What would you do with a Stirling Engine?

[Wayne C.]

The premier of Dean's stirling engine on 60 Minutes was both interesting and informative and typically Kamen. If the machine can in fact generate electricity and purify water what would you do with it?

Here are my suggestions

1. make a solar heat source- use the sun to heat up the stirling and cut out combustion altogether. Generation of the heat could be done easily with lenses and mirrors. Combustion of fuel causes air pollution and burning wood in the third world countries has largely deforested them wrecking the ecosystems.

2. use the electric current to take the water and electrolyze it into Hydrogen and oxygen. Then use the hydrogen to make fuel for larger vehicles.

3. since the water purification device is essentially a still why not use it to distill toxic waste or sewage and condense the material into semisolids? These would then be incinerated for electric power or disposed of in appropriate landfills.

Hey Dean- if you are following this- if you go with any of these remember you heard it here FIRST. He he

What are your suggestions?

WC

[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.

[SlamminSammy]

2. use the electric current to take the water and electrolyze it into Hydrogen and oxygen. Then use the hydrogen to make fuel for larger vehicles.

Already been done. Stirling Engines aren't new and engineers have been working on putting them in hybrid cars for a while. Of course they can't replace internal-combustion engines because they take so long to warm up (lots of companies tried to use Stirlings in the `70s and actually succeeded, but then oil prices came down).



P.S. NASA has been working on Stirling Engines for a while. See http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/tmsb/stirling.html

[Jnadke]

http://www.powerchips.gi/


Those seem like a preferrable solution to the stirling. No moving parts. Providing they can pull it off.

[Joe Matt]

Give me one and I'll never have to pay a water bill again.

[ChrisH]

I'd probably use it to realize my dream of a solar powered air conditioner.

[Chubtoad]

All I can think of is the movie Waterworld..... drink your own by-products....

This thing will be obsolete once we use up all the waste liquids in the world ::wink::

[pauluffel]

Chubtoad brought up a good point about using it to purify your own byproducts for drinking. The post so far have been about using it here on earth, but how about using it in space?

[Clark Gilbert]

Once Dean and DEKA complete this product I can see a few good places where it could be put to use in FIRST.

1.) Robot battery charging stations. Maybe have a couple stations at each regional, and 10 at nationals, or 3 for each division (if they have them). This idea might be kinda tough to do, but it's possible.

2.) Drinking fountains. If nationals is moved somewhere, it will probably be warm. Why not have "stirling engine/drinking stations". Maybe Dean or another company could take one of the portable ones and use the power of the engine to power the pump (that pumps the water) and the engine can purify the water.

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Clark Gilbert

2.) Drinking fountains. If nationals is moved somewhere, it will probably be warm. Why not have "stirling engine/drinking stations". Maybe Dean or another company could take one of the portable ones and use the power of the engine to power the pump (that pumps the water) and the engine can purify the water.

I can see it now

"Pee here and you can drink it latter!"

ewww

[taran86]

put one in antarctica bury the cold end in the ice and place the hot end in the mantle. true geothermal enrgy enough for a continent and its clean too...