Abstract
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 () in a range from −95 to −110 J/K∙mol. This explains the relationship between both the local protonic entropy change () and the mitochondrial environmental temperature (T) and the local protonic Gibbs free energy () in isothermal environmental heat utilization. The energy efficiency for the utilization of total protonic Gibbs free energy ( including ) 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 (kBT) 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.
Highlights
In the past four centuries, it was widely believed that environmental heat energy could not be utilized unless there was a temperature gradient or difference
This study shows that there are two thermodynamically distinct types (A and B) of energetic processes naturally occurring on Earth; Type A energy processes follow the second law well, while Type B energy processes do not necessarily have to follow the second law because of their special asymmetric functions
It is apparent from these results that the local protonic Gibbs free energy (∆GL) from the transmembrane electrostatically localized protons dominantly contributes to the overall strength of the total protonic Gibbs free energy (∆GT)
Summary
In the past four centuries, it was widely believed that environmental heat energy (the dissipated form of heat energy; known as latent heat, or the temperature-dependent molecular thermal motion kinetic energy in the environment) could not be utilized unless there was a temperature gradient or difference. Through bioenergetics elucidation studies on the basis of a novel transmembrane electrostatic proton localization theory [4,5,6,7,8,9,10], it was surprisingly revealed that environmental heat energy can be isothermally utilized through “transmembrane electrostatically localized protons at a liquid–membrane interface” to help drive ATP synthesis in certain biological systems such as alkalophilic bacteria Bacillus pseudofirmus [11,12,13,14,15,16] This finding indicated that proton-coupling bioenergetic systems may have a thermotrophic feature that can isothermally generate significant amounts of Gibbs free energy from environmental heat (dissipated-heat energy) through transmembrane electrostatically localized protons with asymmetric membrane structures [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. We know that in certain special biophysical molecular systems, such as in the system of transmembrane electrostatically localized protons [8,10,19] at the liquid–membrane interface [5,20,21], that this classic belief may not necessarily have to be always true [16]
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