Exergy is a concept every chemical engineering student learns in thermodynamics. Energy is conserved – it cannot be created or destroyed. But energy is different. Exergy is the fraction of energy that can actually do useful work in a given environment. The rest is lost to irreversibility: friction, heat dissipation, inefficiency, entropy.
Shrikant M Vaidya took this textbook concept and applied it directly to the lives of the students sitting in front of him. You possess energy, he said – intelligence, youth, ambition. The world is full of opportunities. But how much of this energy will convert into useful work? How much will be destroyed by distraction, inconsistency, poor discipline, ethical shortcuts, and weak fundamentals?
This is not a motivational metaphor stretched beyond its meaning. It is structurally accurate. In thermodynamics, you cannot recover exergy once it is destroyed – irreversibility is permanent. In life, years spent without building competence, without strengthening fundamentals, without developing discipline are similarly irrecoverable. The analogy holds.
His challenge to students: decide whether the time you spend on your phone is worth it, and whether you need to invest that energy in something better. You only get one life.
The Mobile Phone Challenge: 7-8 Hours of Destroyed Exergy
Shrikant Vaidya cited a study: people in the students’ age group spend 7-8 hours daily on their phones. He paused and noted that some students in the audience laughed and said it was more than 8 hours. His point was direct: that is 7-8 hours of potential exergy being destroyed every day through distraction and irreversibility. The time spent on social media and screen-scrolling does not build fundamentals, does not develop competence, and does not strengthen discipline. It is the equivalent of thermal energy lost to entropy – it exists, but it does no useful work.
The 99-to-100 Degrees Analogy
Water boils at 100°C. At 99°C, water is hot – but it is still water. At 100°C, it becomes steam. And steam can drive locomotives. The difference is one degree – a small, incremental effort.
Shrikant Vaidya Quoted: Most people live at 99 degrees. They have the energy, the knowledge, the potential. But they stop one degree short. They do not make the extra effort, the extra hour of study, the extra discipline. And so they remain in hot water – warm but incapable of driving anything. The students who push from 99 to 100 – who add that final degree of effort – transform. They become steam. They move things.
Five Professional Disciplines
He has inspired students with five disciplines that he said define an engineering career:
Depth in fundamentals – these two years (pre-final and final year) build the engineering backbone. AI cannot replace thermodynamics. Automation cannot compensate for poor design. Sustainability cannot bypass mass balance. If fundamentals are weak, technology will expose you. If fundamentals are strong, technology will amplify you.
Respect for scale – it is one thing to solve a problem at lab scale. It is another at state level. And at the scale of a nation – 300 million barrels of oil equivalent daily – that is where real engineering happens.
Economic literacy – every engineering decision has an economic consequence. Feedstock costs, utility costs, emissions regulations, capital allocation – engineers who cannot think economically cannot lead.
Ethical backbone – leadership means refusing unsafe shortcuts even when nobody is watching. Industrial failures begin with small ignored signals: an alarm bypassed, a deviation normalised, a shortcut justified. Production can be recovered; lives and reputation cannot.
Courage to take responsibility – when things go wrong, take the courage to say ‘it happened because of me.’ Do not hide. Do not deflect. Accountability is what separates managers from leaders.
His closing instruction: Do not chase designations – Chase Competence. Do not chase applause – Chase Credibility. Competence and Reputation Travel Fast.
From the Q&A – On Staying 38 Years at One Company: ‘If your values match the company’s values, stay. Salary is secondary. If you keep switching jobs, you never become a subject matter expert. A rolling stone gathers no moss.’ Shrikant Vaidya joined Indian Oil as a Graduate Apprentice Engineer and retired as Chairman. He worked across 11 refineries, each with different configurations – every transfer was a new learning experience.
FAQs
What is exergy in thermodynamics?
Exergy is the maximum useful work potential of a system relative to its environment. Unlike energy (which is conserved), exergy is destroyed by irreversibility - friction, inefficiency, entropy. Once destroyed, it cannot be recovered.
How did the IOCL Chairman apply exergy to careers?
He told students that they possess energy (intelligence, youth, ambition) but the question is how much converts into useful work versus being lost to distraction, weak fundamentals, and compromise. The career equivalent of irreversibility is wasted time and undeveloped competence.
