3 - Highly Preheated Lean Combustion

This chapter faces with the outstanding challenge of giving an objective and quantitative classification of moderate and intense low oxygen dilution (MILD)/high-temperature air combustion (HiTAC) combustion regimes based on measurable process status variables (ie, temperature and/or temperature increase). This is a fundamental step in establishing an unambiguous identification of these regimes. Such a classification, even if it can be effective in avoiding confusion between phenomenological aspects and actual processes status, needs to be complemented by a more detailed analysis of the process's underpinnings aimed at identifying well-defined elementary processes determining the observed phenomenologies. In this context, there is a potential for MILD combustion to offer significant benefits in a wide number of applications.