Chemical thermodynamics far from equilibrium: Is it possible to develop it?

A simple formalism is suggested for providing a mathematically correct consecutive joint kinetic-thermodynamic analysis of chemically reactive systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium in the case when the chemical potentials are valid for describing the state of the thermalized reactants. The formalism is based on common kinetic equations in which parameters like absolute activities derived from chemical potentials of the reactants are used instead of the concentrations of the reactants. For particular kinds of chemically reactive systems with transformations linear in respect to reaction intermediates, the existence of positively determined Lyapunov functions that are minimized in the steady state of the system is shown even when the system undergoes a spontaneous evolution far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Thus, these functions can serve the same role as does the Prigogine entropy production and the Rayleigh-Onsager function in linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics.