Single-piston alternative to Stirling engines

Thermodynamic analysis of an unconventional heat engine was performed. The engine studied has a number of advantages compared to state-of-the-art Stirling engines. The main advantage of the engine proposed is its simplicity. A power piston is integral with a displacer and a heat regenerator. It allows solving the problem of the high-temperature sealing of the piston and the displacer typical of all types of Stirling engines. In addition the design proposed provides ideal use of the displacer volume eliminating heat losses from outside gas circuit. Both strokes of the piston are working ones in contrary to any other types of piston engines. The engine can be considered as maintenance-free as it has no piston rings or any other rubbing components requiring lubrication. The only seal is contactless and wear free. It is located in the cold part of the cylinder. As a result the leakage rate in operation can be one-two orders of magnitude as small as that in Stirling engines. Balancing of the engine is much easy compared to Stirling engines with two reciprocating masses because of the only moving part inside the engine cylinder. The engine suits ideally to be fuelled with “difficult” fuels such as bio oil and can be used as a prime mover for micro-CHP systems.The thermodynamic model developed incorporates non-ideal features of the cycle, such as specific regenerator efficiency, dead volumes and other geometrical parameters of the engine. The model shows that the energy efficiency is highly sensitive to regenerator performance. For realistic geometric and operating parameters and the regenerator efficiency of about 95% the ultimate energy conversion efficiency of the engine proposed can be as high as 40–50%.A prototype of the engine was built and the feasibility of the engine concept was demonstrated.

► Thermodynamic analysis of an unconventional heat engine.
► The engine has a number of advantages compared to state-of-the-art Stirling engines.
► The engine can to be fuelled with “difficult” fuels and used for micro-CHP systems.
► The energy conversion efficiency can be as high as 40–50%.
► A prototype of the engine was demonstrated.