Last November, the American Flame Research Committee held their Fall 2002 meeting and was hosted by ChevronTexaco in Houston Texas.

A very important part of the AFRC mission is to provide timely open forums on the application of applied combustion research and technology to improve the competiveness of North American Industries and to enhance the quality of life of its citizens.  The series began in the Fall of 1979.  AFRC is proud of its member organizations in their contributions in the advance of burner design and the plant application of new methodology to meet the 1970 Clean Air Act and subsequent EPA regulations to cap NOx emission during the 80 and 90s – a period of rapid and sustained growth.

With the new millennium The Texas SIP (State Implementation Plan) for Greater Houston Area is calling for NOX levels of three times more stringent in NOX emission than SCAQMD, requiring regulatory reduction from the 20 – 30 PPM NOX to single digit values for all point sources. The AFRC membership seeks to achieve the SIP goals with methodology that will also allow the area’s combustion related industries to remain competitive in the national and local arena while insuring an economic well being of the area.  The are a large percentage of GHA heaters, mainly petroleum and petrochemical, where NOX reduction are realized by burner modifications without the much more expense post heater treatment methodology.  Recent ultra low NOx burner installations have attained the single digit goal but in some case have resulted in combustion-driven oscillations.  The challenge is to damp these oscillations while retain single digit NOx levels and without sacrificing throughput.

The organizing committee made great effort to reach out to the local GHA combustion professionals. Attendees numbered 70 and there were no no-shows, all 70 attended.  The feedback was very positive.  Each attendee received a CD of all the papers in pdf format – including “IFRF – Your Partner in Combustion Technology by Stanley O. Santos etal” – mailed within a month after the meeting.

Dr. Jordan Loftus
AFRC Technical Secretary

Editor’s Note:

CD version of the following AFRC meetings are for sale.

There is a shipping and handling charge. Shipping outside of North America is by FEDEX.  For further details, contact Dr. Jordan Loftus at:

afrcJL@earthlink.net

or

info@ifrf.net