7. Conclusion

The internal combustion engine accompanied the oil era and the industrial revolution. Against a backdrop of persistently low oil production costs, the development of the internal combustion engine responded to constraints far removed from energy efficiency, such as production cost, power density, reliability and robustness. It's only since the oil crises, and more recently in the context of greenhouse gas reduction, that the challenges of energy efficiency have forced the combustion engine to adopt a different approach.

Numerous solutions can be explored to improve the overall environmental footprint of internal combustion engines. New engine architectures, more efficient operating cycles, new combustion modes, etc. offer the prospect of much greater energy efficiency and a reduction in pollutants. While the very principle of combustion and the pollutant emissions...