Project Grant 2347358

This $279,207 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to quantify the maximum power that can be generated by exploiting thermal gradients or chemical potential variations. The 3-year grant, which began on September 1, 2024, will fund research to develop a theoretical framework and computational tools to analyze and synthesize thermodynamic "gyrating engines" that can generate power from anisotropic thermal environments. The research will involve contrasting the performance of these model engines to naturally occurring biological processes, such as bacterial flagellar motors, in order to derive theoretical bounds on power generation from physical processes. The project's intellectual merits include advancing the fundamental understanding of the tradeoffs between work produced and dissipation in cyclic processes operating between heat baths of different temperatures. The broader impacts include enabling technological breakthroughs in nanoscale engines and improving the understanding of biological processes, with potential economic and societal benefits.