Comment on Makarieva et al. 'A critique of some modern applications of the Carnot heat engine concept: The dissipative heat engine cannot exist'

Abstract

Makarieva et al. (2010) assert that a dissipative heat engine is impossible and criticize earlier published work that they claim violates the laws of thermodynamics. Here we show that the earlier work does not violate fundamental physical laws and suggest that Makarieva et al. (2010) were misinterpreting expressions for wind speed as ones for work done on external objects. Moreover, we dispute their assertion that dissipative heating is necessarily compensated by a reduction of external heating. © 2010 The Royal Society.