Cogeneration Plant Based on Stirling Engine and Biofuel Burner

A system consisting of a last-generation Stirling engine (SE) and a fuel burner for distributed power generation has been experimentally investigated. The heat generated by combustion of two liquid fuels, a standard Diesel fuel and a rapeseed oil, was used as source for the SE, that converts part of the thermal energy into mechanical and then electric energy. The hot head of the SE is kept in direct contact with the flame generated by a burner. The burner operating parameters, designed for Diesel fuel, have been changed to make it possible to burn vegetable oils, not suitable for internal combustion (IC) engines. The possibility of adopting different configurations of the combustion chamber have been taken into account to increase the system efficiency. The preliminary configurations adopted, allows operating this integrated system, obtaining an electric power up to 4.4 kWel with a net efficiency of 11.6 %.