Harnessing chemical potential energy

[keihatsu]

You have to apply another force to make water to flow out of capillary tube.   


Use a ferromagnetic liquid and hold a strong magnet at the end of capillary tube.  Magnetic force pulls the liquid out of the capillary tube.   Once the liquid forms a hude drop on the magnet,  it automatically falls down due to gravity.

Few interesting experiments on capillary force are posted in this forum itself :


By onthecuttingedge -

http://www.overunity.com/8311/capillary-fed-ferrofluid-magnet-motor/


By vineet_kiran -

http://www.overunity.com/12063/capillary-force-pump/

I agree.  It is an engineering problem, not a physics "law" problem.
If someone wants to quote the poetry known as "Laws of Thermodynamics", I will simply tell them to start quoting the "Ideal Gas Law".

Entropy = q (reverse reaction) / T = "reverse that out little cutie" = "contain the combustion of our love".
It was a love story and every scientist falls in love with the poetry known as "Laws of Thermodynamics".  "spontaneity of the universe" is poetry.  That is not science.

[keihatsu]

I can guarantee that this is a physics problem, and the physics says it does not work.

You need way to remove the fluid from the  capillary tube (or alternatively a supply of new empty ones) . The is no way to do this without requiring a supply of energy to overcome the molecular attraction that caused the capillary action in the first place.

In every case that amount of energy required will be more than (or at best equal to) the energy recoverable due to the water being lifted.

Yes.  Thinking of this in terms of force vectors is correct.  A magnet and gravity are the forces that can remove the fluid from the capillary tube.  Hydrogen bonding is stronger than adhesion to the tube.  It is an engineering problem to gain enough mass for gravity to overcome adhesion.