About

The International Flame Research Foundation – IFRF – is the research hub of the global industrial combustion community.

We facilitate access to research and disseminate information worldwide.

Our mission is to advance applied combustion research and promote cooperation and information transfer throughout the international combustion and energy arena.

      • David Honoré

        Vice Chair for Comité Francais

        David Honoré is the Vice Chair for the Comité Francais.

      • Miko Hupa

        Co-opted specialist, Finland

        Miko Hupa is a co-opted specialist for the IFRF, based in Finland.

      • Greg Kelsall

        Executive Director

        Greg has over 30-years’ experience in the energy industry with specialist knowledge in clean energy systems.  He is Principal Associate to the IEA Clean Coal Centre and Visiting Professor in Low Carbon Energy Systems at the University of Sheffield. His industrial experience includes fuel flexible gas turbines, CCS, fuel cells and renewables.

      • Melissa Ayres

        Company Secretary

        Melissa Ayres is the Company Secretary for the IFRF. She is also Head of Finance, Commerical and Partnerships for the Translational Energy Research Centre and the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Innovation Centre.

      • Karen Finney

        Co-opted Specialist: Early Career Researchers

        Dr Karen N Finney is a chartered engineer and a research fellow at Energy2050 within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Her research expertise is in low-carbon and sustainable energy generation, focussing conventional power, bioenergy and carbon capture.

      • Massimiliano Fantuzzi

        CI Chair

        He is the leader of the R&D group of the Furnaces Business Unit in Genova. He is the author of more than 50 articles published on international magazines of the steel industry field and in the proceedings of international conferences. He is also the chair of the Italian Flame Research Committee (Comitato Italiano – CI). 

      • Yong Yan

        CNFR Chair and Co-opted specialist: Regional (Asia)

        Yong Yan joined the University of Kent in 2004 as a Professor of Electronic Instrumentation and the Head of Instrumentation and Control. He has been Director of Research of the School of Engineering and Digital Arts since 2008. He has published more than 170 papers in peer reviewed journals.  Yan is also the CFRC NC representative.

      • Jacques Dugué

        Co-opted specialist: Safety

        Jacques Dugué is the Fired Equipment Adviser at TOTAL Refining and Chemicals and Council member of IFRF.

      • Chuck Benson

        Co-opted specialist: New Fuels

        Chuck Benson is the co-opted specialist for New Fuels.

      • Mohamed Pourkashanian

        General Secretary

        Professor Pourkashanian is the General Secretary of IFRF, Head of Energy-2050 at the University of Sheffield, and is the Executive Director of PACT UK. He holds a chair in Energy Engineering and has completed numerous major research projects on clean energy technology and received a substantial sum of grants from EPSRC, EU, NATO, and industry.

      • Sébastien Caillat

        Vice-President

        Sébastien Caillat is Combustion Engineer since 2014 at Fives Stein, equipment and service provider for the steel and glass industry, where he is developing combustion systems for the steel industry, in particular for reheating furnaces and radiant tube furnaces. Since 2013 Sébastien has been the Chair of French Flame Research Committee (CF).

      • Sauro Pasini

        President

        Sauro Pasini spent his professional life at Enel, focusing on the development and implementation of new generation technologies. He is author of over 180 papers in the field of heat transfer, clean combustion, renewable energies and advanced generation technologies.