Prospective

We are living today in exciting times of spectacular advances in high-tech — a progress highlighted by the advent of micro-electronic control systems of nanosecond resolution. So far, the execution of the exothermic process of combustion (known, unfortunately, under a misleading name of “heat release”) has been considered (appropriately for this misnomer) to be beyond any control. As a consequence of this misconception, the automotive industry acquired the practice of a “hands-off” technology of combustion. Everything possible is done to refine the fuel, provide it with more-or-less useful additives, and igniting it, either by spark or by compression, but, once the fuel is ignited, the rest is considered to be in the hands of God. The question one may pose is what can be done to foster progress and what can be thereby achieved (Oppenheim 2002).