New Approach on Engineering Education using Stirling Engine

Abstract

We have learned to effectively use energy in human evolution, and have built a society consumes much energy for the development of civilization. So, the natural environment is under a heavy load. Therefore, the balanced energy utilization technologies are required in recent years. Our laboratory also proposed a co-generation system using the practical Stirling engine that was developed in 2005 for the effective utilization of woody biomass fuels. Here, a Stirling engine is faced with a problem of high power, but has advantages in a low temperature difference operation in addition to a variety of heat sources. As one of its required technology, the energy harvesting power technology is expected. This is a technology that harvests an unused energy in the environment and generates an electricity in the power of small electronic devices. The electricity generation becomes μW～W. In this regard, we consider a Stirling engine is made available as heat energy harvesting device. In the background of our effort to Stirling engines, we explore the new approach on the engineering education using Stirling engine in this report.