Development of practical stirling engine for co-generation system using woody biomass fuels

Abstract

In recent years, fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas have become limited resources. In addition, global warming due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emission has become a serious environmental issue. Since current living and economical standards depend strongly on fossil energy sources, it is necessary to realize a new society that utilizes biomass as a source of energy. With this background, in 2005, we manufactured a practical Stirling engine using biomass fuels. And we proposed a unique co-generation system using a practical Stirling engine that utilizes woody biomass fuel such as sawdust, firewood, and wood pellets. A burner uses the woody biomass fuel to heat the air in the expansion room to about 650°C and a water cooling system cools the air in the compression room to about 40°C. Under these operating conditions, the new engine generated about 3kW of electricity.