The 7th International Conference on Stability and Handling of Liquid Fuels

Summary

Location: Graz, Austria
Dates: September 24-29, 2000
Attendees: 162 Delegates; 38 Guests
Conference: Chair Harry N. Giles

Graz, Austria. IASH®, the International Association for Stability and Handling of Liquid Fuels, held its 7th triennial conference, IASH 2000, at the Graz Convention Centre the week of September 24-29, 2000. This series of conferences is the world's premier forum devoted to furthering knowledge and promoting a better understanding of all aspects of the stability, handling, storage, and use of petroleum-based fuels. The conference brought together over 160 of the world's leading authorities concerned with refining, marketing, transportation, storage, laboratory analysis, and use of fuels. Their interests span the time from when fuels are first produced in a refinery until they are burned in a power plant, engine, furnace, or turbine. They came from 28 countries worldwide and represented many sectors of the petroleum industry, service companies, academe, and government. During three and one-half days of technical sessions, nearly 70 papers were presented in twelve sessions covering aviation fuels, middle distillates such as diesel fuel and home heating oil, gasoline, long-term and strategic storage, microbiology and biodeterioration, and fuels for the 21st century. This latter session was especially timely in light of the changes in fuel specifications being driven by environmental initiatives in Europe and North America.

Proceedings of the conference have been published by the U.S. Department of Energy. A technical exhibition held in conjunction with the conference featured commercial displays and presentations by 20 companies and government agencies on the products and services they provide to those engaged in the handling and use of petroleum. Their displays covered on-line and process analyzers, petroleum additives, inspection and testing services, quality assessment, microbiology, and laboratory analytical instruments among other topics. A number of scientific posters were also included in the technical exhibition. These covered such diverse topics as application of various test methods for assessing petroleum quality, military fuels, assessment of diesel fuels derived from oil sands, and storage stability of diesel fuels.

The conference also included technical tours to AVL List, located in Graz, which is a world leader in engine development and instrumentation; to Anton Paar, also in Graz, a manufacturer of precision measurement instruments; and to Erd?l-Lagergesellschaft m.b.H. in Lannach, the Austrian national petroleum stockpiling agency.

Previous conferences of the association were held in Tel Aviv (1983), San Antonio, TX (1986), London (1988), Orlando, FL (1991), Rotterdam (1994), and Vancouver, Canada (1997). The 8th international conference will be held in Colorado Springs, CO in 2003.