The new test furnace for the High Efficiency Combustion Project has been ordered and is currently being constructed at the furnace supplier in Gendt (Netherlands).

Meanwhile the No1 furnace is being stripped for demolition and site preparation for the HEC facility.

Delivery of the test rig to IFRF-Research Station is expected at the end of September 2002. As soon as the furnace and burners are installed, commissioning and reliability tests will be performed, followed by the first measurement campaign.

For this campaign a concept test programme has been developed and is now available for downloading at the IFRF NET HEC Research Programme website. The complete HEC Phases 1 and 2 Planning Report written by Peter Hoppesteyn and Mark Boss, IFRF Doc No D108/y/1, IJmuiden July 2002, can be downloaded as a pdf file (489kB) from: http://www.research.ifrf.net/HEC/index.html.

The report contains the programme background and objectives, a description of the facility, fuel properties, the concept programme and a summary of the temporal planning.  All members are invited to make their comments on this concept programme. Meanwhile we will be contacting all Individual Members for your reactions.

Editor’s Note:
Whilst you are visiting the site you will also find, available for downloading, the presentation made to the 145th IFRF Joint Committee Meeting on 15th March 2002 at Hotel De Beurs, Hoofddorp, NL (Prepared and presented by Peter HOPPESTEYN).
As we announced in the MNM, 8th April 2002, (“Green light for purchasing new HEC test facility at IFRF Research Station” –  http://www.mnm.ifrf.net/2002/0204art01.html) – the proposals made at the Joint Committee meeting were accepted and the IFRF agreed to become a co-funder of this programme in the period 2002 – 2004 with finance to be taken from the IFRF Members Research Fund.

Please recall, that the Members Research Fund is developed from a portion of the fees of all IFRF Member Organisations. But in this case there is very extensive “gearing” from funding by CORUS, Nederlandse Gasunie and NOVEM, all of which gives IFRF Individual Members direct access to the planning of, and experimental results and Research Reports generated by, what is becoming a major International research programme. Therefore we strongly encourage you study the documentation published so far, and let us know your views on how your money is being spent.