A review of Stirling-engine-based combined heat and power technology

Shunmin Zhu, Guoyao Yu, Kun Liang, Wei Dai and Ercang Luo

Applied Energy, 2021, vol. 294, issue C, No S0306261921004402

Abstract: Small- and micro-scale combined heat and power (CHP) technologies offer great potential for reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions in residential and small commercial buildings. Among various CHP technologies, Stirling engines, particularly free-piston ones, show great promise in residential applications because of their remarkable advantages of low emissions, maintenance, noise, and vibration, theoretically high thermal-to-electrical efficiency, and flexibility of fuel sources. This paper presents a comprehensive review of Stirling-engine CHP in terms of different heat sources, tri-generation systems, status of commercial development, techno-economic issues, and challenges and future trends. The techno-economic assessment indicates that the relatively low on-site operational efficiencies and considerable investment costs are the main issues that hinder the further development of Stirling-engine CHP systems, and suggestions for future development are made accordingly. For successful commercial dissemination of Stirling-engine CHP, it is essential to improve the on-site electrical efficiency, reduce the capital cost of systems, and develop renewable-energy-powered and free-piston Stirling-engine-based CHP systems against the background of grid decarbonization and carbon neutrality.

Keywords: Stirling engine; Combined heat and power; Residential; Techno-economic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921004402
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:294:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921004402

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116965

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().