Performance of a simple energetic-converting reaction model using Linear Irreversible Thermodynamics

Abstract

In this paper, the methodology of the so-called Linear Irreversible Thermodynamics (LIT) is applied to analyze the properties of an energetic-converting biological process using simple model for an enzymatic reaction that couples one exothermic and one endothermic reaction in the same fashion as Diaz-Hernandez et al. (Physica A, 2010, 389, 3476–3483). We extend the former analysis to consider three different operating regimes; namely, Maximum Power Output (MPO), Maximum Ecological Function (MEF) and Maximum Efficient Power Function (MEPF), respectively. Based on the later, it is possible to generalize the obtained results. Additionally, results show analogies in the optimal performance between the different optimization criteria where all thermodynamic features are determined by three parameters (the chemical potential gap Δ = μ 1 − μ 4 R T , the degree of coupling q and the efficiency η ). This depends on the election that leads to more or less efficient energy exchange.