ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

The technical applicability of Stirling engines in a Hungarian village

Bálint Katona and Tamás Laza

Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

E-mail: laza@energia.bme.hu

Abstract: This study presents the utilization of forestry by-products in case of a small village using Stirling engines. At first, the yearly heat and power demands of a selected small, Hungarian village were specified, and then, the annual fuel potential of the surrounding woods was calculated. The main aim of the work was to compare these amounts of energy and find out whether the village could suffice its own energy demands only with forestry by-products. It was calculated that the different kinds of forestry by-products would be abundant enough for this purpose. Therefore, a concept of a sustainable system was developed, which contains a small-scale district heating system in the village. The system is based on chopped wood-fueled Stirling engines, which can realize combined heat and power production. Besides the heat, the village may also use the power production of the Stirling engines. The technology reduced the pollutant emission of the village as well, CO emission practically disappeared. As the results show, the three goals of the work have been achieved: to take advantage of the locally available energy sources, to use cheap and easily storable sources and to decrease the air pollution in the village.

Keywords: Small-scale CHP ; Stirling engine ; Biomass ; Residential district heating 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-018-0531-6

Chemical Papers 72 (12) 3093–3103 (2018)