China's Shenzhou-15 mission crew onboard the China Space Station (CSS) has completed testing of a free-piston Stirling thermoelectric converter, the country's first successful in-orbit verification of such technology.
If i remember my college thermodynamics classes correctly, i believe the Stirling engine is interesting because in principle it can operate at the theoretical maximum efficiency (minus friction and other dissipative losses) which a thermodynamic system that converts heat into usable work can achieve. The disadvantage i believe is that they tend to be pretty slow and hard to scale to any practical applications.
If i remember my college thermodynamics classes correctly, i believe the Stirling engine is interesting because in principle it can operate at the theoretical maximum efficiency (minus friction and other dissipative losses) which a thermodynamic system that converts heat into usable work can achieve. The disadvantage i believe is that they tend to be pretty slow and hard to scale to any practical applications.
Correct me if i’m wrong it’s been a long time.