Combustion Science and Technology

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Chemical Kinetic Modeling of Combustion from

1969 to 2019

M. CATHONNET

To cite this article: M. CATHONNET (1994) Chemical Kinetic Modeling of Combustion

from 1969 to 2019, Combustion Science and Technology, 98:4-6, 265-279, DOI:
10.1080/00102209408935412

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Combust. Sci. and Tech., 1994. Vol. 98. pp. 265-279 © Gordon and Breach Science Publishers S.A.
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Chemical Kinetic Modeling of Combustion from

1969 to 2019

M. CATHONNET Laboratoire de Combustion et Systemes Reactifs-

CNRS 1C Avenue de la Recherche Scientifique, 45071 Orleans
Cedex 2 FRANCE

ABSTRACT-A short review of progress in the development of detailed chemical mechanisms for
combustion modeling during the last 25 years is given, with some examples of today's specific chemical
kinetic problems in combustion. Future advances in chemical kinetics and combustion modeling are
speculated. The impact, in the field of chemical kinetic modeling of combustion, of expected changes in fuel
resources and use during the next 25 years, and of possible emerging technologies is evaluated.

Key Words: Combustion, chemical kinetics, predictions

INTRODUCTION

Prediction over five years being generally inaccurate, it is particularly hazardous to

anticipate the development of combustion up to 2019, and I just want to follow the
guidelines drawn by prominent experts in the field of combustion and energy.
The world population will reach 8 billion in 2020, with more than 6 billion
inhabitants in the South. But while the energy consumption in 1985 was 4.5 tons
of oil equivalent (toe) per inhabitant in the North, it was only 0.3 toe in the
South (Figure I), According to the World Energy Council predictions, in the year
2020, total energy consumption will be 80% greater than it was in 1985, and fossil
energy consumption 50% greater (Dessus and Pharabod, 1990; Dessus, 1993). This
will increase CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse
effect. Atomic energy (fission) is an alternative to fossil fuel, however 30000 tons of
nuclear wastes have been accumulated in the world in 1985, and these dangerous
wastes could amount to 310 000 tons at the surface of the earth in 2020 (Dessus and
Pharabod, 1990).
To face this double menace, an alternative scenario "NOE" (New Options for
Energy) was proposed by B. Dessus and F. Pharabod (1990),limiting strongly the use of
fossil fuels in the North, with a moderate increase of nuclear energy until 2020. This
scenario is based on the continuous search for "energy productivity gains" and gives
a priority to the renewable energies (Dessus, 1993), it could result in a stabilization of
the concentration of greenhouse gases and nuclear wastes in the year 2100 (Figure 2).
Following this drastic scenario, the fossil fuel production in 2020 amounts to 68% of
the total energy production in the world, and biomass represents 13.5%. In any case,
combustion remains the major source of heat and power in the next 25 years. However
changes in fuel supply and combustion technologies will certainly be important, and
will have an impact on basic research in combustion.
265
266 M. CATHONNET

MAP OF THE WORLD'S TEN LARGEST REGIONS

MAP ALTERED BY ENERGY

CONSUMPTION LEVELS PER CAPITA

[:::"""',,:::1
0,3 - 0,6
nHiHi!iiiH
1 - 1,5 - -
2,5 - 3,5 4 ·5,5
_
7,5·9
toe/habitant

FIGURE 1 Energy consumption in the world. From Dessus (1993). Reproduced with author's permission.

THE M'AI~ CHARACTERISTICS OF COMBUSTION SCIENCE

At the 13th International Combustion Symposium, H. W. Emmons (1971) in his

plenary lecture, defined combustion phenomena as "basically chemical reactions with
 CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELING OF COMBUSTION 267

IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

OF A BUILD-UP OF CO. IN THE ATMOSPHERE

co.ppmv
7C1l

-+-----~'-------____i

3CIl+--~--
1100 Ill50
......---_.___-~-__l
2000 2ll5O ~.oo
2.SO 2200

BUILD-UP OF NUCLEAR WASTE

Koons of waste

2000...-----------------,
1500

10C1l +---------/---------1

o +---.-:L,--~--r---_l
1100 IIl1lO 2000 _ 2100 2150 neo

FIGURE 2 Impacts of two different world energy scenarios on the environment. From Dessus (1993).
Reproduced with author's permission.
268 M. CATHONNET

more or less heat and light produced". A few years later, I. Glassman (1977) wrote in the
preface to the first edition of his book: "combustion is a most complex subject that
involves primarily the disciplines of chemistry, physics and fluid mechanics". More
recently, in his Hottell plenary lecture at the 24th International Combustion Sympo-
sium, F. A. Williams (1992) recalled that combustion emerged as a science in the
beginning of the twentieth century, and that it stands on four pedestals: ther-
modynamics, chemical kinetics, fluid mechanics and transport processes. It is thus
expected that future progress in understanding of combustion process lies in a better
description of the coupling between chemistry, fluid mechanics, and heat and mass
transfers.
Another characteristic of combustion is that technological developments always
preceded scientific understanding. However, according to F.1. Weinberg (1975):
"during the years of divorce between combustion science and technology, the former
has accumulated a great deal of insight and we now have the opportunity and challenge
of using our knowledge to close this gap". To address prospects of future progress in
combustion we must have in mind that combustion is a multidiciplinary science and
that "the list of applications of combustion is continually increasing and shows no signs
of exhaustion" (Linan and Williams, 1993).
This paper deals with the status of detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms in combus-
tion modeling. After a short review of the progress done during the last 25 years, I will
try to speculate on the evolution of this research field in the next 25 years.

REVIEW OF PROGRESS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

DETAILED MECHANISMS

The evolution of combustion science in the last decades is characterized by the mutual
comparison between experiment, computation and theory (Williams, 1992).Concern-
ing the status of chemistry in combustion, F. L. Dryer (1989) observed that while early
combustion modeling virtually ignored chemistry, in recent years, the inclusion of
detailed chemical mechanisms in combustion models has accelerated.
The hydrogen-oxygen system was the first to be used in the earliest detailed
numerical models. At the II th International Combustion Symposium, detailed
modeling studies of hydrogen combustion in a well-stirred reactor (Jenkins et al., 1967)
and in a shock-tube (Hamilton and Schott, 1967) were presented. In the same year,
G. Dixon-Lewis (1967) published a paper on the detailed numerical modeling of
a premixed burner stabilized laminar hydrogen flame.
A few years later, detailed numerical modeling studies of methane and ethane
oxidation and ignition appeared in the literature (Higgin and Williams, 1969;Seery and
Bowman, 1970; Marteney, 1970; Bowman, I970;'D'Souza and Karim, 1971; Sorenson
et al., 1971;Cooke and Williams, 1971).Concerning hydrocarbons with more than two
carbon atoms, the first numerical study using a detailed oxidation mechanism was
presented by Baronnet et al. (1972) as an extension to propane of a previous detailed
mechanism of acetaldehyde oxidation (Halstead et al., 1971). Other modeling studies
appeared at the end of the seventies or at the beginning of the eighties (McLain and
Jachimowski, 1977;Coats and Williams, 1979; Warnatz, 1981;Cathonnet et al., 1981).
 CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELING OF COMBUSTION 269

In their review on chemical kinetic modeling of hydrocarbon combustion, C. K.

Westbrook and F. L. Dryer (1984) presented the state of the art in this topic and
described the detailed reaction mechanisms developed for combustion modeling, with
the different types of experiments to which these mechanisms had been applied.
According to these authors, the development of chemical kinetic modeling as a tool in
the analysis of combustion systems can be attributed, to the "availability of large
amounts of elementary kinetic data, improved techniques for estimating specific
reaction rates, development of efficient stiffequation solution techniques, and continual
growth in the size, speed, and availability of large computers".
More recently, several reviews have been published on the same topic (Miller et al.,
1990; Walker, 1991; Warnatz, 1992). Most of the results available from kinetic
modeling studies in literature concern small molecules (hydrocarbons up to C 4 ,
methanol and ethanol, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, nitrogen oxides and their
byproducts: cyano and amines compounds). For molecules with more than 4 carbon
atoms, the most advanced oxidation mechanism is for alkanes, and it has been applied
for the modeling of a wide variety of applications, including flame velocities (Warnatz,
1992), flame structures (Axelsson et aI., 1986), high temperature ignition (Westbrook
et al., 1988a; Warnatz, 1992), low temperature ignition (Westbrook et al., 1988a;
Chevalier et al., 1992; Warnatz, 1992) and flow reactors (Axelsson et al., 1986;
Westbrook et al.; 1988b; Chakir et al., 1991, 1992). For large hydrocarbons other than
alkanes, the oxidation mechanism is less well known, nevertheless recent detailed
numerical modeling studies have been published on the oxidation of benzene (Bittker,
1991; Warnatz, 1992) and toluene (Emdee et al., 1992).

SPECIFIC CHEMICAL KINETIC PROBLEMS IN COMBUSTION

Despite important progress during the last decades, little is known about many of the
elementary reactions involved in combustion systems. Recent review papers (Miller
et al., 1990;Walker, 1991) have listed some of the most urgent needs for the elaboration
and refinement of detailed chemical kinetic combustion mechanisms.
In alkanes oxidation, fuel consumption mainly occurs through H abstraction by
radicals. For higher alkanes, the rate constant of these elementary steps have not been
determined experimentally, but have been derived from generalized expressions for
abstraction from primary, secondary and tertiary sites. Such a procedure works well for
OH radicals, but it has also been applied to H0 2 and CH 3 radicals, as well as to Hand
° atoms, which is less justified. Among these H abstracting species, OH is the most
important, however the other ones play also a role in some conditions: ° in lean
mixtures, Hand CH 3 in rich mixtures, and H0 2 at low temperature or high pressure.
Other mechanistic and kinetic information which is lacking on the oxidation on
alkanes concerns reactions of alkanes and alkyl radicals with 02' thermal decomposi-
tion of alkyl radicals, and R0 2 radicals isomerization.
Unsaturates (mainly alkenes) are important products of alkane oxidation, and
because of the possibility of addition reactions, their oxidation mechanism is more
complex than that of alkanes and considerably less well known. The aromatic hydro-
carbons are another class of fuels for which the oxidation mechanism remains for a
270 M. CATHONNET

large part still obscure. Because of the presence of large amounts of aromatics in
commercial fuels,it is essential to improve our knowledge of the mechanism of aromatics
oxidation.
The complexity of chemistry is such that it is often argued that global kinetics is
sufficient with thermodynamics and heat-release equations for combustion modeling.
However in many cases, such as the prediction of pollutants formation or the
au toignition characteristics of gasoline and diesel fuel, the knowledge of the fundamen-
tal chemistry is necessary.
Five categories of pollutants are emitted from combustion sources: carbon monox-
ide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, unburned intermediate hydrocarbons and oxygen-
ates, and soot. Substantial reductions of air pollutant emissions have been obtained
over the past 25 years, however many areas in the world are still expected to have air
pollution problems in the next 25 years. Further emission reductions will be obtained
by the combination of several techniques, one of them being the use of clean fuels such
as reformulated gasoline (Sawyer, 1992). Although it has been proved that such fuels
can reduce automotive emissions, the relationship between these emissions and the fuel
composition is poorly understood.
Some of these pollutants are identified as toxics (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde,
1,3-butadiene and benzene) because of their carcinogenic potential. The ozone-
forming potential of combustion products is also considered, and varies signifi-
cantly from one compound to another one (Sawyer, 1992). It is thus clear that a
global prediction of the total mass of NMOGs (non methane organic gases) is
insufficient for the evaluation of the environmental impact of a given fuel, and a more
detailed description of the mechanism of pollutant formation in combustion systems is
needed.
Another important characteristic of an automotive fuel is its autoignition tendency.
Autoignition is a phenomenon where chemical processes play an important role, and
the chemistry of autoignition is complex, particularly at low temperature (Westbrook
et al., 1988a; Miller et al., 1990; Chevalier et aI., 1992; Warnatz, 1992). A better
description of the elementary reactions occurring in these processes is necessary to help
in the search' of new antiknock additives.

EXPECTED PROGRESS IN THE FIELD OF COMBUSTION CHEMISTRY

Substantial progress is thus expected in the next 25 years on the mechanisms of

hydrocarbon combustion for a better prediction of the formation of intermediates (CO,
hydrocarbons, aldehydes...), nitrogen oxides and soot. Concerning the mechanism of
autoignition, an improvement of our knowledge in this field can also be predicted in the
next decades. This progress will be obtained through the development of several
activities required for chemical kinetic modeling:
-kinetics experiments on complex "macroscopic" systems which are essential for
the validation of detailed mechanisms,
-elementary reaction kinetics which is necessary to provide the rates and
mechanisms of elementary reactions as well as the thermochemistry of radicals,
 CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELING OF COMBUSTION 271

-theoretical chemistry which is an important tool for the interpretation or the

prediction of kinetic data,
-numerical methods computer software which are necessary for solving the
equations, for the analysis of the results, and also useful for mechanism
generation or reduction.

The contribution of these diverse disciplines to chemical kinetic modeling is illustrated

in previous reviews on the subject (Miller et al., 1990;Walker, 1991;Warnatz, 1992)and
recommendations have been given for future research. One point emphasized is that
kinetic data obtained at low temperature and low pressure cannot be extrapolated to high
temperature and pressure, and because of the great variety of kinetic modeling appli-
cations, kinetic measurements are necessary in a wide range of experimental conditions.
For high pressure studies, the shock tube technique (Ciezki and Adomeit, 1993),the
rapid compression machine (Ribaucour et al., 1992; Griffiths et al., 1993) or the CFR
engine (Bhn -Simian et al., 1993)allow experiments at several tens of bars, but detailed
chemical analysis of the products at different stages of the combustion process is difficult.
Although fewexperiments with detailed analysis of intermediate species are available at
high pressure, flow reactors have been built·for that purpose and have provided experi-
mental data in the intermediate and low temperature ranges (Cathonnet et al., 1981;
Dagaut et al., 1986, 1987, 1988a and b, 1991a and b, 1994; Chakir et al., 1988, 1989;
Lignola et al., 1988a and b; Vermeersch et al., 1990; Hoffman et al., 1991; Koert et al.,
1993). In the future, a better understanding of non-linear effects caused by changes in
temperature and pressure will be obtained by extensive studies of overall oxidation
processes covering a wide range of experimental conditions, from low to high tempera-
tures and pressures.
Concerning elementary reactions involved in combustion mechanisms, accurate rate
constants data have been obtained in a wide temperature range, thanks to the
development oflaser based spectroscopic techniques which permit the precise measure-
ment of atom and radical concentrations. Shock-tube studies have extended these
measurements to high temperature and pressure. It is thus expected that in the next 25
years, significant results will be obtained for the solution of key kinetic problems
enumerated by R. W. Walker (1991), concerning the combustion of alkanes, alkenes,
aromatics and nitrogen species.
Another important factor in the development of kinetic modeling in the past 25 years
is the availability of improved techniques for the estimation of thermodynamical data
and reaction rates (Golden, 1989). The group additivity method of S. Benson (1976)
which gives accurate estimations of thermochemical properties of molecules and
radicals has been implemented in computer codes (Muller et aI., 1985, 1991a and b;
Ritter and Bozzelli, 1991;Stein et al., 1991).For elementary rate constants estimation,
the "Transition State Theory" (Benson, 1976; Golden, 1989) was used by Cohen
(Cohen, 1982; Cohen and Westberg, 1986)for the determination of rate coefficients of
alkane reactions with OH and 0, and computer codes are being developed (Dean et al.,
1991; Come and Scacchi, 1993). Thanks to the increasing role played by theoretical
chemistry, it can be predicted that in the next period, a closer collaboration between
experimentalists and theoreticians will allow considerable progress in the establish-
ment of reliable thermodynamic and kinetic data bases.
272 M. CATHONNET

In addition to the automatic computation of thermochemical and kinetic data,

computer software can also be used for the automatic generation of reactions mechan-
isms (Haux et al., 1985, 1988;Come et al., 1988; Chevalier et al., 1992; Warnatz, 1992).
Such rule oriented computer programs prevent several sources of errors in the
development of reaction mechanisms and become necessary for huge mechanisms. It
can thus be expected that they will be increasingly used in the future.

THE STATUS OF CHEMISTRY IN COMBUSTION MODELING

Until recently, the use of detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms was restricted to
spatially homogeneous systems or 1D reactive flows, while 2D and 3D applications
used global chemical kinetic schemes often reduced to a simple one-step Arrhenius
process. However it can be anticipated that the part played by chemistry in combustion
models will increase considerably in the next 25 years. This statement is based on the
predictions of specific advances in combustion science made by A. 1. Linan and F. W.
Wiliams (1993) in the last chapter, entitled "The Future", of their book.
Concerning laminar flames, these authors predict that 2D time-dependent numerical
computations with full chemistry will become available as standard tools. They also
consider that in the near future, real chemistry will be included in the premixed-laminar
flames models dealing with the following problems: effects of curvature and strain on
structure; stability of planar, curved, and stretched flames; influence of hydrodynamic
instability; extinction phenomena. They also expect that in the ignition and explosions
as well as the detonation areas, chemical models including more than one step will be
used in the next few years.
The same authors also predict in the next ten years significantly improved under-
standing for emission of pollutants from turbulent diffusion flames. However, the
description of such flames is so complex that detailed chemical kinetics can only be
included in limiting situations. One of these situations is the thin flame limit repre-
sented by the flamelet regime. The laminar flamelet concept was used by N. Peters
(1984,1986) to include chemical kinetics into the calculation of turbulent flames. At the
other extreme lies the fast mixing limit represented by the perfectly-stirred reactor
regime. This approach to describe turbulent non-premixed flames was used by
Broadwell and Mungal (1988) and extended by Lutz et al. (1991) for investigation of
NO x formation. More recently, a detailed mechanism and several reduced mechanisms
for methane combustion were used by Chen et al. (1993) to reproduce the transient
flame response to a simulated turbulent environment in these two idealized combus-
tion situations. It is expected that such computations, which include the prediction of
CO concentration, will be extended in the future to other pollutants and more complex
fuels.
Although, as shown above, the use of detailed chemistry in combustion modeling is
continually increasing, many combustion scientists consider that large mechanisms
which typically involve several tens of species and several hundreds of reactions will
remain too complex for many years, to be included in practical combustion codes. For
this reason strong efforts have been made to extract simplified kinetic schemes from
these large systems of elementary reactions (Dryer, 1989).Systematic approaches have
 CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELING OF COMBUSTION 273

been developed for the construction of reduced mechanisms (Paczko et al., 1988;Peters
and Rogg, 1993; Lam and Goussis, 1988; Maas and Pope, 1992) and it is expected that
in the next 25 years, efficient computer codes for the automatic reduction of large
reaction mechanisms will be systematically used for the modeling of practical combus-
tion systems.

EXAMPLES OF NEW CONCERNS IN THE FIELD OF COMBUSTION

Increasing interest in hypersonic flight opened a new area in the field of combustion,
since the development of an airbreathing engine represents a strong challenge. In
particular there are many unknowns on the chemical kinetic effects which can be very
important in high-Mach number combustion systems because of very short residence
times (Jachimowski, 1991).For this reason, the chemistry must be described precisely.
Another difficulty for kinetic modeling of combustion in an high speed engine is that
during the flight, pressure will vary significantly and these pressure changes will modify
the rate of several controlling steps of kinetic mechanism (Yetter et al., 1991). Fortu-
nately, these engines will use hydrogen as fuel, and its chemistry of ignition and
combustion is rather well known, even at high temperature, although further studies
are still necessary on the effects of third bodies on some recombination reactions.
However in a longer-term time frame, hydrocarbons may also be used as fuels in such
engines, which will necessitate further modeling efforts. The situation will be even more
complicated at very high-Mach numbers or if a plasma torch is used to stabilize
combustion (Beach, 1991): in both cases, vibrationally or electronically excited species
and ionic species are generated.
Concerning the future use of fuels in general, several scenarios have been built (see
introduction), but it is generally expected (Longwell, 1989) that around the year 2000,
oil price will increase, making other fuels more attractive. Even if gas and oil shale
resources are thought to be underestimated, coal resources are more important, and the
worldwide use of coal increase. However solids fuels are of less interest in combustion
than liquid or gas fuels, therefore conversion of coal to liquid or gas fuel is expected to
grow (Longwell, 1989).New "synthetic-fuels" will be produced from coal, oil shale, and
also from biomass, which will contribute significantly as a renewable energy source.
More generally, in the future, the composition of most of the fuels will be different from
the present one, depending on the evolution of the resources, of the combustion
techniques and of the regulations rules on energy and pollution. In any case, the
contribution of many kineticists will be needed to optimize the use of these new fuels.
Waste materials from different origins (industrial, municipal or medical) are, for their
major part, candidate for combustion. Combustion is at present the easiest way to
destroy hazardous wastes, and flammable wastes are expected to become a notable
energy resource in the future (Longwell, 1989). However as mentioned by W. M. R.
Seeker (1990) in his review on the subject, the optimization of waste combustion
installations is an enormous task. The challenge is to burn waste streams having a great
variety of physical forms in an efficient manner without generating pollutant emissions.
A wide range of pollutants are potentially emitted from waste combustion (Seeker,
1990): organic constituents in the waste, organic byproducts, toxic metals, pathogens,
274 M. CATHONNET

acid gases. Sampling and analysis procedures of trace levels of organics is difficult and
very costly. Investigation of the chemistry of these organic byproducts formation is
considered as one of the highest priorities for a clean combustion of waste materials.
Consequently, the number of chemical kinetic studies on this topic should increase
significantly in the near future.

SPECULATIONS ABOUT ALTERNATIVE COMBUSTION

TECHNOLOGIES

The first half-million years of combustion research were characterized by the supposi-
tion that we have infinite reservoir of fuel and no efforts were made to improve
combustion efficiency and to preserve the environment (Weinberg, 1975).Considering
this very long time period, we arejust beginning to improve our combustion techniques
and it is very difficult to imagine the combustion technologies of the next generation.
/
Nevertheless I take the risk to speculate on the development of a few techniques which
seem to be promising.
Catalytic or catalytically stabilized combustion is an efficient method for burning
fuel in lean mixtures without significant formation of pollutants (Pfefferle and Pfefferle,
1986).Radicals are formed at the surface of the catalyst, and coupling with homogene-
ous reactions exists, resulting in a complex ignition promotion/inhibition process in the
boundary layer (Griffin et al., 1989). Warnatz (1992) used a detailed heterogeneous
reaction mechanism to model hydrogen ignition near a Pt surface, but for hydrocar-
bons the situation is more complex (Markatou et al., 1991) and no mechanism is
available at present. The development of this technique needs many technological and
scientific problems to be solved, which offers an exciting challenge to combustion
scientists.
Several alternative methods have been used to inject radicals in a combustion system
to promote combustion or ignition. One of them is to expose a flame to an electric field
(Weinberg, 1975), which has an effect on the structure of the flame and soot formation
(Xie et al., 1992). Recent experiments (Cahen and Sassi, 1993) show that the tempera-
ture of the flame is increased, and that new chemical species are formed. Several
applications of this technology have been developed (Laroche and Orfeuil, 1991)for the
combustion of solid fuels (coal or wastes) but because of the great variety of species
involved (radicals, ions and metastable excited species) the chemistry is extremely
complex. Detailed chemical kinetic modeling of such flames is unrealistic for the
moment.
The properties offluids at supercritical temperatures and pressures are attractive for
science and technology (Franck, 1987). Diffusion flames have been stabilized in dense
supercritical aqueous phase at pressure up to 2000 bars (Schilling and Franck, 1988).In
spite of the difficulties to calculate the transport coefficients of high density mixtures,
counterflow diffusion flames of hydrogen and methane in water up to 3000 bars have
been modeled (Saur et al., 1993). Supercritical water oxidation is emerging as a new
technology for the destruction of hazardous aqueous wastes (Modell, 1989). Although
the efficiency of this technique has been proved, only little fundamental data are
available on important physicochemical processes. Global oxidation rates for a variety
 CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELING OF COMBUSTION 275

of organic compounds have been determined, but only a very limited number of
reaction mechanisms have been proposed to reproduce the measured reaction rates
(Webley and Tester, 1991; Holgate and Tester, 1993). An important question to
elucidate is the possible physical and chemical effects of water on the oxidation rate
(Melius et al., 1990). Clearly, the optimization of this technique for waste destruction is
critically dependent on a better understanding of the elementary reactions occurring,
and many fundamental studies are needed.

CONCLUSION

During the last 25 years, the place of chemistry in combustion modeling increased
continuously and this progression is expected to persist during the next 25 years. This
continuous evolution toward a more detailed description of chemical processes in
combustion is necessary to improve the efficiency of combustion systems and to reduce
pollutant emissions. It will be allowed by the expected progress in the different
disciplines relevant to combustion science.
Many changes will occur in the next 25 years concerning fuel resources and use, and
new technologies will emerge. This is an exciting opportunity for combustion scientists,
and among them kineticists, to participate to the efforts for an increased efficiency in
the production and use of energy and to contribute to sustainable development of our
planet.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author gratefully acknowledges C. Cahen from EDF, G. M. Come and G. Scacchi from DCPR-CNRS,
for sending documents for the preparation of the manuscript, and B. Dessus from Ecotech-CNRS for sending
documents and for permiting the reproduction of figures.

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