Future Coal-Burning Stirling Engines

Abstract

The high price and limited availability of oil fuel forces a return to coal as the primary fuel. This provides unprecedented opportunities for applications of Stirling engines to stationary power and automotive application over a broad spectrum. For heavy automotive application in railway locomotives and the larger off-highway mining and earth moving vehicles, it appears possible for Stirling engines of corresponding power and efficiency to replace diesels in the same installation envelope. Proposals are presented for the conversion of diesel engines to Ringbom—Stirling engines using air as the working fluid, water as the lubricant and with high pressure steam injection for power boost at peak load conditions. An experimental proof-of-principle Ringbom-Stirling diesel conversion presently under development at the University of Calgary is briefly described.