Abstract
Kelvin had introduced the general idea of available energy. The advent of the entropy principle led to, in quick succession, the formulation of equilibrium thermodynamics by Gibbs—which was the prized fruit of the Kelvin–Clausius synthesis. One of its important results was the concept of free energies, which provided the general idea of available energies with specific examples—especially the Gibbs free energy of electrochemical energy→electrical work. Further development of available energy has evolved into the theory of exergy. Significantly, both the first law and the theory of exergy can be formulated for an engineering device’s control volume. In that formulation, the exergy treatment is reducible to the Carnot–Kelvin formula, a key tool in mechanical engineering, as well as to the Gibbs free energy, a key tool in chemical engineering.
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Notes
- 1.
If further evidence is needed for the need of “better understanding”, I quote two speakers in the Panel Discussion on “Teaching the Second Law” at the 2007 MIT meeting, Meeting the Entropy Challenge, AIP Conference Proceedings 1033 [12]:
Professor Robert Silbey,
“I have taught thermodynamics in the Chemistry Department here at MIT for about 40 years. And I have to say that whenever we get to the second law I am always very nervous. And so I’m anxious to hear from the panelists their views on this. And I think, it’s a little bit like the old story of Toscanini when he had to conduct Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, he always said to the orchestra ‘courage, have courage.’ And I think when you do the second law it’s the same thing.”
Professor Yunus Cengel (The following reflection of his showed that there was, in the Panel Discussion little agreement on what the second law is.),
“First, I would like to thank the panel members for sharing their experiences and ideas on teaching the second law. One thing I noticed is that there is little in common in their presentations, which means we have a long way from finding a unified approach in teaching the second law. I was particularly pleased to hear that MIT is team teaching a combined energy-philosophy course, which, I think, is very interesting. I wish Professor Trout the best of luck in this undertaking…”
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Wang, LS. (2020). Free Energy, Exergy, and Energy: The Exergetic Content of Energy. In: A Treatise of Heat and Energy. Mechanical Engineering Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05746-6_7
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