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A new research and training center, and continued development of biofuel, are on the agenda of the National Oilheat Research A l l i a n c e i n 2 0 1 6 . A consumer education campaign, for which approximately $1 million has been budgeted, and a conference are also on the 2016 agenda, said John Huber, president of NORA. The "liquid fuels research center," in Plainview, N.Y. (on Long Island) is scheduled to open in January. It is being estab- lished by NORA in conjunction with the New York Oil Heating Association and Oil Heat Comfort Corp., a technical training subsidiary of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island. The center will feature full-service educational facilities, including classrooms, equipment for students and trainees to work on, and a conference room, Huber said. A research lab will be part of the center, and Dr. Thomas Butcher of Brookhaven National Laboratory will be primarily responsible for running it, Huber said. Butcher started working part-time for the Alliance in November, Huber said. "The fact that we'll be able to do a lot of our research in- house," and "having the lab fully integrated with the education programs there will help keep the research focused on real-world issues," Huber said. "I think it's going to be really good for the industry." A certificate of occupancy was expected to be issued in late December or by Jan. 1, Huber said. There is a Holiday Inn next to the location that is used fre- quently for training events, Huber noted. "We're hoping that the companies that do training privately will also take advantage of the opportunity to use the facility," he said. Unlike a school that is fully occupied from early morning into the afternoon each day, the research and training facility is conceived as a place that can serve many part-time users on an as-needed basis. Classes for technicians, for outreach to Realtors and home inspector training, can be conducted in the center, in addition to ongoing work in the lab, Huber said. There will be oil-fired equipment in a classroom setting to accommodate manufacturers and trainers, Huber said. "Hopefully the industry will see that as an opportunity," he said. As an equipped, ready-to-use facility, the center could save trainers the trouble of transporting equipment, Huber noted. Having equipment at the center is also useful when briefing real estate agents, Huber said. "Showing them what our systems look like, our burners – that makes it all the more impactful" in contrast to a PowerPoint presentation, he said. The space, approximately 3,500-square-feet in an office- industrial park, has been renovated according to the associations' specifications. The groups took a five-year lease with an option to renew for five years, and another option for five years after that. Huber said the rent was approximately $50,000 per year, shared among the three sponsoring associations. But the main initial outlay will be outfitting the facility, Huber said. "We've got to buy $100,000 to $150,000 of test equipment, and get it all installed," he said. The space is expected to be "pretty Spartan" in its first weeks, until it becomes fully operational, which is expected to be around Feb. 1, Huber said. Of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Huber said, "We're going to try to maintain that relationship because Brookhaven has done good work by us for many years." The new research center will take a somewhat different approach from that of Brookhaven, focusing on matters of immediate import to the industry, including "fuel quality issues" and "little things that don't work right for some reason," Huber said. "I'd rather have us working on a small scale, with good sci- ence, than try to do a major inquiry via a national lab" where the cost of contracting, overhead, and equipment must be taken into account, Huber observed. "This will allow us to do more and [make] quicker responses to the industry's needs for research," Huber said. However, "because this is new for us, we want to put the toe in and then put the leg in and gradually figure out how much we should do here, and how much we should farm out, before we jump the whole way into it," Huber said. For example, he said, "We have budgeted [for] a lab technician," but whether one will be hired remains to be seen. FUEL RESEARCH "Biodiesel and Bioheat research obviously is going to be a big part of our agenda," Huber said, turning to other goals in 2016. A Bioheat technical steering committee met in November with manufacturers, biodiesel producers and technical experts to discuss "how to continue to grow the biodiesel share of our fuel," Huber said. "We're trying to be responsive to manufacturers' concerns about equipment in the field, and also trying to develop the information that will allow manufacturers to design and build next-generation equipment that can accommodate the bio- diesel," Huber said. Under consideration are efforts to survey those with experi- ence with the higher-level biodiesel blends. "There are a lot of people in the industry who are blending at levels above five per- 18 JANUARY 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com BUSINESS OPERATIONS NORA Sets Goals for 2016 With a new year, a new research center, plus continued exploration of the potential of biofuel BY STEPHEN BENNETT