Although algal biofuels possess great potential, profitable production is quite challenging. Much of this challenge is rooted in the thermodynamic constraints associated with producing fuels with high energy, low entropy, and high exergy from dispersed materials. In this study, a preliminary thermodynamic analysis is presented that calculates the energy, entropy, and exergy of the intermediate ...

The increasing use of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation, many of which have an unpredictably intermittent nature, will inevitably lead to a greater need for electricity storage. Although there are many existing and emerging storage technologies, most have limitations in terms of geographical constraints, high capital cost or low cycle life, and few are of sufficient scale...

In this paper we present a comparative study of nine photosynthetic pathways by means of their thermodynamic performance. The comparison is made by using the thermal efficiency of light-to-chemical energy conversion and the so-called ecological criterion arising from finite-time thermodynamics. The application of both criteria leads to photosynthesis made by metaphytes and non sulfur purple bac...

Humidification dehumidification desalination (HDH) is a promising technology for small-scale water production applications. There are several embodiments of this technology which have been investigated by researchers around the world. However, from a previous literature review [1], we have found no study which carried out a detailed thermodynamic analysis in order to improve and/or optimize the...

Using’the concepts of scaled particle theory, an analytical theory is developed to investigate the limiting behavior of solvation free energies at the particle creation limit. The new theory directly incorporates the weakly attractive, dispersion interaction terms into the analytical calculations. For neutral molecular systems, the effects of longer ranged electrostatic interactions are also in...

The ability to perform rapid separations in a post nuclear weapon detonation scenario is an important aspect of national security. In the past, separations of fission products have been performed using solvent extraction, precipitation, etc. The focus of this work is to explore the feasibility of using thermochromatography, a technique largely employed in superheavy element chemistry, to expedi...

Motivated by the analysis of natural and engineered DNA and RNA systems, we present the first algorithm for calculating the partition function of an unpseudoknotted complex of multiple interacting nucleic acid strands. This dynamic program is based on a rigorous extension of secondary structure models to the multistranded case, addressing representation and distinguishability issues that do not...

Understanding the factors that can modify the drug release profile of a drug from a Drug-Delivery-System (DDS) is a mandatory step to determine the effectiveness of new therapies. The aim of this study was to assess the Amphotericin-B (AmB) kinetic release profiles from polymeric systems with different compositions and geometries and to correlate these profiles with the thermodynamic parameters...

A thermodynamic approach is presented to assess the extent of anion exchange reactions during the heteroepitaxy (molecular beam epitaxy) of dissimilar anion III–V compound semiconductor structures. It is shown that the extent of anion exchange can be predicted by the change in the Gibbs free energy. Bond strength changes can only be used as a guide in comparing the relative tendency for exchang...