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Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures

Through the research presented herein, it is quite clear that there are two thermodynamically distinct types (A and B) of energetic processes naturally occurring on Earth. Type A, such as glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, apparently follows the second law well; Type B, as exemplified by t...

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Autor principal: Lee, James Weifu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8228076/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34070431
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e23060665
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author Lee, James Weifu
author_facet Lee, James Weifu
author_sort Lee, James Weifu
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description Through the research presented herein, it is quite clear that there are two thermodynamically distinct types (A and B) of energetic processes naturally occurring on Earth. Type A, such as glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, apparently follows the second law well; Type B, as exemplified by the thermotrophic function with transmembrane electrostatically localized protons presented here, does not necessarily have to be constrained by the second law, owing to its special asymmetric function. This study now, for the first time, numerically shows that transmembrane electrostatic proton localization (Type-B process) represents a negative entropy event with a local protonic entropy change ([Formula: see text]) in a range from −95 to −110 J/K∙mol. This explains the relationship between both the local protonic entropy change ([Formula: see text]) and the mitochondrial environmental temperature (T) and the local protonic Gibbs free energy ([Formula: see text]) in isothermal environmental heat utilization. The energy efficiency for the utilization of total protonic Gibbs free energy ([Formula: see text] including [Formula: see text]) in driving the synthesis of ATP is estimated to be about 60%, indicating that a significant fraction of the environmental heat energy associated with the thermal motion kinetic energy (k(B)T) of transmembrane electrostatically localized protons is locked into the chemical form of energy in ATP molecules. Fundamentally, it is the combination of water as a protonic conductor, and thus the formation of protonic membrane capacitor, with asymmetric structures of mitochondrial membrane and cristae that makes this amazing thermotrophic feature possible. The discovery of energy Type-B processes has inspired an invention (WO 2019/136037 A1) for energy renewal through isothermal environmental heat energy utilization with an asymmetric electron-gated function to generate electricity, which has the potential to power electronic devices forever, including mobile phones and laptops. This invention, as an innovative Type-B mimic, may have many possible industrial applications and is likely to be transformative in energy science and technologies for sustainability on Earth.
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spelling pubmed-82280762021-06-26 Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures Lee, James Weifu Entropy (Basel) Article Through the research presented herein, it is quite clear that there are two thermodynamically distinct types (A and B) of energetic processes naturally occurring on Earth. Type A, such as glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, apparently follows the second law well; Type B, as exemplified by the thermotrophic function with transmembrane electrostatically localized protons presented here, does not necessarily have to be constrained by the second law, owing to its special asymmetric function. This study now, for the first time, numerically shows that transmembrane electrostatic proton localization (Type-B process) represents a negative entropy event with a local protonic entropy change ([Formula: see text]) in a range from −95 to −110 J/K∙mol. This explains the relationship between both the local protonic entropy change ([Formula: see text]) and the mitochondrial environmental temperature (T) and the local protonic Gibbs free energy ([Formula: see text]) in isothermal environmental heat utilization. The energy efficiency for the utilization of total protonic Gibbs free energy ([Formula: see text] including [Formula: see text]) in driving the synthesis of ATP is estimated to be about 60%, indicating that a significant fraction of the environmental heat energy associated with the thermal motion kinetic energy (k(B)T) of transmembrane electrostatically localized protons is locked into the chemical form of energy in ATP molecules. Fundamentally, it is the combination of water as a protonic conductor, and thus the formation of protonic membrane capacitor, with asymmetric structures of mitochondrial membrane and cristae that makes this amazing thermotrophic feature possible. The discovery of energy Type-B processes has inspired an invention (WO 2019/136037 A1) for energy renewal through isothermal environmental heat energy utilization with an asymmetric electron-gated function to generate electricity, which has the potential to power electronic devices forever, including mobile phones and laptops. This invention, as an innovative Type-B mimic, may have many possible industrial applications and is likely to be transformative in energy science and technologies for sustainability on Earth. MDPI 2021-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8228076/ /pubmed/34070431 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e23060665 Text en © 2021 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lee, James Weifu
Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures
title Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures
title_full Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures
title_fullStr Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures
title_full_unstemmed Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures
title_short Energy Renewal: Isothermal Utilization of Environmental Heat Energy with Asymmetric Structures
title_sort energy renewal: isothermal utilization of environmental heat energy with asymmetric structures
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8228076/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34070431
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e23060665
work_keys_str_mv AT leejamesweifu energyrenewalisothermalutilizationofenvironmentalheatenergywithasymmetricstructures