An improvement to a free-piston Stirling machine having a cylinder mounted within a housing. The cylinder has a flange for mounting the cylinder within the housing to a transition plate with a central opening for receiving the cylinder. An elastic rim bounds and surrounds the opening and extends in an axial direction from the plate to a crest of the rim. The crest of the rim is in contact against a first axially facing side of the cylinder flange. The interior side of the rim is outwardly spaced from the exterior side of the cylinder. A compliant clamp is attached to the transition plate and is positioned on the opposite, axially facing side of the cylinder flange. The compliant clamp has an elastic spring extending against the cylinder flange which applies a force urging the cylinder flange in an axial direction against the crest of the elastic rim.

A Stirling cycle machine with a liquid fuel/gaseous fuel burner. The burner may include a preheater to capture the thermal energy of the exhaust. The burner directs the preheated air to each burner head, where it enters a prechamber. Each burner head includes a fuel nozzle that directs liquid or gaseous fuel into the prechamber. The prechamber is fluidically connected to a combustion chamber via a prechamber nozzle that has a smaller opening than the prechamber. The burner head ignites the fuel air mixture in the prechamber with an ignitor located above or within the prechamber. The flame is initially lit as a diffusion flame in the prechamber. The flame is pushed out of the prechamber into the combustion chamber by an increased air flow rate. The liquid fuel from the nozzle now evaporates in the prechamber and forms a prevaporized flame in the combustion chamber.

An external combustion engine including a burner element, a heater head, a piston cylinder containing a piston, a cooler and a crankcase. The crankcase includes a crankshaft, a piston rod connected to the piston, a drive mechanism for converting the linear motion of the piston rod to rotary motion of the crankshaft and a linear cross-head bearing that is connected rigidly to the piston rod at one end and to the drive mechanism at the other end. Also the external combustion engine includes a piston clearance seal and a piston rod seal unit that has floating rod seals. The piston includes a inner dome to reduce axial heat transfer via radiation and convection.

A gas bearing is disclosed. The gas bearing may include a cylinder with an inner cylinder radius. The gas bearing may include a piston with a piston radius, wherein the inner cylinder radius is larger than the piston radius, wherein the piston is located within the cylinder. The gas bearing may include a gas bearing radius, wherein the gas bearing radius is greater than the piston radius and less than the inner cylinder radius. The gas bearing may include a gap that exists between the cylinder and the piston, wherein the gap contains a pressurized gas, the pressurized gas configured to prevent contact between the cylinder and the piston. The gas bearing may include a gas bearing interface, wherein the gas bearing interface is positioned to control a size of the gap.

A near isothermal machine for compressing or expanding gas having a piston in a main cylinder with a heat absorbing and releasing structure attached thereto. The main cylinder contains a substantially constant volume of liquid maintained at a substantially constant temperature and a variable volume of gas, the gas temperature being controlled to substantially the same temperature as the liquid by the movement with the piston of the heat absorbing and releasing structure. A compensator is provided to compensate for variations in the level of liquid as the piston moves in the main cylinder.

A heat engine system with pressure-regulating load-locks disposed between thermal medium storage containers and heat exchangers is disclosed. A load-lock connects one or more storage containers at atmospheric pressure to one or more heat exchangers at greater than or less than atmospheric pressure.

An annular venturi burner assembly and Stirling engine. The annular venturi burner injects fuel into combustion air flowing axially through a port with an annular cross section. The fuel enters the annular cross-section from the outside diameter. The flow of air through the annular section creates suction that draws the fuel through the ports. A venturi bushing directs the flow of fuel to provide improved and more uniform mixing of fuel and air.

The present invention relates to a low temperature, low frequency Stirling engine. Its special geometry allows for large heat exchanger surfaces and great regenerators in order to reach good Carnoization efficiency factors. Displacer and power piston may be connected with circular polymer based membrane sealings to the cylinder walls. The cold space of the Stirling Engine may cylindrically Surround the outer periphery of the working cylinder, making thermal isolation obsolete. The engine is for instance suited to operate as base power prime mover using thermal solar collectors and may be coupled with hot oil or pressurized water heat storages. In the reverse mode, the Engine works as effective Heat-Pump/Cooling Engine.

A near adiabatic engine has four stages in a cycle: (1) a means of adiabatically expanding the working fluid during the downstroke from a high pressure/temperature level to a low level; (2) a means of cooling the working fluid at Bottom Dead Center (BDC); (3) a means of adiabatically compressing that fluid from a low pressure/temperature level at BDC to the higher level at Top Dead Center (TDC); and finally, (4) a means of passing that working fluid back to the high pressure/temperature source in a balanced pressure environment so as to minimize the resistance of that flow. This disclosure teaches the means of achieving (2) and (3) as follows: (2) a means is disclosed of BDC cooling of the expanded working fluid in the working chamber, and (3) a means is disclosed of adiabatically compressing the working fluid into the pump chamber before cycling the fluid.

A device for compressing a gaseous fluid includes a first chamber thermally coupled with a hot source, a second chamber thermally coupled with a cold source, a movable piston moved by a rod, and a regenerating exchanger establishing fluid communication between the first and second chambers. The rod is arranged in a cylindrical socket and guided in axial translation by a linear guiding system such as to guide the piston without contact relative to the sleeve. A sealing ring attached to the cylindrical socket surrounds the rod with a very low radial clearance, in order to limit the passage of the gaseous fluid along the mobile rod. Also disclosed is an integral cold casing having machined boreholes, a thermal screen in the hot casing, and a self-driving system with a resilient return means.