What would you do with a Stirling Engine?

[pauluffel]

Your 3rd idea somewhat clashes with your first, as you talk of eliminating burning in your first idea, yet in the third point you bring up burning things for fuel again. Why not integrate the two? If you have a sewage treatment plant that uses a stirling to purify the water, you could provide the heat through sunlight during the day and through burning the trash at night. A company could make a killing off of purifying water and powering it off of the trash they remove.

I would love to see someone implement this idea, as the company that did this could provide these services at a minimal proce to the consumer (does this bring up the idea of the engine from Atlas Shrugged to anyone else?)

1.The company would pump in contaminated water with the power provided by their stirling engines.

2.The stirling engines would be heated during the day with focussed sunlight.

3.The contaminated water would then be purified and sold to consumers.

4.The waste products removed from the water would be incinerated to provide heat for the stirling engines at night.

5. Any excess electricity would be used to augment heating of the stirling engine.

Of course, the third law of thermodynamics would keep this process from occuring this nicely, so some fuel would have to be bought to keep the engine running. Also, most things removed from containated water would be byproducts from some previous burning, so the probability that they would be an effective source of energy would be minimal.