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US 2011/0041492 A1Published application
Stirling engine with thermoelectric control
OwnerDaniel Maguireinventor
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Abstract
The present invention provides apparatus and methods for utilizing thermoelectric devices to control the operation of a Stirling type engine.
Claims21
An apparatus incorporating the general principles of the Stirling cycle, the apparatus comprising:
- a gas enclosure containing an entrapped gas, said gas enclosure including internally thereof a variable volume expansion space and a variable volume compression space;
- one or more displacer means movably contained within said gas enclosure for moving said gaseous medium back and forth between said expansion space and said compression space;
- one or more power means movably contained within said gas enclosure and responsive to an increase in thermal energy in a portion of the entrapped gas to linearly move under load;
- at least one thermoelectric device with thermal separation characteristics for controlling an amount of thermal energy in the portion of entrapped gas to which the power means is responsive by moving linearly under load.
1 more element
An apparatus which operates on the Stirling cycle and a thermoelectric device for facilitating thermal energy differentials between portions of the apparatus:
- the apparatus which operates on the Stirling cycle comprising an atmospherically contained expansion area and an atmospherically contained compression area, wherein the thermoelectric device is operative to cause a sufficient thermal energy delta between the expansion area and the compression area to operate the apparatus through a Stirling cycle;
- and
- the thermoelectric device comprising:
- an electrically and thermally conductive electric charge emitter surface;
- an electrically and thermally conductive electric charge collector surface positioned to receive electrons from the emitter;
- and
- a thermally and electrically nonconductive space between said emitter and said collector.
4 more elements
A method for operating a Stirling type engine, the method comprising the steps of:
- connecting one or more thermoelectric devices in thermal communication with one or more of:
- an expansion portion and a compression portion of the Stirling type engine;
- and
- applying an electrical current to the one or more thermoelectric devices to communicate thermal energy to the one or more of:
- an expansion portion and a compression portion of the Stirling type engine.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.