In May 2018, 120 people from 15 countries gathered at the iconic Sheffield Town Hall to be part of IFRF’s landmark 70^th anniversary conference.

During the two day conference, there were over 50 presentations tackling a range of research areas and sectors but all with the overall driver – identifying clean, safe and efficient industrial combustion.

Keynotes came from Jim Swithenbank, University of Sheffield; IFRF Director Philip Sharman; IFRF General Secretary Mohamed Pourkashanian; Jörg Leicher, GWI; Ian Hodgson, DG Environment and Steve Griffiths, Uniper.

In addition, there was a lively panel discussion on the environmental constraints of modern day industrial combustion between Ian Hodgson; Jeremy Nicholson, Energy Intensive User Group; Fredrik Neuwahl, European IPPC Bureau; and Keith Burnard, IEA GHG, which was convened by Kurt Kraus, Honeywell Callidus UOP Technologies.

Outside of the main hall activities there were 15 technical sessions (with a total of 42 papers) which delegates were able to move between to capture the talks most relevant to their area of interest.

Attendees were also able to visit the University of Sheffield’s PACT facilities for a guided tour and attend a drinks reception and Gala Dinner at the Magna Science Centre’s Face of Steel exhibition.

Feedback from attendees has been very positive, including:

“Very interesting topics and high level of participants. Good distribution between industry and academia. This conference is a must.”

“Well organised event with combustion expertise in all areas. Good networking opportunities”

“Extremely interesting event as always. Great presentations and networking”

We would like to offer our thanks to all who attended, presented, contributed and exhibited at #IFRF2018. We look forward to seeing you at future IFRF events.

Click here to view the photo gallery from the event (courtesy of Wilkinson Photography).

To relive the conference – read through our Twitter Moment which captures the thoughts, discussions and pictures over both days.

Later this year we will also be publishing a special edition of our Industrial Combustion Journal to include some of the technical presentations covered by #IFRF2018. Keep a lookout for this!

The next IFRF event will be TOTeM45 (Topic Orientated Technical Meeting) which will be held in Cardiff, UK. TOTeM45 will be looking at Gas Turbines for Future Energy Systems. Full details including programme outline and online booking for TOTeM45 are available here.