Possible power generation with nature's high-efficiency technology

Abstract

The rapidly growing fuel consumption in engines and turbine that power the world's transportation vehicles and power-generation plants will nearly exhaust the world's supply of petroleum by the end of the next century. These engines and turbines run at high heat-input temperatures because their efficiency is limited by the Carnot cycle. Muscles used for propulsion by animals are not limited in efficiency by the Carnot cycle, so we see dolphins getting 3,000 miles of travel from a food quantity that contains the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline. Leaves on plants capture the energy in sunlight to extract carbon from carbon dioxide in the air, and hydrogen form water, to manufacture carbohydrates. Scientists and engineers studying these processes are amazed by the computing power and data storage required to make these processes work. For example, a tiny grape seed contains the data and structural technology required for quickly constructing the plant's fuel-producing leaves and the structures that support them. Even the stiff thorn that discourages intruders from entering the grape bush has an effective design. The data stored in the seed specifies the color of the grape plant's blossoms, commands the production of the sugar-containing fluid that goes into the grapes, and even the data content of the next-generation seeds in the globules of each grape berry. In this report, we explore energy-conversion processes that nature has developed in plants and animals. We explore the possibility of adapting them into techniques that reduce our consumption of petroleum fuels.