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About Us
Origins of Agreement In the spring of 1976, representatives from Britain, Sweden, and the United States established an informal agreement to exchange research information on combustion processes. The impetus for this agreement, under the auspices of the International Energy Agency with the United States Department of Energy as perating Agent, was the need for conservation practices that would mitigate the impact of any impending oil crisis by sharing information that would improve combustion efficiency and make use of alternative fuels.
The success of the informal arrangement led to the adoption in 1977 of a formal agreement for a program of research and development on energy conservation in combustion. Three primary areas of investigation (modeling, instrumentation, and fundamental processes) focused on developing experimental and computational tools for conducting the necessary research. In 1978, Italy joined the agreement. Four nations were now pooling research data on improved combustion practices. To assure the fullest circulation and distribution of the information gained, the first Task Leaders Meeting was held at Oxford, England, in 1979.
At that time, it became apparent that the scope of the existing agreement was inadequate. A new Implementing Agreement was then designed that emphasized the application of tools recently developed in advanced piston engine technology, in furnace and stationary boiler improvement, and in fundamental research. The new agreement was approved in 1983.
The first four members of the Implementing Agreement were joined by Norway in 1981, by Japan in 1983, and by Canada in 1984. Germany became a signatory in 1987. French interest in the work was high, and although not formally a member of the Agreement, French researchers participated in the early years of the program.
Current Status The agreement has been in continuous operation since its inception and in fact was just approved by the International Agency for a five year extension beginning January 1, 2007. Membership has grown to eleven countries with the addition of Switzerland, Belgium, and Finland. Each member country in turn hosts the annual gathering of investigators at a Task Leaders Meeting. Here, the presentation of progress through papers and poster sessions offers opportunity for close interaction with fellow scientists. The ten or so tasks of the late 1970s has increased to in excess of fifty tasks today, and the two-day Task Leaders Meetings that attracted 25 people then now last up to four days and draw 50 or more researchers.
Research Focus The robustness of the IEA Energy Conservation in Combus¬tion Implementing Agreement reveals the strong commitment made by member nations to search for more efficient, less polluting combustion systems that can make use of alternative fuels. IEA participants historically have carried out research in three areas: (1) advanced piston technology,
(2) furnaces and combustors, and
(3) fundamentals.
Tasks in these areas are executed by individual Principal Investigators from a single country. Participating organizations are primarily either National Laboratories or university science or engineering departments. The National Laboratories and many of the participating university faculty have long established relationships with their nation’s industrial sector. Research results derived from agreement projects are published widely in the open scientific literature.
These three areas are discussed below:
Advanced Piston Engines
The objective of the advanced piston engine area is to develop the knowledge for improving the efficiency and fuel flexibility of automobile and truck engines. Particular objectives include re¬ducing pollutant emissions, easing transition from primary fossil fuels to alternative fuels, and increasing efficiency of automobile engines.
The advanced piston engine area focuses on three types of engines: direct-injection stratified charge engines, lean burn engines, and diesel engines. These three engines share many common processes. For instance, the intake and exhaust fluid mechanics are essentially the same. Also, much of the combustion chemistry is fundamentally similar, although in practice diverse problems arise such as engine knock and soot formation.
Furnaces and Combustors
In most residences and commercial buildings, heat and electricity are provided by furnaces and steam boiler combustors. To achieve high combustion efficiency, engineers design most furnaces and combustors with excess air. This excess air, unfortunately, limits thermal efficiency, which in turn limits fuel economy.
Fundamentals
The overall aims of the furnace and combustor area are to provide the understanding necessary to develop equipment suitable for burning new fuels at high thermal efficiencies and to reduce the required excess air levels, thereby improving fuel economy.
The objective of the fundamental research area is to study the underlying physical and chemical processes in advanced piston engines and in furnaces and combustors. The fundamental research area also supports studies of new techniques, particularly laser diagnostic techniques.
New Research Initiatives
The Agreement’s Executive Committee commissioned a study to investigate research areas where a collaborative approach involving multiple countries might be pursued. Several research topics were identified and teams were assembled to further define their focus. The first of these, Gas Turbine Combustion, was begun in 2002. It initially involved four countries with provisions for adding additional participants through a peer review process. The collaborative approach proved quite popular and in 2006 three additional collaborative tasks were added to the Agreement’s Research Program. They are:
(1) Hydrogen Fueled Internal Combustion Engines
(2) Sprays in Combustion
(3) Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion
Given the enthusiasm for collaborative tasks it seems likely that the Agreement’s research program for the next five years will be driven by a healthy balance between individual and collaborative tasks.
Participation
Within each of the research areas, the Agreement's Executive Committee and Operating Agent have designated tasks in which participating countries concentrate their research.
Annually, the Executive Committee calls a Task Leaders Meeting, in which the working scientists from the member countries share advances in each of these tasks. Moreover, the Executive Committee helps coordinate exchange of personnel between laboratories and universities in each country. The concentration of research by individual countries, the information imparted at these conferences, and the exchange of researchers between member countries has quickened the study of combustion problems.
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