members. However , there are additional research interests which may be |
