In: Physics
does a heat engine reject some heat to a lower temperature resorvoir
Yes, any heat engine rejects some heat to the lower temperature reservoir.
Consider the ideal engine (Carnot engine). From a high
temperature reservoir at temperature
. the engine obtains
amount of heat. The engine does
amount of work by converting a part of this energy to work. And
the engine rejects the remaining amount of
energy
to a lower temperature reservoir at temperature
.
Efficiency of this engine
If the engine is not rejecting some heat to the lower
temperature reservoir, then
, that is
.
Hence efficiency
But there is no Carnot heat engine with this efficiency
as
implies that
. But absolute zero is not attainable.
Real heat engines have efficiency less than that of Carnot engine. Hence they also cannot attain the temperature of absolute zero.
Hence all engines must reject some heat to the lower temperature reservoir.