"It is with sadness that we report the death of Professor Fred Lockwood on 16th February 2024 after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. Fred Lockwood was born on 17/10/1936 in London, Ontario, Canada. After graduating from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Fred moved to London to study for a PhD in Imperial College. On completion of this in 1964 Fred joined Professor Brian Spalding’s Heat Transfer section as a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
Although Fred’s PhD was on Heat Transfer his interest quickly changed to combustion research. This was well balanced and involved both experimental studies and mathematical modelling and encompassed both premixed and diffusion flames. The fuels studied ranged from natural gas, oil, coal and biomass to synthetic fuels. The mathematical modelling and experimental studies spanned from industrial gas turbines, paper, glass, steel and coking boilers to cement/lime kilns and industrial boilers. Fred was an active Board member of the Joint Committee of the International Flame Research Foundation (IFRF) and was a member of the steering committees of several leading research organisations, i.e., IFRF, EPSCR. He was a regular contributor to the Combustion Institute through papers, presentations and reviewing committees. He was awarded the Bernard Lewis Gold Medal of the Combustion Institute, “For brilliant research in the field of combustion”. He authored and co-authored over 250 technical papers and delivered, with colleagues, over 50 short courses on combustion to participants from industries, research institutions and universities. He was also the founder of Combustion and emission reduction consulting firms, CINAR Ltd, London, CINAR S.A., Athens.
Fred also interacted with many internationally leading combustion and heat transfer experts through students exchange and visiting research fellows. Fred’s most celebrated works are the particle dispersion model for fluidised beds (1980), Fire computation: the ‘flashover’ phenomenon (1982) and the discrete transfer method developed by Lockwood and Shah for calculating radiative heat transfer (1983). Fred developed one of the first two-phase combustion computational fluid dynamics codes for coal combustion (1984) and a NOx emission formation/reduction post-processor (1988) for utility boilers. Fred’s team developed a unique and novel multi-fuel combustion and mineral interactive models for the cement, lime and mining industries (1991). In 1992 the team conducted experimental and modelling research into oxygen enrichment and CO2 recirculation (combine cycle gas turbine and boiler) for CO2 mitigation and energy efficiency; local grid refinement (LGR) was applied for large industrial combustors (1995) and reduced chemistry-based NOx and CO postprocessors developed for the process industries (2000). Since his retirement from Imperial College Fred continued to advise Cinar Ltd on modelling and burner modifications for fuelswitch related research, i.e. from coal to biomass and natural gas conversions of cement and lime kilns, 100% net zero CO2 emissions through replacing coal with hydrogen and biomass and thermal input via plasma torches – a UK government sponsored project which demonstrated the first cement kiln operating under net-zero CO2 emissions.
In addition to running a large research group Fred had many outside interests. He maintained and sailed a 50ft wooden boat, Patna, together with his wife Helen and their two sons Toby and Freddie; one summer he sailed from the UK to the US and the following year sailed it back through severe storms in the Atlantic. Fred and Helen also bought and restored a dilapidated Mill House near Clermont-Ferrand, including replacing the water wheel, which was then used to generate electricity. On Fred’s retirement he and Helen bought a vineyard in Beaujolais - Maison Buliats. The vineyard produced around 20,000 bottles of wine (Régnié) so producing and marketing the wine was no small task for Fred and Helen.
Fred is survived by his wife Helen, their two sons Toby and Freddie and four grandchildren. He was generous and popular and will be sorely missed by his many friends and colleagues."
Dr Tahir Abbas
Professor Bill Jones