From JP-8 to Electric Power Using Combustion at Small Scales and a Free Piston Stirling Engine to Replace Batteries

摘要

The successful integration of a JP-8 catalytic combustor with a free piston Stirling engine was demonstrated. The burner consisted of: a fuel dispersion system based on the electrospray; a catalytic reactor using a stack of coated meshes for complete fuel conversion; a carefully designed engine interface to optimize the heat transfer into the engine; a recuperator to recover some of the thermal energy from the exhaust and increase the system thermodynamic efficiency; and the 35 We Sunpower Stirling engine. Preliminary results with a breadboard unit showed a gross fuel-electric efficiency of 21% (17.5% net of parasitic). Feasible design optimization should yield 21% efficiency net of parasitic losses, with an energy density on the order of 1,000-2,000 W-hr/kg- figures dramatically better than commercially available gen-sets.