  We show that uncorrelated Gaussian noise, despite its paradigmatic
association with thermal equilibrium, can drive a system out of equilibrium and
can serve as a resource from which work can be extracted. We consider an
overdamped particle in a periodic potential with an internal degree of freedom
and a state-dependent friction, coupled to an equilibrium bath. Applying
additional Gaussian white noise drives the system into a non-equilibrium steady
state and causes a finite current if the potential is spatially asymmetric. We
calculate the current explicitly in the three complementary limits. Since the
particle current is driven solely by additive Gaussian white noise, this shows
that the latter can potentially be exploited as a work resource to power small
engines. By comparing the extracted power to the energy injection due to the
noise, we find an expression for the efficiency of such an engine.
