Development of Stirling Engine Heat Pump

Y.NAGAOKA and M.NAKAMURA

Heat Pump Systems, Gas Utilization Group, R & D Institute,

Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.
16-25, Sibaura, 1-chome, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 105, Japan

K.YAMASHITA and Y.ITO

Energy Conversion Systems, Technical Research Institute

Toho Gas Co., Ltd.
507-2, Shinpo-Machi, Tokai-City, Aichi Pref. 476, Japan

S.HARAMURA and K.YAMAGUCHI

3rd Research Laboratory, 2nd R & D Center

AISIN SEIKI Co., Ltd.
80, Kowari, Minaminakane-cho. Nishio City, Aichi Pref.,
Japan

ABSTRACT

A Gas engine heat pump (GHP) has been commercialized in Japan, as a means of
energy conservation. A Stirling engine heat pump, however, seems to be a
promising system for meeting further requirements for energy conservation
and environmental preservation in future. From these points of view, three
companies: Tokyo Gas, Toho Gas and Aisin Seiki, have been cooperatively
developing a Stirling engine heat pump using natural gas as a fuel.

KEYWARDS

Gas heat pump, 20RT, Stirling engine, Durability test, Field test.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, gas-fueled heat pump systems and co-generation systems have
been developed for the effective utilization of energy. On the other hand,
restrictions on pollution are getting more severe. To meet the regulations
on pollution, we, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd., Toho Gas Co., Ltd. and Aisin Seiki,
have developped 20RT Stirling engine heat pump, which offers lower emission
and higher efficiency. This development was carried out on the subsidy from
MITI, aiming at the practical use of Stirling engine heat pump system. As
shown in Table 1, Tokyo Gas developed heat pump system technology and Toho
Gas Co.,Ltd developed system control technology. Aisin Seiki is responsible
for Stirling engine.

595
 596
Table 1. Roles in development

Tokyo Gas Co.,Ltd. Heat pump system technology

Toho Gas Co.,Ltd. System control technology
Aisin Seiki Co.,Ltd. Stirling engine technology

In this program, we are trying to improve the durability and reduce the
cost. Final targets for the heat pump system are 1.7 of COP in heating
mode(including hot water supply), 1.2 of COP in cooling mode, lower than
65dB(A) of noise level and 150ppm of NOx contents. This paper describes the
results of performance and durability test of Stirling engine and its heat
pump system.

FEATURE OF STIRLING ENGINE

Stirling engine is one kind of external combustion engine which converts

thermal energy into kinetic energy by heating and cooling the working gas
sealed in the cylinders. Thermal efficiency of Stirling cycle is as high as
Carnot cycle which theoreticaly has the highest thermal efficiency.
Combustion of fuel is continuous, so it is rather easy to control exhaust
emission. Stirling engine has high possibility to achieve low level of
noise and vibration because cyclic torque fluctuation is smooth thanks to
non-explosive combust ion.The development objectives are improvement of the
durability and cost reduction of components exposed to high temperature and
high pressure such as over lOMPa.

Photo. 1 SE20H Stirling engine

CONFIGURATION OF STIRLING
ENGINE

The over view of this engine, named SE20H, is shown in Photo.1.

A schematic cross section and specifications are shown in Fig.) and Table 2.
This engine is h cylinder double acting type with swash plate mechanism. We
use city gas (natural gas) for fuel and helium gas for working gas. We
control the brake horse power by changing the pressure of working gas sealed
in cylinders. The value of minimum cycle-pressure (Pmin)in rated shaft power
is 8MPa. Fuel input is controlled to keep the temperature of heater tube
constant. High pressured working gas is sealed at the rod connecting to
working piston and driving mechanism which is under atmospheric pressure.
Air preheater is located around combuster to recover the heat of exhaust gas
through combustion air,resulted to lower exhaust loss.
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Table 2. Engine specification

Engine type 4 cylinder double acting

Bore ÷ Stroke ö 60mm x 52.4mm
Swept volume U8cc x 4 º
Working gas Helium gas
Fuel Natural gas
M in. cycle-pressure 8MPa (at rated shaft power)
Power control Working gas pressure control

Air Preheater Swash Plate Mechanism

Temperature Controller/ ¿—

Fig.l Cross section of SE20H Stirling engine

ENGINE PERFORMANCE

Test results of SE20H engine are shown in Table 3 and Fig.2. We achieved
37.5% of maximum efficiency under the condition at 760£ of heater tube mean
temperature and 25t of cooling water temperature.

Table 3. Engine performance

Max.efficiency Max.output
Item operation operation
Break horse power 23.2 kw 30.4 kw
efficiency 37.5 % 33.0 % º
NOx contents 142 ppm 93 ppm
Noise level 65 dB(A) 69 dB(A)
 598

Fig.2 indicates that higher

efficiency and torque are obtained
in lower engine speed. It has
25
desirable characteristic of wide
speed modulation range from 500 to Max.torque
!500 rpm (1:3) for gas heat pump 23.7Kg-m 20
application. This means that we
can obtain economical operation of 3
heat pump system which is usually, 15
used in partial load. Since NOx
~ 20
content and noise level are low,
Stirling engine can offer a more
clean heat pump system than
conventional gas engine system. Max.efficiency
37.5%

ENGINE COMPONENTS DESIGN 10

As described above, we could achieve

fundamental performance. Now we
started the development to improve
durability and reduce cost from 1988,
pointing toward the practical use of 0 1000 2000
Stirling engine. Design concept of Engine speed (r.p.m)
each component is described below.
Fig.2 Performance curves

Because heater is used under high

temperature and high pressure, i.e.
in the most severe condition among
the components of Stirling engine,
we used nickel-based alloy for heater
tube But nickel-based alloy costs
much, and so we changed the material
to iron-based alloy such as
stainless steel. When we use
iron-based alloy for heater tube,
we need to decrease the maximum
temperature of the heater tube and
increase thickness of the tube,
because it has lower creep strength
than nickel-based alloy. In order to
maintain higher engine thermal
efficiency, we designed the combustor
so that the shape of the flame "·»>.
matches heater tube arrangement
to prevent a heat spot and keep mean
temperature of heater tube as high as
poss i ble . Photo 2 Heater

Regenerater

Regenerater is settled between heater and cooler and it functions to store

the heat carried by shuttling working gas, and thus prevents heat loss.
Since working gas shuttles in a high speed, regenerater should have large
surface area and low pressure drop to keep high engine efficiency. Though a
fine mesh is one of the best material for regenerator, the cost is high and
takes much time to assemble. To solve these problems, we developed new type
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of regenerater made of fine wire pressed in a die. In this development, we
made effort to supply the wire uniformly in the die.

Cooler

Phot 0.3 shows a cooler. This is

made of aluminum, because it has
suitable manufacturing method to
make a h eat exchanger. We use
fine d r wn bar to form inner fin
of tube and we also use clad
tube to supply brazing material
eas i ly . Although this cooler
has only 37 tubes, it. works as
weJI as a cooler with hundreds
of thin bare tubes. Outer fins
of the t ubes not only have effect
to m e r e ase heat transfer surface
area, b ut also reinforce the tubes.

Rod seal

For Stirling engine, we need to seal

up working gas such as helium gas, and Photo.i Cooler
very little leakage is required.
It is also required that working gas should be oil-free. But it is so
difficult to seal helium gas under dry condition that we applied oil
enclosure system with tapered main ring to the rod seal in order to obtain
long life and low leakage.

DURABILITY TEST

We have been conducting the durability test for 1600 hours by the end of
Sept. 1989. The results concerned with the engine performance are shown in
Fig. 3. Both torque and efficiency are stable and shows no decline. And we
had no serious trouble so far.

M
OO o
o o 0 ° ° o ° o o

500 1000 1500 (Hr)

OO
g 24 o o o o o o o
"¿23
^ 22
w
500 1000 1500 (Hr)
Fig.3 Results of durability test
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HEAT PUMP SYSTEM

The Stirling engine to heat

pump application with high
efficiency and low emission
performance was proven.
So Tokyo Gas Co. ,Ltd.
constructed heat pump system
using this engine. System
configuration is shown in F ig.4
and specification is shown in
Table 4. This is direct
expansion system for 4 indoor units.
Capacity is controlled by changing
speed and unloading compressor Outdoor Unit Indoor Unit
cylinder. Capacity control 1 system
was designed by Tono Gas Co.,Ltd. Fig.4 System configuration

Table 4. Specification of heat pump systen

Type Direct expansion

for 4 indoor un its
Cooling capac i ty 60,000 kcal./hr 1
Heating capacity 63,000 kca]/hr 1
Compressor Reciprocating 4 cylinder
Capacity control Engine speed and
compressor unload
Dimention of outdoor unit 2,300 l x1,200"x250Q h j

Photo.4 shows the outdoor unit on the field test. In this test, we obtained
COP shown in Fig. 1 ). Jt indicates that Stirling engine can be operated in a
wide range of speed, especially in low speed such as 500 rpm. And in a low
speed range of operation, it presents high COP, that means it offers
economical operation in practical use.

1.5

00er

cu
o é,ï
u
c

i-

1 1—, -L L·. 1
0 500 1000 1500
Engin speed (r.p.m)

Photo.4 Heat pump system ig.5 COP of heat pump system

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FIELD TEST

Field tests of a Stirling engine heat punp (SEHP) is now going on at the R&D
Institute of Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. where the SEHP was installed in July 1989.
The objectives of the field tests are to evaluate performances and
reliability of the SEHP under realistic operations. The performance of the
SEHP is now being tested by using a laboratory room with a voluie of 1400m3
[I0m(w)x20m(d)x7m(h)) as a load. Pressure gauges, humidity sensors,
thermometers, and flow meters were installed on both indoor and outdoor
units in order to monitor operation conditions and conditions of refrigerant
circuit. The data obtained from these sensors were continuously collected
by a computer.

Partial Load Performances

Relationships among engine speed, cooling capacity, and COP are shown in Fig,
6. Relatioships between engine speed and COP-h are shown in Fig. 7. COP
denotes the ratio between the cooling capacity and gas input. COP-h denotes
the efficiency of the refrigerant circuit alone (i.e. ratio between cooling
capacity and energy input for a compressor).

The cooling capacity increaed with an inrease in engine speed. On the other
hand, inverse relationships with engine speed, which show good partial load
performance, were observed on COP and COP-h.

O,
O

o
á
4.0
800 1000 1200 1400
Engine speed (rpnO

Fig.6 Relationships among engine speed,cooling capacity and COP

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5.0

4.5

I
ft, 4.0 h
O
u
3.5

3.0
000 1000 1200 1400

Engine speed C^pnO

Fig.7 Relationship between engine speed and COP-h

Temperature Effect

The relationships between outdoor temperature and cooling capacity as well as

outdoor temperature and COP-h are shown in Fig. 8,9, respectively. The
cooling capacity was little affected by changes of the outdoor temperature
because the engine speed was controled. Either COP and COP-h decreased with
an increase of the outdoor temperature.

X
o
o
o
ó
4.0
25 27 29 31 33 35
Temperature[*C]
Fig.8 Relationships among outdoor temperature,cooling capacity
and COP
 603

A
'4
o

2
25 27 29 31 33 35
Temperature [°C]
Fig.9 Relationship between outdoor temperature and COP-h

Reliability

During the field test, the SEHP was operated 24 hours/day. In September
1989,700 hours had been past since the start of the operation. No serious
problem was observed until now. The only trivial problem we have encounterd
is a gas leakage from a oil tank due to the failure of a sealing. We
continue the field test and continue evaluations of reliability and
durability of the SEHP.

CONCLUSION

In this development, we proved that Stirling engine presents high efficiency

and low pollution, and a possibility of application for heat pump. We will
continue further development to put it into practical use.