The Inaugural Lecture of Professor Mark Linne, Chair of Combustion
Engines took place at 5.30pm on Thursday, 9th February 2017 in the
Swann Lecture Theatre, Swann Building, The King’s Buildings.
Clean Combustion - is that really a thing?
The earliest cave people harnessed combustion and learned to rely
upon it for cooking and heat. It’s a very old tool, handed down to us
from the ancient past. These days we rely upon combustion for
transportation, electricity, heat, and it powers many industrial
processes. Over 86% of the world’s energy use relies upon combustion. We
are addicted to it and like many addictions we wish we could be free of
it, but we must be careful moving forward.
We face a dilemma. Combustion contributes roughly 80% of the
greenhouse gases produced every year. To stop using combustion, however,
would produce an economic disaster like no other in history. The world
economy remains closely linked to energy use and combustion is our
energy source for now, yet we must stop flooding the atmosphere with
climate changing gases. In addition, we must also acknowledge that we
live in a democracy. Governments cannot simply command citizens to stop
using combustion-based energy.
The solutions to this problem will be complex, multifaceted, and they
will take time to implement. Some of the recent inaugural lectures have
already touched on topics like energy storage (important for
intermittent electricity generation like wind), and carbon capture and
storage. This presentation will attempt to put internal combustion
engines in context; to explain how they fit into the energy scene, where
we are in terms of our ability to reduce climate impacts, and what will
be required.
Further Information