Reply #7: Take out the "solar" reference and it could be useful [View All]

I followed a few links on this product and it does look like a promising way to recover waste heat. According to the numbers there, at higher temperatures the engine approachs 50% efficiency which is better than internal combustion or turbines. The downside mentioned that it is sluggish to respond but for power generation that's a non-issue.

The other thing mentioned was that although they can run on just about any temperature differential, on anything less than 260 degrees Celsius the engine would be too large (in relation to the power delivered) to be practical. So for solar you're talking about a pretty big installation for a small return. OTOH this would be great for any industry that uses lots of energy and throws away a lot of heat- canneries and steel mills come to mind.