Thermo-chemical engines: Unexploited high-potential energy converters

Active Galactic Nuclei as High Energy Engines

Active Galactic Nuclei are considered as possible sites of cosmic ray acceleration and some of them have been observed as high energy gamma ray emitters (Blazars). There naturally comes an appealing idea that the acceleration of the highest energy cosmic rays in the AGNs has a signature in the form of gamma ray emission and high energy neutrino emission through the collisions of very high energ...

Equilibrium Chemical Engines

The molecular machine in biological systems works as a chemical energy transducer. For instance, the protein motors such as myosin and kinesins, or flagellar motor produce mechanical energy as they consume the chemical energy provided by hydrolysis of ATP or proton density gradient. Some other proteins, such as enzymes or pump proteins of membrane transportation, can be also thought as chemical...

On the Chemical Potential of Dark Energy

It is widely assumed that the observed universe is accelerating due to the existence of a new fluid component called dark energy. In this article, the thermodynamics consequences of a nonzero chemical potential on the dark energy component is discussed with special emphasis to the phantom fluid case. It is found that if the dark energy fluid is endowed with a negative chemical potential, the ph...

Catalytic Converters for Small Spark-Ignited Nonhandheld Utility Engines

Energy utilization in fluctuating biological energy converters

We have argued previously [Szoke et al., FEBS Lett. 553, 18-20 (2003); Curr. Chem. Biol. 1, 53-57 (2007)] that energy utilization and evolution are emergent properties based on a small number of established laws of physics and chemistry. The relevant laws constitute a framework for biology on a level intermediate between quantum chemistry and cell biology. There are legitimate questions whether...