The fuel conversion transiently activates a molecule to assemble or phase-separate into a compartment. The activated state is shortlived and spontaneously reverts to its original nonactivated state. Thus, at the expense of fuel, molecules are transiently activated to form dynamic, non-equilibrium compartments. The resulting compartments can, therefore, only nucleate when chemical energy is available. These compartments can grow or even divide when energy is abundant. Finally, when all energy is consumed, the compartments decay into their original building blocks. Such self-sustaining compartments constantly compete for resources, making them an attractive model for protocells-protocells that do not produce new building blocks faster than their deactivation will naturally succumb, rendering their building blocks available for the competition. We envision that small advantages to individual protocells could be encoded in the protocell's pre-genotype, like self-replicating molecules such as RNA within the protocells that aid the growth or even division of the protocells by catalyzing building block activation. In a scenario where energy is scarce or only periodically fed to the protocells, those with a genotype that favors growth outcompete ones without.