The Birmingham TOTeMs, held last week, certainly confirmed that the questions of climate change control, carbon dioxide emissions and all related matters are key issues for the IFRF.

TOTeM26, 25th November, Chaired by Nick Otter, Director Technology and External Affairs, Alstom Power Technology, UK, dealt with “Carbon Dioxide – Control – Concentration – Sequestration – Emissions Trading…………”.  There were a little short of 60 registered Participants  who heard a wide ranging Keynote presentation from Nick Otter himself followed by a series of invited presentations detailing the status and planning from the Cement and Mineral Processing, the Iron and Steel, the Power generation  and the Oil and Gas industries, followed up by an assessment of how the Petroleum Industry may help the other industries in CO2 capture, storage and sequestration.

In the Keynote presentation there were three key messages:

• Environment and CO2 issues have to be considered in the full context;
• Whatever happens in the future it will be essential to address the clean use of fossil fuels as part of a portfolio approach;
• Collaboration at all levels will be required in technical and non-technical areas

From the lively discussion period, it became clear that the IFRF had several roles to play.  For examples:

• A wide range of topics discussed required further research;
• The TOTeM26 approach to bring the different industrial sectors together was successful;
• Combustion engineers and scientists should be kept informed on the various aspects of the Kyoto protocol, the impact of climate change control in industry, and related matters to Emissions Trading……

Jeff Rhine agreed to join the IFRF Team to record these TOTeMs. The Chairman’s summary plus full details of the discussion and conclusions will be reported to IFRF Members, along with all presentations made, in the Combustion Trends for the Future website at: http://www.trends.ifrf.net in due course.

TOTeM26 was rounded off with a very pleasant Joint TOTeM dinner.

On the following day, 26th November,  Jim Seebold, ChevronTexaco chaired TOTeM27 on the subject of: “Process Heating in Petroleum, Petrochemical and Chemical Industries: Identifying Trends and Satisfying Needs through Leveraged External Research”.

The participation was somewhat lower but the quality of the Keynote lecture and the Invited lectures, were as with TOTeM26, of a high standard.

Essential conclusions here was that CO2 was confirmed as a central issue and that “leveraged external research” reflected very much the commonality of the problem and gave clear pointers on how the IFRF must proceed. Full details will be published at the “Trends website as described above.

We must thank our co-organisers in British Flame without whose co-operation these TOTeMs would not have been the success that they were. That of course also applies to the Chairmen, the Invited Speakers, the Participants, and last but not least, our colleagues at the IFRF.