The American Flame Research Committee is chaired by Philip Smith of the University of Utah.  The technical secretary is Jordan Loftus, a Texaco retiree.  The positions of treasurer and secretary are held respectively by Charles Benson, etaPartners, and David Schalles, Bloom Engineering.  Contact details for these individuals as well as the full list of AFRC Member organisations is available at this link on the IFRF Members Exchange.

AFRC wishes to announce that their 2012 Annual Meeting will take place at the Officer’s Club on the University of Utah campus Wednesday, September 5 – Friday, September 7, 2012.  A block of rooms is being held at the University Guest House for conference attendees at a rate of $95/night (based on single or double occupancy).  A Call for Papers for this meeting will go out on or around March 20, 2012, and a draft agenda should be posted on the website on or around July 1, 2012.  Additional information can be obtained on the AFRC website http://www.AFRC.net. 

AFRC Member CD-adapco is hosting a workshop entitled “Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Fired Equipment in Oil & Gas” on March 29, 2012 at the Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel in Houston, TX.  For additional information or to register for this meeting, please visit CD-adapco’s website at http://www.cd-adapco/events/workshops/70140000000N5qg

CRRM (Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing LLC) has awarded a contract to AFRC Member Great Southern Group for a flameless crude heater which will be located at their refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas.  The contract fulfills the requirements of a recently posted EPA Consent Decree for the first flameless heater to be operational by December 31, 2012.  A second flameless heater will be operational by December 31, 2016.  More information about this exciting event is contained in the announcement on the AFRC website.

Also regarding Great Southern, and as also reported in this week’s edition of Combustion Industry News, the U.S. Patent Office has granted the company Patent No. 81283993 “Method and Apparatus for Controlling Gas Flow Patterns Inside a Heater Chamber and Equalizing Radiant Heat Flux to a Double Fired Coil”.  On March 6, 2012 Great Southern was granted 21 claims.  The Abstract and Claims can be viewed by a quick search at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website at http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm.  Enter the number 8128399 into the Query box for viewing.

For additional information on the AFRC please visit http://www.AFRC.net.
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