(525a) Thermodynamic Insights into Chemical Energy Conversion

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics has a unique role to play in the development of sustainable technology, for it can effectively reveal and deal with the fundamental limitations of specific energy- and material conversions. One major aspect of sustainable technology is unmistakably efficiency, and hence a good insight into the behaviour and performance of energy-conversion systems is essential. One area that has our particular interest is energy transfer by the direct coupling of chemical reactions. This mechanism is prominent in the metabolism of living systems, for which we have identified exceptional thermodynamic performances. With a simple, but powerful, model of the irreversible thermodynamics of the coupled-reaction system, we can reveal much of the essential behaviour and obtain some meaningful insights into high-performance energy conversion. Focus will be on the rate of energy conversion, entropy generation, and thermodynamic efficiency. We will also relate our findings to some well-known optimization strategies in engineering, such as the equipartitioning of driving forces and entropy-generation minimization.