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Combustion involves chemical reactions that are often highly exothermic. Combustion systems utilize the energy of chemical compounds released during this reactive process for transportation, to generate electric power, or to provide heat for various applications. Chemistry and combustion are interlinked in several ways. The outcome of a combustion process in terms of its energy and material balance, regarding the delivery of useful work as well as the generation of harmful emissions, depends sensitively on the molecular nature of the respective fuel. The design of efficient, low-emission combustion processes in compliance with air quality and climate goals suggests a closer inspection of the molecular properties and reactions of conventional, bio-derived, and synthetic fuels. Information about flammability, reaction intensity, and potentially hazardous combustion by-products is important also for safety considerations. Moreover, some of the compounds that serve as fuels can assume important roles in chemical energy storage and conversion. Combustion processes can furthermore be used to synthesize materials with attractive properties. A systematic understanding of the combustion behavior thus demands chemical knowledge. Desirable information includes properties of the thermodynamic states before and after the combustion reactions and relevant details about the dynamic processes that occur during the reactive transformations from the fuel and oxidizer to the products under the given boundary conditions. Combustion systems can be described, tailored, and improved by taking chemical knowledge into account. Combining theory, experiment, model development, simulation, and a systematic analysis of uncertainties enables qualitative or even quantitative predictions for many combustion situations of practical relevance. This article can highlight only a few of the numerous investigations on chemical processes for combustion and combustion-related science and applications, with a main focus on gas-phase reaction systems. It attempts to provide a snapshot of recent progress and a guide to exciting opportunities that drive such research beyond fossil combustion. © 2020 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

With the doubling of urban population within the next two decades and the disproportionate growth of megacities, it is critical to explore the synergism between urban heat and pollution. In this paper, a systematic review is conducted on the existing knowledge, collected since 1990, on the link between urban heat island (UHI) and urban pollution island (UPI). Results from 16 countries and 11 Köppen-Geiger climatic zones are perused and compared to delineate methodological and experimental trends, geographical dependencies and research gaps. Detailed content analysis is conducted according to five prominent topics: i) the role of UHI on temperature-dependent chemistry, ii) the daytime/nighttime variability in the UHI-UPI interaction, iii) the role of urban geomorphic types, forms and growth schemes, iv) future trends and v) primary and secondary effects of UHI mitigation on urban air quality. Different approaches and observations are eventually harmonized to outline opportunities and challenges towards the disentanglement and/or the two-way mitigation of both phenomena. This will help governments and urban planners to deliver coping strategies and precautions towards a more salutogenic urban design., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • 30 years of knowledge on the link between urban heat and pollution islands are revised. • Results from 16 countries and 11 climatic zones are collected and analyzed. • Geographical dependencies, methodological and experimental trends are compared. • Five prominent aspects related to chemistry, meteorology and urbanism are covered. • Major findings, areas of debate and outstanding research questions are identified.

Air cleaning techniques have been applied worldwide with the goal of improving indoor air quality. The effectiveness of applying these techniques varies widely, and pollutant removal efficiency is usually determined in controlled laboratory environments which may not be realized in practice. Some air cleaners are largely ineffective, and some produce harmful by-products. To summarize what is known regarding the effectiveness of fan-driven air cleaning technologies, a state-of-the-art review of the scientific literature was undertaken by a multidisciplinary panel of experts from Europe, North America, and Asia with expertise in air cleaning, aerosol science, medicine, chemistry and ventilation. The effects on health were not examined. Over 26,000 articles were identified in major literature databases; 400 were selected as being relevant based on their titles and abstracts by the first two authors, who further reduced the number of articles to 160 based on the full texts. These articles were reviewed by the panel using predefined inclusion criteria during their first meeting. Additions were also made by the panel. Of these, 133 articles were finally selected for detailed review. Each article was assessed independently by two members of the panel and then judged by the entire panel during a consensus meeting. During this process 59 articles were deemed conclusive and their results were used for final reporting at their second meeting. The conclusions are that: (1) None of the reviewed technologies was able to effectively remove all indoor pollutants and many were found to generate undesirable by-products during operation. (2) Particle filtration and sorption of gaseous pollutants were among the most effective air cleaning technologies, but there is insufficient information regarding long-term performance and proper maintenance. (3) The existing data make it difficult to extract information such as Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR), which represents a common benchmark for comparing the performance of different air cleaning technologies. (4) To compare and select suitable indoor air cleaning devices, a labeling system accounting for characteristics such as CADR, energy consumption, volume, harmful by-products, and life span is necessary. For that purpose, a standard test room and condition should be built and studied. (5) Although there is evidence that some air cleaning technologies improve indoor air quality, further research is needed before any of them can be confidently recommended for use in indoor environments., Highlights ► Active air cleaning technologies are reviewed by an inter multidisciplinary panel. ► The performances including CADR, efficiency, by-products are summarized and compared. ► The problems such as producing harmful by-products etc. are pointed out and analyzed. ► Benchmarks, standard procedure for labeling air cleaner performance are necessary.