meet or exceed the most stringent

The Stirling Project

project involving development federal requirements; multifuel ca-
a NASA/Department of Energy
of Stirling engine technology pability, including both oil-derived
represents an unusual kind of tech- and synthetic fuels; and development
nology transfer. It is not an aerospace of the engine to the point where it is
spinoff, nor is the technology even suitable for cost-competitive mass
American. The Stirling engine was production. The initial base of Stirling
initially developed in The Nether- technology was provided under sub-
lands during World War II, later im- contract by United Stirling AB,
proved in Sweden. Now NASA and Malm/5, Sweden. The American prime
An advanced automotive DoE are attempting to transfer the contractor responsible for develop-
European technology to the United ment of engine, component and sub-
propulsion system heads
States, advance it several steps and system technology is Mechanical
technology transfers in the pave the way for its commercializa- Technology, Inc. (MTI), Latham,
tion, because its widespread adoption New York.
field of transportation
could bring a number of national A basic objective of the program is
benefits. "to place a manufacturer and end
The Stirling engine is a different users on the path to commercializa-
breed of automotive propulsion tion." A potential manufacturer is
system. Like standard auto engines, Deere & Company, Moline, Illinois.
it burns a mixture of air and fuel to The possible end users include such
drive pistons and thus transmit power fleet operators as Purolator Courier,
to the auto's wheels. The Stirling dif- Basking Ridge, New Jersey, which has
fers from conventional internal com- more than 5,000 vehicles and the
bustion engines in that it employs an American Trucking Associations,
external heater head, where continu- Alexandria, Virginia, representing 51
ous combustion takes place, located associations in each state and the Dis-
outside the cylinders. trict of Columbia. Also participating
This design concept offers many are several government agencies.
important advantages, among them Among the latter, the major program
lower fuel consumption, low exhaust participant is the Air Force Logistics
emissions, low noise levels, minimal Command's MEEP (Management and
lubrication requirements, and poten- Equipment Evaluation Program) or-
tial for high reliability, long service ganization.
life and reduced maintenance costs. A big milestone was the September
Perhaps its most important advantage 1986 start of the program's Phase I, in
is its "multifuel capability," meaning which a Mod I Stirling engine is un-
its ability to operate on a variety of fu- dergoing test--at Langley Air Force
els, such as gasoline, kerosene, alco- Base, Virginia--in a "multistop" Air
hol, methanol, diesel fuel, butane and Force van, a vehicle that transports
others; this capability will become in- people and light cargo in a stop-and-
creasingly important with wider avail- go duty cycle on the Langley flight
ability of synthetic fuels. line, providing a realistic test of the
Since 1978, Lewis Research Center engine's capability. Throughout the
has been conducting the Automotive planned 1,000 hours of testing, MEEP
Stirling Engine program as project personnel are regularly evaluating the
manager for DoE. The goals estab- engine's fuel usage, overall perform-
lished at that time included improve- ance, exhaust emissions and
ment of at least 30 percent in fuel lubricating efficiency; they are analyz-
economy in comparison with com- ing reliability, maintenance and repair
parable internal combustion engines history and operational schedules,
in modern autos; emission levels that generally trying to determine whether
the Stirling can in fact achieve the
lower life cycle costs claimed for it.

60 Transportation
 Seven experimental Mod I engines
have operated in test cells and vehi-
cles for more than 16,000 hours. They
are being used to develop and dem-
onstrate new technologies for incor-
poration in a second generation Mod
II engine, which is now in develop-
ment. In tests thus far, the Stirling has
exhibited engine performance close
to predicted levels, good fuel con-
sumption characteristics and low An Air Force van (above) is being used

emissions; there has been parallel at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia as

progress in advancing key technol- a service test vehicle for a new type of

ogies needed for a commercialized automotive propulsion system with broad

engine. Lewis Research Center re- promise, the Stirling external combustion

ports that there are no technology engine (right). The Stirling engine is a

barriers to the Stirling's eventual European technology being developed

commercialization. for American use in a NASA//

The ultimate success envisioned by Department of Energy program.

the project team is mass production

of Stirlings for automobile use. But
iiiiiiiiiiiiiii_iiiiiiiiii_iiiiiiii
......
before that can happen, auto manufac-
turers say, the Stirling engine must
. . . _ a::a_ :....:...............
:...........................................
_:_:_
.................
_::::ii::::iiiiiii}iii
first be commercialized in a "starter - _ !_ iliiii!iii!ii:
..... ....
market" application, to reduce the fi-
nancial risk by providing a solid base
of commercial experience and to
establish a credible guideline for
estimating mass production costs.
Among possible starter market appli-
cations wherein the Stirling offers sig-
nificant advantages are engine genera-
tors, heat pumps, irrigation pumps,
trucks and power sources for subma-
rine, solar terrestrial and space elec-
tricity generation. Development is
already under way for some of these
applications.
(Continued)

An advanced technology Stirling engine

offers multiple advantages, principal

among them reduced fuel consumption

and lower exhaust emissions than

comparable internal combustion auto

engines, plus multifuel capability. This

photo illustrates the wide variety of fuels

the Stirling can use: gasoline, kerosene,

diesel fuel, jet fuel, alcohol, methanol and

butane--and that's not the whole list.

Transportation 61
The Stirling Project
(Continued)

U.S. interest in the Stirling external

combustion engine concept began in
the mid- 1970s, when the Environ-
mental Protection Agency was looking
for an alternative automotive engine
with significantly lower exhaust emis-
sions than other engines of that vin-
tage, and additionally was seeking im-
proved automotive fuel economy as a
national energy conservation measure,
along with multifuel capability to
reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
To those national objectives, NASA
added another when Lewis Research
Center took over management of the
Stirling engine project in 1978; mini-
mization of the strategic element con-
tent of the engine's metal alloys, to
reduce demand for scarce strategic
materials. Lewis and its contractor--
Mechanical Technology, Inc.
(MTI)--have developed low cost ditions. GMRL reported that the en-
substitute metal alloys that eliminated gine met federal emission standards
cobalt and significantly reduced the with a "comfortable margin," despite
chromium content. the fact that the engine was operated
The first stage of the Automotive without a catalytic converter. Both
Stirling Engine program was the 1984 companies experienced no major
Industry Test and Evaluation Program, hardware failures and test results
an independent evaluation of the Stir- were generally favorable.
ling Mod I engine by an auto manu- A follow-on evaluation--called the
facturer and an engine builder- Government and Industry Participa-
General Motors Research Laboratories tion Program (GIPP)--was initiated
(GMRL) and Deere & Company. The in 1985. One GIPP activity under way The configuration of the Mod H Stifling
engine was installed in a 1981 Spirit is an investigation of the Stirling's automotive engine is shown clearly in the
auto and conducted emission, mile- potential as an electricity generator. upper photo, an uncluttered, wood-
age, cooling and driver evaluations. The Army's Fort Belvoir (Virginia) sculpted model built for checking precise
Deere ran the engine for 37 hours in has tested a standard Army engine- dimensions prior to machine tooling of
a test cell on gasoline, diesel and jet generator set in which a Stirling Mod parts. The inverted dishpan at top (col-
fuel under a variety of operating con- 1 is taking the place of the regular ored blue) houses the engine's external
diesel engine. heat system, including the heater head
The primary GIPP activity is the where combustion takes place. In the
Stirling-powered Air Force van loz,_er photo is a closeup of the heater
project. This is a three-phase program head with its cover removed.
in which Phase I covers routine
service testing of a four-cylinder,

62 Transportation
 Engineersandtechnicians oftheStirling
AutomotiveEngine projecthookupan
engine toa dynamometer priortoa test
cellrunatvarious speedsandloads; the
extensivewiringisfordatarecording
notpartoftheengine.

Lewis
Research
Center
invented
a special extensive testing of a lighter yet more
high-temperature lubricant coating for powerful (85 horsepower) Mod II
the Stirling engine; here a Lewis techni- engine incorporating many of the
cian is flame-spraying it onto parts of an advanced technologies developed in
experimental engine. the course of the program. The pro-
jected fuel economy for the Mod II
78-horsepower Mod 1 engine--400 engine, installed in a mid-size car, is
i_i_i_i_iiiiiiiiiiiii_iiiiiii_ii
hours operating on unleaded gasoline 63 miles per gallon on the highway
and 400 more on kerosene-based jet and 33 miles per gallon in city traffic,
fuel--in the moderate climate of for an overall average of 42 miles per
Langley Air Force Base, located in gallon--approximately 30 percent The Stirling engine has a number of po-

southernVirginia. By mid-1987, Phase better than the fuel consumption of a tentially advantageous applications other

I was nearing completion, after which comparable conventional engine, a, than automotive use, among them irriga-

the engine was to undergo additional tion pumping heat pumps, and electricity

testing with diesel fuel. generation for submarine, Earth and

If Phase I proves successful, Phase space systems. Here project engineers are

II will involve further in-service eval- examining a model of a Stirling "free pis-

uations of van-mounted engines op- ton "" variant that could be used in the

erating at a higher temperature--820 NASA/international Space Station to

degrees Centigrade, compared with generate 25 kilowatts of electricity.

Phase I's 720 degrees--under a vari-

ety of climates and user conditions.
Plans for Phase III have yet to be de-
tailed, but generally it will consist of

Transportation 63