4. Conclusions. Outlook

Although now over a hundred years old, the internal combustion engine still holds a predominant position in the production of mechanical energy in many sectors of the economy. This longevity is essentially due to its low mass production costs, its flexibility of use, and its suitability for low-cost fossil fuels produced by the oil industry. Its future, in the more or less long term, seems to us to depend above all on the availability of these products (as reserves are not inexhaustible) or of suitable substitute products.

For several decades now, there has been constant research into the possible development of competing powertrains, particularly in the automotive sector: gas turbines, thermal-electric hybridization, fuel cells, electric batteries, etc., but none of these techniques has so far proved its superiority over the existing one as a substitute. However,...