One famous limit of thermodynamics is that heat engines, like steam engines and internal combustion engines, must be less efficient than a Carnot heat engine (a heat engine cycle designed by ...

The efficiency also tends to decrease, because it requires large temperature differences as given by the famous Carnot heat-engine equations. For these reasons, liquid- or gas-driven heat engines ...

In the case of the newly proposed nano-heat engine, the scientists have been theoretically able to exceed the classic Carnot limit by manipulating the heat baths and exploiting nonequlibrium states.

The results shown are performed at a temperature ratio of 0.88. Arxiv – Nanoscale Heat Engine Beyond the Carnot Limit (6 pages) Physical Review Letters – Nanoscale Heat Engine Beyond the Carnot Limit ...

A physicist solves an old thermodynamic puzzle and demonstrates directly from the second law that entropy disappears at absolute zero.

As an expression of the second law of thermodynamics, Carnot's result places a fundamental limit on a heat engine's maximum efficiency.

But they are currently limited by Carnot's maximum efficiency rule, according to which any attempt to enhance a heat engine's efficiency lowers its power, making the engine useless.

Such heat engines typically operate at 30-40 percent efficiency, such that ~ 15 TW of heat is lost to the environment To be competitive compared to current engines and refrigerators (efficiency 30-40 ...

Engineers have reported on the development of a microscopic motor operating between two thermal baths, that is, a micro Carnot engine.

Stirling engines, named after the Scottish inventor who created them in 1816, offer the highest theoretical efficiency of any heat engine—the same as the Carnot efficiency.