Question by Rin: How to prove that geothermal power plan does not violate the Second law of thermodynamics?
How to prove geothermal power plant does not violate the second law (especially in mathematic)
I know that it is a close system and it obey the internal energy conservation. But I hardly express it into mathematical to make it a stronger statement. Anyone can help please. Thank You.
Best answer:
Answer by jplrvflyer
Without knowing the actual plan, it’s hard to help you.
Basically, to take geothermal energy and use it, then the original system must lose energy. In other words, the Earth (at least locally) becomes slightly cooler.
What do you think? Answer below!
One Response
Geothermal energy can be used to generate electrical power. The process that accomplishes this must obey the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. You can test whether energy is conserved by the process and whether the change in the entropy of the universe is greater than zero.
But you have not provided enough information for me to help you complete this analysis. You need to provide values of Q & W, as well as the temperatures of the high and low tempratures reservoirs.