Joint NSF-NSFC Workshop on Combustion Related to Sustainable Energy

A workshop on Combustion Related to Sustainable Energy was held in Hangzhou, China on March 10-12, 2014. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The purpose of the workshop was to bring together a limited number of researchers from the U.S and China (10 from each country) to identify priority research objectives for potential joint research projects involving collaborating investigators from the two countries. This workshop was a forum where lead researchers from the U.S. and China gathered to address critical needs in the general areas of combustion, gasification, pyrolysis and related thermal processes. The workshop's results and key findings were published in a final report, and also led to the development of a NSF solicitation, NSF14-102. The following commentary provides a summary of the key issues identified in the presentations and discussions given at that workshop, with an emphasis on the opportunities for fundamental research.