From 17th -19th June 2025 the IFRF will be holding its first full, in-person conference since 2018. 

Hosted in Sheffield, UK – the current home of IFRF – the conference promises to be an invigorating and exciting event, including several noted keynote speakers, plenty of talk sessions on the latest research and development in the field and a tour of the Translational Energy Research Centre. 

Read below for more details on all the key elements of the conference. Please note registration for this event will open in October 2024. 

Date

Tuesday 17th June – Thursday 19th June 2025

Venue

Sheffield Town Hall, Sheffield, UK
Address: Pinstone St, Sheffield City Centre, S1 2HH

Draft programme

Keynote speakers

Louis Ricci – R&D Director at Fives Combustion Business Unit

Louis Ricci is a professional in the domain of industrial combustion, currently serving as the R&D Director at Fives Combustion Business Unit. With an extensive engineering background around combustion, he coordinates R&D topics and decarbonation actions across the three brands of the Fives group: Fives North American Combustion, Fives Pillard, and Fives Itas, providing combustion systems in various industrial sectors. Promoting progress, development, and pragmatic innovation in thermal energy and environmental concerns around combustion topics is his core focus. 

The necessity of energy transition presents new challenges, and he is proud to contribute to them. He holds a Mechanical and Energy Engineering degree from Arts et Métiers Engineering School of Paris (1990) and a MBA. With over 25 years of experience in combustion, he has technical expertise in combustion and pyro processes and is the inventor of multiple combustion systems. His key positions include R&D Director at Fives Combustion Business Unit (since 2021), COO and CTO at Fives Itas (2016-2018), CTO at Fives Pillard (2007-2016), and R&D Director at CNIM Environment France (2019-2021). His work is dedicated to improving efficiency and reducing emissions in industrial processes, a key target for his company and the broader industry.

Sebastiano Fumero – Head of “Future Low Emission Industries” unit,  European Research Executive Agency, European Commission

Sebastiano is currently the Head of Unit in the European Commission – Research Executive Agency for the “Future Low Emission Industries” in charge of the management of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, contributing to the European Green Deal’s goals towards just transition and a climate-neutral economy.
The last 30 years, he used to serve the EU priorities by several positions as Cabinet member, Political decision-maker, and Head of Unit in both European Parliament and in the European Commission.

His portfolios included mainly research and innovation for the environment. The EU transport and aviation policies, aeronautics’ parts in Framework Programmes (FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020), research budget, the initiatives of Joint Undertaking Clean Aviation and of Joint Technology Initiative in aeronautics (Clean Sky 2). Sebastiano has studied European Law and Political Sciences (Turin). He used to be fellow of International Labour Organisation (Turin), École Nationale d’Administration (Paris), of Diplomatic Institute of Rome, and of the Fondation Jean Monnet. Sebastiano speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish

Philip de Goey – Full Professor of Combustion Technology in the Power & Flow, Department of Mechanical Engineering at TU/e (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Philip de Goey is Full Professor of Combustion Technology in the Power & Flow section of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at TU/e. His areas of expertise include combustion science, technology and innovation, energy, thermo-fluids and heat transport technology. From 1988 to 1995, he was Assistant Professor and from 1995-2000 he was Associate Professor of combustion science in the Section Energy Technology at the Mechanical Engineering Department of the TU/e. Philip is active and well-known for numerical and experimental research in the field of laminar flames, turbulent flames, engines, gas turbines, flame thermo-acoustics, etc. The two most important achievements for which the chair is known are the invention of:

I) The Heat Flux Method, one of the most accurate methods known for measuring adiabatic burning velocities and used by at least 12 other groups in the world, which will be extended to metal fuels within the current project
II) The FGM method, a very efficient and accurate combustion modeling technique, also well recognized in the combustion community worldwide and also used by more than 30 groups/industries over the world.

Philip de Goey studied Theoretical Physics at Radboud University, Nijmegen and received his PhD from the Department of Physics of the TU/e for his thesis ‘Collision Phenomena in a Quantum Gas’. From 1999-2000 he was Visiting Professor at the Institut fur Technische Mechanik (Prof. Norbert Peters) at the RWTH-Aachen, Germany. Philip has been chairman of the Dutch Section of the Combustion Institute, chairman of the platform ‘Clean and Efficient Combustion’ of the Dutch Technology Foundation STW-SZV and program leader of the STW perspectief program Clean Combustion Concepts (2008-date). He has previously acted as Associate Editor and Editor of the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Coordinator and Colloquium Co-Chair of the colloquium on ‘Laminar Flames’ at the 31st and 32nd (Int.) Symposium on Combustion. Philip has (co-)authored over 400 scientific publications and is a scientific committee member of 10 international conferences.

Registration and ticket prices

Registration for this event will open in October 2024.  

During registration you will be asked to confirm whether you are interested in taking the tour of TERC, which can hold up to a maximum of 80 participants. You will also be asked to confirm whether you are joining for the dinner on Wednesday 18th June, and any dietary/accessibility requirements.

Call for abstracts

The call for abstracts will be announced shortly.  

Scientific committee

• Sébastien Caillat, Fives Group
• Benedicte Cuenot, Safran
• Mario Ditaranto, SintefGreg Kelsall, IFRF
• Jörg Leicher, GWI
• Bill Nimmo, U. Sheffield
• Sauro Pasini, IFRF
• Mohamed Pourkashanian, U. Sheffield
• Nico Schmitz, U. Aachen
• Nils Skoglund, U. Umeå
• Giancarlo Sorrentino, CNR

More members to be confirmed. 

Organisational committee

• Melissa Ayres – IFRF/TERC
• Sébastien Caillat – IFRF/Fives
• Siobhan Green – IFRF/TERC
• Greg Kelsall – IFRF
• Sauro Pasini – IFRF
• Mohamed Pourkashanian – IFRF/TERC
• Rhianne Spurden/Niamh Haughey – IFRF/TERC

Tour

On Wednesday 18th June, from 16:00 – 17:30, delegates have the option of attending a tour of the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) facilities. 

TERC is a world-leading pilot-scale research centre which works with industry to test and develop green energy solutions for a decarbonised future. It is one of the largest and best-equipped zero-carbon energy research and development facilities in Europe.

With full capability to test, optimise and demonstrate technologies at pilot-scale, TERC has everything needed for commercially focused, mission-oriented research and development. Its expertise covers hydrogen, bioenergy, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), as well as renewables and the wider energy system.

The tour will allow you to see many of the exciting pieces of equipment based at TERC, as well as hear from its resident experts. 

If you are interested in joining the tour, please confirm this on your registration when prompted. There are a maximum of 80 available places on the tour. 

Transport

Sheffield Town Hall is located in the heart of the city centre, within walking distance of rail links, park & ride facilities and city centre parking. 

Sheffield is the perfect location for both national and international events with fast transport links to the West Country, North, South, London and airports.

Nearest airports: The closest airports to Sheffield are Manchester, Leeds Bradford, and East Midlands. Manchester Airport is the best option for Sheffield, with easy onward train travel. To reach Sheffield from Manchester Airport, take the train from Manchester Airport to Manchester Piccadilly, then change to take a train to Sheffield. 

Nearest train station: Sheffield station, Sheaf Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 2BP

From there, the Town Hall is a 7-10 minute taxi ride, with cabs available outside the station or by pre-booking, or a 9 minute walk. 

Tram: Sheffield has a tram system which can take you to links across the city. The closest tram stops to the Town Hall are Cathedral, Castle Square, City Hall and West Street tram stops.  

By car and taxi: You can order taxis in Sheffield via Uber, Bolt or the local service Veezu (+44 01179 252626 or via the app). If you are planning to drive, information about city centre car parking can be found here. 

Accommodation

Sheffield, particularly the city centre, is home to a range of hotels with easy access to the Town Hall. 

We have put together specially-created list of hotels with delegate rates for this event.

Reservations can be made using the web address below until 28 days prior to the event start date. On this date some hotels will choose to leave unsold rooms on the system, or they may remove them. The site will close fully 14 days prior to the event start date. After this date contact details for hotel will be given for last minute enquiries. As more bookings are made, this encourages hotels to leave their rooms on the system for as long as possible, so please book early where possible.

If you are interested in a block booking for a group, please get in touch with us at administration@ifrf.net and we will coordinate this for you.

Booking website: https://book.passkey.com/e/50878145