Energies Webinar | Advanced Thermodynamics, Type-B Energetic Processes and Their Applications II
Meet Our Speakers
Prof. Dr. James Weifu Lee
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA;
Prof. James Weifu Lee completed PhD thesis research at Cornell University in 1992 and then worked as a Scientist at US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 15 years. His energy research received national recognition including the 1999–2004 U.S. Presidential Award honored at the White House. Subsequently, he worked as a professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia and has been recognized as a world-class scientist among the recent Stanford University World ranking of scientists, which represents the top 2% of the most-cited scientists in the world. He recently identified two thermodynamically distinct types (A, B) of energetic processes naturally occurring on Earth. Type-A energetic process such as the heat engine process follows well the thermodynamic second law; Type-B energetic process, represented by the newly discovered thermotrophic function, does not have to be constrained by the second law, owing to the asymmetric function. The identification of Type-B energetic process is of great scientific and practical importance.
On Wednesday, 16 November 2022, MDPI and the Journal Energies organized the 9th webinar on Energies, entitled "Advanced Thermodynamics, Type-B Energetic Processes and Their Applications II", chaired by Professor James Weifu Lee from the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, USA.
Prof. Lee delivered the opening remarks on the recent breakthrough identification of Type B energetic process, which follows the first law of thermodynamics, but do not have to be constrained by the second law, owning to their special asymmetric functions. Prof. Daniel Sheehan made an insightful presentation on “Challenging the Universality of the Thermodynamic Second Law,” which was followed by Prof. Fu’s seminar on “An Experiment of Heat-Electric Conversion Challenging the Kelvin Statement of the Second Law”. In Prof. Lee’s opening and closing remarks, more innovative scientific research and development efforts in mimicking and/or creating of Type-B processes to isothermally utilize the endless environmental heat energy are highly encouraged to help ultimately liberate all peoples from their dependence of fossil fuel energy, thus helping to reduce greenhouse gas CO2 emissions and control climate change towards a common shared sustainable future for the humanity on Earth.
The presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the Chair. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found here on Sciforum website. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on Energies, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.
The presentation slides of Prof. Dr. Xinyong Fu and Mr. Zitao Fu can be found here:
