Stirling Engines

[cmac2012]

Stirling engines seem to hold so much promise. Why do we hardly ever hear about them being used anywhere?

I read somewhere that a Swedish built submarine uses a stirling engine, or several, I'm not sure, mainly because they're so quiet. That's a big engine(s).

The concept still kinda blows my mind. The above link (wiki) has a picture of a 55 Kw Stirling generator. Also no toy. I've heard they're quite the item (for auxillary electricity generation) on top of the line ocean going sailing yachts because of their quiet operation.

A friend of mine had her 50th Birthday party on a chartered yacht out on the bay. It was fun, but toward the end, the noise and the diesel exhaust stink was getting to me. I was thinking that in the oh-so-hip-and-groovy Bay Area, an item that might draw in the customers would be a chartered yacht that ran on a biodiesel fueled Stirling engine. Hell, regular veggie oil would work -- you'd just need a way to burn it efficiently.

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