A Bottleneck Principle for Techno-Metabolic Chains

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bottleneck principle for techno-metabolic chains, showing that the overall output is governed by the slowest link when all links are satiated and have weak outflow, explaining self-regulation in technological processes.

Contribution

It derives a new bottleneck principle for techno-metabolic chains, highlighting the role of the slowest link in self-regulation under specific kinetic conditions.

Findings

Output is determined by the slowest link in the chain.

Self-regulation occurs when all links are satiated with weak outflow.

The principle applies to chains with uniform kinetic properties.

Abstract

A plausible mechanism of self-regulation in technological chains of the kind wherein input resources are converted into common final product through sequences of processing links having uniform kinetic properties is discussed. A bottleneck principle is derived according to which output of the overall chain is completely determined by its slowest link, if all the links are featured by satiation and weak outflow.