The Coal Research Forum

BACKGROUND

The Coal Research Forum was formed in 1989 to encourage, promote and co-ordinate basic research on coal, coal characterisation, coal products and coal utilisation in the UK with particular emphasis on: the promotion and co-ordination of contact between academe and industry; and the assessment and co-ordination of resources and needs concerned with coal utilisation and conversion. The Forum has a strong and continuing programme of events.

The UK National Meeting on Coal Research and its Applications was first held in 1996 and, with the fifth meeting planned for September 2004, is now an established biennial event. The fourth meeting, held in 2002 at Imperial College, London, was successful in attracting over 80 abstracts, which were given mainly as oral presentations with around 30 poster presentations. A special publication of FUEL was produced which included a number of the presentations as full papers. Building on this success, the fifth meeting, now planned for September 2004 at the University of Edinburgh, has been re-titled. Edinburgh, the historic capital of Scotland, has much to offer the visitor. From the cobbled streets of the Medieval Old Town near Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile leading to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, to the modern shops, bars and restaurants and gardens of the Georgian New Town there is something to appeal to everyone in this vibrant city. Nearby and open to visitors, the former Royal yacht Britannia is moored in the Port of Leith.

It is hoped that attendees from outside the UK will continue to support this event.

SCOPE AND PURPOSE

The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers in universities with participants from industry who also carry out research or are interested in the application of the research in industry. Papers are invited which describe applications in coal utilisation and preparation with particular reference to the following areas: combustion (in particular, conventional and advanced power generation, coal quality impacts and the challenges facing coal-fired generation today); emissions issues (including 2008 NOx reduction legislation, CO2 mitigation,, trace elements, hydrocarbons, gaseous pollutants and fine particulates); co-processing of coal, particularly with biomass and wastes; carbonisation and other metallurgical uses; other coal conversion processes and coal preparation and handling. Research students are also strongly encouraged to submit papers, attend and give presentations and there will be a reduced fee for students.

PROCEEDINGS

All authors of accepted papers are invited to send a full paper to the Conference Secretary by 31st October 2004. It is intended that these will be published in a special edition of FUEL. All full papers will be subject to the normal refereeing requirements of FUEL and should be prepared in accordance with the instructions for authors, which are published