Solar-powered Stirling Engine Research Articles

Ranking of Independent Small-Scale Electricity Generation Systems

The EU’s energy targets are to achieve at least 32% renewables in the energy mix by 2030. Part of the solution is strengthening consumer rights by empowering individuals to generate their own electricity. The aim of this study was to identify the most suitable energy system for electricity generation of up to 50 kW in the EU residential sector. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis was used to compare four systems: proton exchange membrane fuel cell with photovoltaic panels, photovoltaic panels, biomass-powered Stirling engine, and solar-powered Stirling engine. Based on the results, the most beneficial system for household electricity generation is the biomass-fueled Stirling engine system due to its affordability, reliability, and low environmental impact. Governments and businesses can use these findings to improve information for the residential sector and enable the transition to renewable energy.

Could Solar Powered Stirling Engines Be Viable Alternative to Solar Panels to Power Homes?

Could Solar Powered Stirling Engines Be Viable Alternative to Solar Panels to Power Homes?

Front Cover: Thermal/fluid characteristics of the inline stacked plain‐weave screen as solar‐powered Stirling engine heat regenerators

The cover image is based on the Research Article Thermal/fluid characteristics of the inline stacked plain-weave screen as solar-powered Stirling engine heat regenerators by Hamidreza Mortazavy Beni et al., https://doi.org/10.1049/rpg2.12405.

Performance evaluation of a stand-alone solar dish Stirling system for off–grid electrification

ABSTRACT The performance of solar-powered Stirling engine system with a parabolic dish collector to electrify rural residential houses is presented. The developed model considers both the nonlinearized heat losses of the solar dish collector and the effect of the irreversibility of the Stirling engine. Governing equations for the solar collector, receiver heat transfer, thermodynamic cycle for Stirling engine, and mechanical and electric energy conversion are integrated and simulated in MATLAB software. Validation of the current model against experimental data is found in a very good match. A simulated model located in southern Jordan is built as a case study. The model simulates the hourly thermal to the electric conversion of solar energy to meet the required household load. The simulations results predict that overall system efficiency during summer is around 30% while it is around 22% during wintertime. The optimal concentration ratio is about 230 for the current solar dish Stirling engines configuration studied in this work. Furthermore, the load of loss probability is found to decrease linearly with increasing collector size. It was found that the solar dish Stirling engine with proper reflector size can meet the load demand with high reliability factor. Finally, storage capacity equal to daily energy demand is sufficient to meet uncontrollable load under varying weather conditions during summer, spring, and fall seasons in Jordan.

Numerical Study of a Solar-Powered Stirling Engine With a Transparent Top Cover

Abstract The present work is focused on the numerical study of a solar-powered Stirling engine, with the particularity that the solar radiation is injected through a transparent top cover. Thus, the working fluid absorbs the heat across a porous layer of a steel woven wire screen placed alongside the inner side of the transparent wall. The engine output net power and efficiency are studied as a function of the porosity, engine speed, temperature of the expansion chamber, and wire diameter of the screen. It is found that the engine efficiency remains practically constant for porosity values over 0.7, but there is a relevant increase of the engine output net power compared to the same working conditions without the absorbing layer. For a given porosity value, the most significant increase of net power due to introducing the porous layer was reached when doubling the engine speed resulting in an increment close to 40%.

Design a Solar Powered Stirling Engine Prototype to Produce Electricity

For the concerns of environmental issue such as global warming, sustainable and green way to produce energy is highly in demand. Dish Stirling system is one of the most efficient system among others concentrated solar power technologies. However, the system is in disadvantage in terms of cost and reliability when compare to others CSP technologies. In this study, a fundamental prototype of solar powered dish Stirling engine is designed, manufactured, and tested. One component of the prototype which is the power piston is malfunctioning. It was found that the accuracy requirement of the manufacturing of the prototype was high and it requires high skill and experience in machining process.

Design and Development of Solar Powered Stirling Engine for Electricity Generation

Design and Development of Solar Powered Stirling Engine for Electricity Generation

Exergy analysis of a lunar based solar thermal power system with finite-time thermodynamics

Abstract The exploration of the moon and the construction of the manned lunar outpost are the important parts of the deep space exploration. The continuous supply of thermal energy and power for deep space explorers and scientific equipment is a crucial issue to accomplish manned lunar missions. For most locations on the lunar surface, darkness lasts for periods of about 350 hours, so it is a great challenge for the solar photovoltaic cells and radioisotope thermoelectric generators to launch too much material from Earth. In the mission of manned deep space exploration, it is very necessary to utilize in situ resource effectively and sufficiently to reduce the hardware must be brought from Earth and to meet the requirement of energy and life support system. This paper describes an exergy analysis of a lunar based solar thermal power system using the method of finite-time thermodynamics. The calculations indicate that the system can provide the desired energy for the equipment. The aim of this article is to provide the basis for the design of a solar-powered Stirling engine using thermal energy from the processed lunar regolith.

Thermo-economic analysis and multi-objective optimization of micro-CHP Stirling system for different climates of Iran

Micro-CHP systems are designed to reduce energy consumption in the present era. In this study, micro-CHP systems with a solar-powered Stirling engine are designed for use in similar buildings in three different climates of Iran. These solar systems are highly dependent on weather conditions in different cities. Modeling and optimizing to reduce costs, the economic dimension of the system, increasing energy storage and reducing the amount of emissions, especially CO2, have been achieved and acceptable results have been obtained.

Performance and Design Optimization of Solar Powered Stirling Engine Using Genetic Algorithm

Performance and Design Optimization of Solar Powered Stirling Engine Using Genetic Algorithm

Multi-objective optimization of the Stirling heat engine through self-adaptive Jaya algorithm

A Stirling engine presents an excellent theoretical output equivalent to the output of a Carnot engine, and it emits low levels of pollution and requires less maintenance. In this paper, a solar-powered Stirling engine is considered for optimization with multiple criteria. Hence, the present study explores the use of an improved Jaya algorithm called the self-adaptive Jaya algorithm and the basic Jaya algorithm, which are used for maximizing output power and thermal efficiency and minimizing pressure losses of the entire Stirling system. The key feature is that the self-adaptive Jaya algorithm automatically determines the population size. Hence, the user does not need to concentrate on choosing the population size. The comparison of the proposed algorithm is made with those obtained by using the non-dominated sorting genetic-algorithm-II (NSGA-II), an optimizer inbuilt in MATLAB (function gamultiobj), Front-based Yin-Yang-Pair Optimization (FYYPO), Multi-Objective Grey Wolf Optimizers (MOGWOs), Teaching–Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO), tutorial training and self-learning inspired teaching-learning based optimization (TS-TLBO), the decision-making methods like linear programming technique for multi-dimensional analysis of preference (LINMAP), technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and Bellman-Zadeh, and experimental results. The results achieved by using Jaya and self-adaptive Jaya algorithms are compared with the results achieved by using the NSGA-II, gamultiobj, FYYPO, MOGWO, TLBO, TS-TLBO, LINMAP, TOPSIS, Bellman-Zadeh, and experimental results. The Jaya algorithm and its improved version are proved to be better compared to other optimization algorithms with respect to the computational effort and function evaluations.

Modelling of a Stirling engine with parabolic dish for thermal to electric conversion of solar energy

Stirling engines with parabolic dish for thermal to electric conversion of solar energy is one of the most promising solutions of renewable energy technologies in order to reduce the dependency from fossil fuels in electricity generation. This paper addresses the modelling and simulation of a solar powered Stirling engine system with parabolic dish and electric generator aiming to determine its energy production and efficiency. The model includes the solar radiation concentration system, the heat transfer in the thermal receiver, the thermal cycle and the mechanical and electric energy conversion. The thermodynamic and energy transfer processes in the engine are modelled in detail, including all the main processes occurring in the compression, expansion and regenerator spaces. Starting from a particular configuration, an optimization of the concentration factor is also carried out and the results for both the transient and steady state regimes are presented. It was found that using a directly illuminated thermal receiver without cavity the engine efficiency is close to 23.8% corresponding to a global efficiency of 10.4%. The components to be optimized are identified in order to increase the global efficiency of the system and the trade-off between system complexity and efficiency is discussed.

Solar parabolic dish Stirling engine system design, simulation, and thermal analysis

Modeling and simulation for different parabolic dish Stirling engine designs have been carried out using Matlab®. The effect of solar dish design features and factors such as material of the reflector concentrators, the shape of the reflector concentrators and the receiver, solar radiation at the concentrator, diameter of the parabolic dish concentrator, sizing the aperture area of concentrator, focal Length of the parabolic dish, the focal point diameter, sizing the aperture area of receiver, geometric concentration ratio, and rim angle have been studied. The study provides a theoretical guidance for designing and operating solar parabolic dish Stirling engines system. At Zewail city of Science and Technology, Egypt, for a 10kW Stirling engine; The maximum solar dish Stirling engine output power estimation is 9707W at 12:00PM where the maximum beam solar radiation applied in solar dish concentrator is 990W/m2 at 12:00PM. The performance of engine can be improved by increasing the precision of the engine parts and the heat source efficiency. The engine performance could be further increased if a better receiver working fluid is used. We can conclude that where the best time for heating the fluid and fasting the processing, the time required to heat the receiver to reach the minimum temperature for operating the Solar-powered Stirling engine for different heat transfer fluids; this will lead to more economic solar dish systems.Power output of the solar dish system is one of the most important targets in the design that show effectiveness of the system, and this has achieved when we take into account many factors in the design of the solar dish system. One of these factors is the reflector material of the concentrator and using the results from the Matlab simulation program; where the Polymeric Film, Non Metal reflectors, with a net conversion power of more than 97.07%, still holds the conversion record than the Anod Aluminum reflectors, which has a net conversion power 85.97% with respect to the polished stainless reflectors with a net conversion power 49.52% from the 10kW Stirling engine. Where the power output differ as 9707, 4952, 8597W, respectively from the 10kW Stirling engine. It is shown that there are changes in Stirling power output for different materials, which guide us to select the optimum material, based on the targeted power output and cost. Our target to reach the optimum power that we need it in the design 10kW power output design as an example from the solar dish Stirling engine.

Thermodynamic and economic optimization of a solar-powered Stirling engine for micro-cogeneration purposes

Micro-cogeneration systems are a promising technology for improving the energy efficiency near the end user, allowing the optimal use of the primary energy sources and significant reductions in carbon emissions. Its use, still incipient, has a great potential for applications in the residential sector. This study aims to develop a methodology for the thermal-economic optimization of micro cogeneration units using Stirling engine as prime mover and concentrated solar energy as the heat source. The thermal-economic optimization was formulated considering the maximization of the annual worth from the system operation, subjected to the nonlinear thermodynamic and economic constraints. The physical model includes the limitations in the heat transfer processes and losses due to the pumping effects and the costing methodology was defined considering a purchase cost equation representative of each system component. Geometric and operational parameters were selected as decision variables. Numerical simulations were developed in MatLab® programming language and the Generalized Pattern Search optimization algorithm with MADSPositiveBasis2N was used in the determination of the optimal solution. A positive annual worth for the defined input simulation conditions and the economic analysis disclosed a system, economically attractive, with a payback period of approximately 10 years.

Thermodynamic analysis and multi objective optimization of performance of solar dish Stirling engine by the centrality of entransy and entropy generation

Abstract This paper makes attempts to perform multi-objective optimization on the solar-powered Stirling engine with high temperature differential. A new model was proposed based on the finite-time thermodynamic. Furthermore, the thermal efficiency of the solar Stirling system with a rate of finite heat transfer, regenerative heat loss, the output power, finite regeneration process time and conductive thermal bridging loss is specified. The thermal efficiency, entransy loss rate and power output have been maximized simultaneously for a dish-Stirling system and entropy generation’s rate in the engine minimized via using thermodynamic analysis and NSGA-II algorithm. To specify the optimum values of the above mentioned parameters three well known decision making methods have been employed. Finally, an error analysis was applied on the outputs gained from each decision makers.

Simulation, design and thermal analysis of a solar Stirling engine using MATLAB

This paper presents the modeling and simulation fora prototype of the solar-powered Stirling engine working at the low temperature range. A mathematical model for the thermal analysis of the solar-powered low temperature Stirling engine with heat transfer is developed using Matlab program. The model takes into consideration the effect of the absorber temperature on the thermal analysis like as radiation and convection heat transfer between the absorber and the working fluid as well as radiation and convection heat transfer between the lower temperature plate and the working fluid. Hence, the present analysis provides a theoretical guidance for designing and operating of the solar-powered low temperature Stirling engine system, as well as estimating output power from the solar Stirling engine using Matlab program. This study attempts to demonstrate the potential of the low temperature Stirling engine as an option for the prime movers for Photovoltaic tracking systems. The heat source temperature is 40–60°C as the temperature available from the sun directly.

Performance Analysis and Optimization of a Solar Powered Stirling Engine with Heat Transfer Considerations

This paper investigates the optimization of the performance of a solar powered Stirling engine based on finite-time thermodynamics. Heat transference in the heat exchangers between a concentrating solar collector and the Stirling engine is studied. The irreversibility of a Stirling engine is considered with the heat transfer following Newton's law. The power generated by a Stirling engine is used as an objective function for maximum power output design with the concentrating solar collector temperature and the engine thermal efficiency as the optimization parameters. The maximum output power of engine and its corresponding system parameters are determined using a genetic algorithm.

A Dielectric Multilayer Filter for Combining Photovoltaics with a Stirling Engine for Improvement of the Efficiency of Solar Electricity Generation

In this Letter we outline a dielectric multilayer spectrally selective filter designed for solar energy applications. The optical performance of this 78-layer interference filter constructed by TiOx and SiO2 is presented. A hybrid system combining photovoltaic cells with a solar-powered Stirling engine using the designed filter is analyzed. The calculated results show the advantages of this spectrally selective method for solar power generation.

Simplification of Sun Tracking Mode to Gain High Concentration Solar Energy

Power conversion from solar thermal energy to electrical energy is still very cost-intensive. Serious effort has to be given in the development of the concentrator or heliostat structure expenditure which contributing the most expensive component in a central receiver solar power plant. With current development to find alternatives and lower down the capital, a new mode of sun tracking has been developed and feasibility tested. As it applies a single stage collector replacing conventional double stages structure, the new technique has significantly benefits use in high temperature and high concentration solar energy applications. Meanwhile, the stationary or fixed target (receiver) offers more convenient working environment for various applications. Large and heavy solar powered Stirling Engine could be placed at the stationary location. On the other advantage offers by the new technique, the optical alignment was reasonably easier and less time consuming.

Optimum absorber temperature of a once-reflecting full conical concentrator of a low temperature differential Stirling engine

This paper provides a theoretical investigation on the optimum absorber temperature of a once-reflecting full conical concentrator for maximizing overall efficiency of a solar-powered low temperature differential Stirling engine. A mathematical model for the overall efficiency of the solar-powered Stirling engine is developed. The optimum absorber temperature for maximum overall efficiency for both limiting conditions of maximum possible engine efficiency and maximum possible engine power output is determined. The results indicated that the optimum absorber temperatures calculated from these two limiting cases are not significantly different. For a given concentrated solar intensity, the maximum overall efficiency characterized by the condition of maximum possible engine power output is very close to that of the real engine of 55% Carnot efficiency, approximately.