Scientists have been working to improve combustion technologies, augment efficiency as well as reduce emissions, according to Professor Sébastien Candel, President of the French Academy of Sciences, at the latest installment of the France–Hong Kong Distinguished Lecture series at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) on 13 September.

At the lecture titled “Combustion Modeling and Simulation: Recent Advances, Applications and Challenges”, Professor Candel said combustion was essential to the development of humankind, but the related production of greenhouse gases raises increasing concerns.

However, considerable effort had been put into addressing these issues based on advanced combinations of theoretical analysis, detailed experimentation as well as physical modeling and simulations exploiting high-performance computing capabilities, he added.  

Professor Candel is a founding member of the Academy of Technology, France and a professor emeritus at CentraleSupélec, a French institute for research into engineering and science. He is also a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering, US.