Exergy or the entropic drive: waste heat and free heat

Abstract

The dissipation of exergy is conventionally held to be the inference of the entropy growth. In this conventional perspective, the universe is running down towards equilibrium or heat death. Recent cosmological findings of 1998–2000 give empirical evidence that the universe is instead moving away from equilibrium while its entropy increases. We can better comprehend this non–equilibrium world by thinking in terms of the entropic drive - which, unlike exergy as it is conventionally understood, can be and are being created. Entropy is connected to both (unmanaged) dissipation and managed drive: this paper also introduces the concept of free heat, which is a measure of the departure of managed processes from their spontaneous natural limits including ones of Ongoing Entropy Production (OEP) processes such as solar–infrared radiant exchanges. OEP processes may speed up or slow down. What matters is the maintenance of non–equilibrium existence as a result of managing OEP processes.