using IC waste heat to run a Stirling engine

[mdare35]

Ever since reading about Stirling engines in Popular Science in
high school (back when ford was trying to put them in cars) and then
learning in college that IC engines throw away approximately 2/3's
of the heat they get from burning gas (1/3 out the radiator and 1/3
out the exhaust) I have thought maybe you could use a Stirling
engine to recover some of that waste heat.

Rather than trying to power a car with a Stirling engine. My idea is
just to make IC powered cars more efficient by using the waste
heat. And actually I’m trying to find a way to make my car more
powerful by getting rid of parasitic losses from the water pump,
alternator, AC, etc. This could even be applied to hybrids, and
possibly would even be better.

My idea is to use a small Stirling engine, powered from waste heat
from the radiator and/or exhaust to turn the alternator. The
electricity the alternator generates would then be used to charge
the batteries and power an electrically driven water pump and AC
compressor. This idea might work best in a hybrid since they have
more batteries to store extra electrical energy that may be needed
until the engine warms up enough to run the Stirling engine.

Maybe the real answer to energy efficiency is not finding one power
plant that will replace IC engines, but a combination that works
well together.

[stan.hornbaker]

A good idea if it could be readily implimented. Stirling engines require higher temperatures on the hot side to be practical for operating generators and other peripheral units.

If you have the time and patience to read through all the posts in the Power, Wast Heat, and Model forums you will get an appreciation of the problems encoutered in trying to use Stirling engines in small applications. There is a neverending supply of model engines for experimental and educational use. Power producing Stirling engines are usually manufactured in quantity for specialized markets.