Stirling Engine Generator- An Ultimate Heat Engine

The Stirling Engine is a secured high-efficiency heat engine powered either by the Sun's radiant energy or any other external heat source. The Stirling cycle engine, invented by Robert Stirling a couple of centuries ago, is a type of solar generator or sun motor that works on the principle of thermodynamics by switching between hot and cold temperature cycles of  gaseous matter.

Stirling Engine Generator Working

The Stirling Engine Generator primarily comprised of a hot-air engine that is heated externally typically by the sunlight from the Sun— it is further powered by what Robert Stirling called an "economizer," which embodies and discharges energy from and into an impounded and enclosed air space. When the air within this confined space (or some other form of working gas) is heated, it expands and shrinks when it cools down. A piston is propelled mainly by helium or hydrogen gas compression or expansion that never leaves the generator.

Thus the Stirling engine operates by heating and cooling the inside gas alternately through an external heat source while extricating energy from the enlargement and compression of the gas. It leads to the pressure change that is used in a similar fashion as a Rankine steam engine acts to power a piston inside the engine cylinder. The only difference is that it is driving a piston using gas rather than steam. This highly efficient thermodynamic solar heater transforms the difference in temperature (thermal energy) into mechanical power (kinetic energy).

How Solar Energy is used in the process

Sunlight provides much more fuel than we humans can use, but it can be costly to harvest this free energy. A photovoltaic cell is a popular methodology used to convert the sunlight quickly into electricity. But we can also use the tremendous power of the Sun energy to heat water and liquids either directly or by projecting light on Stirling engines using mirrors, which in effect drives pistons to produce electricity.

However, it is important to focus the solar radiation to get the Sun's heat to a temperature sufficiently high to run a Stirling engine generator. Solar concentration (CSP) systems use elliptical dishes, parabolic troughs, and solar power pillars to concentrate the energy of the Sun on a primary receiver. The intense and focused solar power then converts the energy of the Sun into high-temperature heat, which is used for electricity generation.

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