Performance characteristic of isothermal chemical engines

Abstract

Chemical engines process mass flow to convert the differences in chemical potentials into work. An isothermal endoreversible chemical engine, in which the sole irreversibility is finite-rate mass transfer, is modeled in this paper. The power versus efficiency relationships of the chemical engine, using the analogous method of finite-time thermodynamics for a heat engine, are derived. The performance comparison between a heat engine and a chemical heat engine is presented.