Invariant rectifying and stripping (IRS) curves are used for thermodynamic analysis of a distillation column. Thermal integration of a distillation column with the background process through side exchangers (side reboilers/condensers) is important for energy-efficient design of a distillation column. Thermal integration of a distillation column through side exchangers also improves the exergeti...

Bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaic (BHJ-OPV) technology promises high efficiency at ultralow cost and weight, with potential for nontraditional applications such as building-integrated photovoltaic (PV). There is a widespread presumption that the complexity of morphology makes carrier transport in OPV irreducibly complicated and, possibly, beyond predictive modeling. However, understandin...

This article makes the argument that compression ignition combustion processes that are “flameless” with volumetric energy release, described as Low Temperature Combustion (LTC), are a thermodynamic pathway to maximizing the efficiency of reciprocating piston, internal combustion engines. The argument is built from the foundation of determining the maximum theoretical efficiency for an IC Engin...

We propose and analyze a possible experimental system for the investigation of the thermodynamic efficiency of generating biochemical gradients. We investigate the efficiency of a model pump that uses 6-phosphofructokinase (EC 2.7.1.11, an enzyme that exhibits highly nonlinear kinetics), chromatophores from Rhodobacter sphaeroides, and light to generate a biochemical gradient. We analyze the ex...

We present an outlook on the climate system thermodynamics. First, we construct an equivalent Carnot engine with efficiency eta and frame the Lorenz energy cycle in a macroscale thermodynamic context. Then, by exploiting the second law, we prove that the lower bound to the entropy production is eta times the integrated absolute value of the internal entropy fluctuations. An exergetic interpreta...

F(1)-ATPase is a nanosized biological energy transducer working as part of F(o)F(1)-ATP synthase. Its rotary machinery transduces energy between chemical free energy and mechanical work and plays a central role in the cellular energy transduction by synthesizing most ATP in virtually all organisms. However, information about its energetics is limited compared to that of the reaction scheme. Act...

A thermodynamic model for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is developed by considering energy and entropy flows in the system. Thermodynamic constraints have previously been considered separately for the reversible process of electroluminescence in LEDs and for light extraction and collimation in other optical systems. By considering both processes in the LED model, an irreversible upper bound for ...

Some years ago Vignati (refs. 1, 2, 3) showed that, under some particular circumstances (inter alia : isobaric processes connected through internal heat exchangers), the efficiency of an Ericsson cycle involving a real gas can exceed the Carnot limit ηC , in contradiction with the second principle of thermodynamics. However, the convergence of Vignati’s algorithm, giving the temperature differe...

This paper proposes that intelligent processes can be completely explained by thermodynamic principles. They can equally be described by information-theoretic principles that, from the standpoint of the required optimizations, are functionally equivalent. The underlying theory arises from two axioms regarding distinguishability and causality. Their consequence is a theory of computation that ap...

Abstract: The evaluation of the thermodynamic performance of the mutual transformation of different kinds of exergy linked to the intensive thermodynamic parameters of the flow inside the ejector of a refrigeration system is undertaken. Two thermodynamic metrics, exergy produced and exergy consumed, are introduced to assess these transformations. Their calculation is based on the evaluation of ...