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As part of my curriculum myself and a team of fellow students have
been tasked with the design of a Stirling engine capable of producing
15hp and running off of burning biomass pellets.

We are currently doing rough calculations as part of the initial
design process.

I was wondering what kind of Stirling engine would you recomend as the
most beneficial for this kind of application, alpha, beta or gamma?
and why?

To start with I would see what others have achieved for similar purpose and application.

"How I Built a 5 Hp Stirling Engine" is a book telling how Merrick Lockwod built a 5 Hp (3.7kW) Stirling Engine.

Dr. Lockwood oversaw the building of the 5 HP Stirling in southeast Asia as a demonstration project to burn rice hulls to run the engine to run a village rice mill. Eliminates trips to a central mill, and disposes of the rice hulls. See the home page at stirlingengine.com, click on "Stirling Store" and then on "Books and Accessories" to order a copy.

Having read most of the draft manuscript and seen the photo gallery used to select the photos for the book I was impressed with the overall operation. It was a real challenge to build these engines in a third world country with native craftsmen from locally obtained materials.

The Beta configuration is compact, uses less materials, space, and would be the best choice in my opinion.

A 15 HP Stirling engine will be a real challenge for you group.

You are encouraged to post progress reports to help others.