A Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law Explaining Universal Limits of Useful Energy Across Living and Engineered Systems
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866901104719036416 |
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| author | Mokhdum Azam Mashrafi, Mokhdum Azam Mashrafi |
| author_facet | Mokhdum Azam Mashrafi, Mokhdum Azam Mashrafi |
| contents | <p><span>Reported energy conversion efficiencies across biological, electro-mechanical, photovoltaic, aerospace, and computational systems systematically overestimate the fraction of supplied energy that becomes functionally usable under real operating conditions. Despite sustained advances in materials, design, and control, field-scale energy utilization remains persistently bounded—typically to ~1–3% in ecosystems, ~15–25% in photovoltaic plants, ~60–80% in electric drivetrains, and <1–2% in large-scale computing infrastructure. These discrepancies cannot be reconciled within classical efficiency theory, which implicitly assumes single-stage conversion and neglects the cumulative survival of energy through absorption, transport, regulation, and irreversible entropy production.</span></p> <p><span>Here we introduce a <span>Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law</span> that replaces scalar efficiency with a thermodynamically grounded survival formulation applicable across living and engineered systems. We define an <span>energy survival factor</span></span></p> <p><span>Ψ=AE/TE+ε</span></p> <p><span>where AE is the fraction of input energy absorbed and retained within the system boundary, TE represents transport, leakage, frictional, radiative, and environmental dissipation losses, and εε denotes irreducible entropy-generating losses mandated by the second law of thermodynamics. Unlike classical efficiency ratios, ΨΨ explicitly quantifies the persistence of absorbed energy against exergy destruction and is strictly bounded by 0<Ψ<1 for all real systems.</span></p> <p><span>By coupling the survival factor ΨΨ with an <span>internal conversion competency</span> term Cint, derived from reaction–transport kinetics, geometric constraints, and finite throughput limits, we obtain the universal performance law</span></p> <p><span>Euseful=Ein</span><span>⋅</span><span>Ψ</span><span>⋅</span><span>Cint.</span></p> <p><span>This formulation decomposes useful energy yield into two independently measurable and physically distinct constraints: (i) survival of energy against thermodynamic degradation and (ii) the finite capacity of a system to convert surviving energy into work, storage, motion, or information within characteristic timescales.</span></p> <p><span>Application of the law to representative systems—terrestrial ecosystems, utility-scale photovoltaics, electric propulsion, aerospace power systems, and data-center computing—demonstrates that observed performance ceilings emerge naturally from survival-limited or conversion-limited regimes, without invoking poor design or suboptimal efficiency. Across six orders of magnitude in scale, predicted usable energy outputs derived from independently measured survival losses and conversion capacities agree quantitatively with empirical field data.</span></p> <p><span>The Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law resolves long-standing inconsistencies between theoretical efficiency and real-world performance, provides a falsifiable and experimentally accessible framework grounded in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and establishes universal physical bounds on usable energy across biological and engineered systems. This survival-based paradigm fundamentally reframes energy analysis, shifting optimization from idealized efficiency toward reduction of energy death and enhancement of conversion throughput.</span></p> <p>Please check the attachment for details</p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_18450959 |
| institution | Zenodo |
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| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | A Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law Explaining Universal Limits of Useful Energy Across Living and Engineered Systems Mokhdum Azam Mashrafi, Mokhdum Azam Mashrafi <p><span>Reported energy conversion efficiencies across biological, electro-mechanical, photovoltaic, aerospace, and computational systems systematically overestimate the fraction of supplied energy that becomes functionally usable under real operating conditions. Despite sustained advances in materials, design, and control, field-scale energy utilization remains persistently bounded—typically to ~1–3% in ecosystems, ~15–25% in photovoltaic plants, ~60–80% in electric drivetrains, and <1–2% in large-scale computing infrastructure. These discrepancies cannot be reconciled within classical efficiency theory, which implicitly assumes single-stage conversion and neglects the cumulative survival of energy through absorption, transport, regulation, and irreversible entropy production.</span></p> <p><span>Here we introduce a <span>Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law</span> that replaces scalar efficiency with a thermodynamically grounded survival formulation applicable across living and engineered systems. We define an <span>energy survival factor</span></span></p> <p><span>Ψ=AE/TE+ε</span></p> <p><span>where AE is the fraction of input energy absorbed and retained within the system boundary, TE represents transport, leakage, frictional, radiative, and environmental dissipation losses, and εε denotes irreducible entropy-generating losses mandated by the second law of thermodynamics. Unlike classical efficiency ratios, ΨΨ explicitly quantifies the persistence of absorbed energy against exergy destruction and is strictly bounded by 0<Ψ<1 for all real systems.</span></p> <p><span>By coupling the survival factor ΨΨ with an <span>internal conversion competency</span> term Cint, derived from reaction–transport kinetics, geometric constraints, and finite throughput limits, we obtain the universal performance law</span></p> <p><span>Euseful=Ein</span><span>⋅</span><span>Ψ</span><span>⋅</span><span>Cint.</span></p> <p><span>This formulation decomposes useful energy yield into two independently measurable and physically distinct constraints: (i) survival of energy against thermodynamic degradation and (ii) the finite capacity of a system to convert surviving energy into work, storage, motion, or information within characteristic timescales.</span></p> <p><span>Application of the law to representative systems—terrestrial ecosystems, utility-scale photovoltaics, electric propulsion, aerospace power systems, and data-center computing—demonstrates that observed performance ceilings emerge naturally from survival-limited or conversion-limited regimes, without invoking poor design or suboptimal efficiency. Across six orders of magnitude in scale, predicted usable energy outputs derived from independently measured survival losses and conversion capacities agree quantitatively with empirical field data.</span></p> <p><span>The Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law resolves long-standing inconsistencies between theoretical efficiency and real-world performance, provides a falsifiable and experimentally accessible framework grounded in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and establishes universal physical bounds on usable energy across biological and engineered systems. This survival-based paradigm fundamentally reframes energy analysis, shifting optimization from idealized efficiency toward reduction of energy death and enhancement of conversion throughput.</span></p> <p>Please check the attachment for details</p> |
| title | A Unified Energy Survival–Conversion Law Explaining Universal Limits of Useful Energy Across Living and Engineered Systems |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18450959 |