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Well.. I've been reading up on the Net about Humanure. Compost reaches temps of
120 degrees. Is this sufficient to run a Stirling engine in 75-80 degree weather?

Sorry to see that you have´t got an answer in allmost 2 years, and I also can´t give you a good answer. But i do think that you are thinking in the right direktion, if you think about 3,th.world problems about energy. They have to make electric energy practicly out of nothing. So your question is rerevant.

The Coffee Cup Stirling Engine (CCSE) requires about 40 deg F delta T to run. Unfortunately at that temperature difference across the engine it has just barely enough torque to run itself.

I have run the CCSE on the heat of my hand! Read the recent Experiments at the bottom of the list in "Stirling engines for education" forum.

A search of the Net for power producing Stirling engine results in finding that a 5 HP engine is quite expensive, it is built on order, not available off the shelf, and the high side temperature is something of the order of 1,000+ deg F.

Hello,

The following site contains valuable information covering animal manure and the use of methane gas. Since burning methane gas will produce much higher temperatures than simply taking the heat from the compost, it would be more feasible to burn the gas to heat a Stirling engine than to just bury it in a big pile of s**t


http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/a ... g01881.htm


You could skip the composting process completely and convert manure directly into oil if you employ a thermal depolymerizer. This is a "must see" system that would provide you with a limitless supply of fuel from waste products that could easily run a Stirling engine.


http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/2003/An ... 1may03.htm


V/R
Dave