Hot water powered Stirling

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campenhout
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Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:47 am
First Name: Henk
Last Name: van Campenhout

Hot water powered Stirling

Post by campenhout »

Hello,
I am looking for a hot water powered Stirling engine to generate
electricity or hydrogen with PEM
Does somebody have some experience with this, does it already
exists?
I have always 2000 gallons of hot water 190 degrees F in tanks
produces by a vacuum tube solar system.
Best regards, Henk van Campenhout The Netherlands. (Europe)
bptdude___2569
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First Name: Joe
Last Name: McLean

Response to Hot water powered Stirling

Post by bptdude___2569 »

There is a lot of posts like yours. And you are best to read up more on Stirlings to learn the answer is no. I am a big fan of producing hydrogen and like vacuum tube solar energy collection.

The problem is that the temperature of only 190 Deg F is not enough on the hot side for a reasonable Stirling. This temperature is set by your vacuum tube system specifically so the water will not boil.

In fact, if you like playing with the vacuum tube solar systems, make a seperate one, that would be allowed to heat up much much hotter, as they can go. If you can get the heat up to about 300 Deg C, then you will have a hot end that can power a power producing Stirling engine.

And, there will be people working out bring Stirling engines to market, who would like to talk to you about your new heat source!

:)

Greetings to the Nederlands!

- Joe
bptdude___2569
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Response to Hot water powered Stirling

Post by bptdude___2569 »

Responding to posts is fun, because I get to think about even my own responses.

Your system was designed to collect solar energy specifically to use the hot water. Then, you had the idea of making good use of the hot water. OK, fine, good question.

Now, the problem is, we need to do the whole system backwards from the way the hot water people are selling it.

I can tell you that what you call vacuum tube solar system, over here, is known as evacuated tube solar heaters. There is a U.S. government document at one of the energy labs { you have to find it yourself, but it is there, on public web site } that looks at these and the maximum temperatures they can achieve. They can easily reach the required temperatures to power a Stirling engine. And, this is without boosting them with trough reflectors, etc.

Instead of using the evacuated tubes to heat water, trying to make sure not to create steam, use a different working fluid, such as an oil, in bascially the same type of flow and storage configuration.

The oil storage tank will drive a Striling quite nicely, hold heat throughout the night, if you make it large enough compared to what the engine uses and how well it is insulated, and ....

Rather than try to get a Striling to run from your hot water system, you can easily get hot water from a seperate run of pipes going through the hot oil tank!

:)

The evacuated tubes work especially well in overcast areas where photovotaic do not work so well, too, such as the Netherlands, and much of Europe.

As I would love to live in the Netherlands, if you have a major company that would hire me, I would be glad to change the energy equation of Europe for the mere price of a job until I can retire!

*huge grins*

stan.hornbaker
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Response to Hot water powered Stirling

Post by stan.hornbaker »

The gov. document is to be found at:

Two concentric glass tubes with evacuated space between act as dewar type insulation to concentrate solar heat in the inner metal tube and contents.
bptdude___2569
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Response to Hot water powered Stirling

Post by bptdude___2569 »


Not "the" government but "a" government doc. His was from Dept of Energy and is a good explanation for general public use.

I do not really want to give up my sources yet, though they are public. The Energy Dept one is all over Wiki and various vendor sites. I have a tab to a PDF from one of the government labs that details much more, experiments done. It is kinda technical. I would advise people to not use Google, but use gov internal searches at each specific lab.

Here is one vendor link from a company working through China. It is interesting because it lists various types of evacuated tubes, at least one which states an internal insulation temperature of 250 deg C.

What I have is an experimental design for working fluid temperatures of at least 300 deg C, with the upper limit still not known. The reason, of course, is as soon as I can get a low cost power producing Stirling, I have a way to heat it. I can't give everything away. I have found a Stirling, also produced by another division of the government that could be converted from nuclear energy to solar. I have not made progress in trying to find out what it would take to get hold of one.
bptdude___2569
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Response to Hot water powered Stirling

Post by bptdude___2569 »


silly me, forgot the link I was going to send.

http://www.sz-wholesale.com/P/Evacuated ... 30596.html

It is obvious China is getting on this wagon. There are many other references of China opening up the west for solar energy projects.

Too bad Stimulas money did not have GM make high temp solar collectors and Stirling engines. A nation full of new low cost energy machines might actually grow new money for new prosperity.

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