Tuesday, 18 January 2011 08:59
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| A diagram illustrating how a two-piston Stirling engine works. (American Stirling Company) |
Yukon College has teamed up with the northern telecommunications company and with Geoff Hodgson, a graduate engineering student at the University of British Columbia, to study the efficiency of the Stirling engine, an external combustion engine that dates back to the 1800s.
The Stirling engine (see sidebar) can generate upwards of about three kilowatts of power as well as some heat.
"If you can generate energy on a small scale and it generates heat at the same time, well then, it's useful for putting in smaller places," said Hodgson, a Yukoner who will use part of the project for his UBC master's thesis.
"Someday we might have wood-powered Stirling engines, which would be even better for the Yukon," Hodgson added.
Today, the Stirling engine has been used on things including submarines because of its quiet operation. But if it also works well in cold-climate settings, that could mean big cost savings for Northwestel to keep its remote transmitter stations fuelled and maintained.
"They're spending well over $1 million a year on diesel fuel. If these things can reduce that by 80 per cent, there's considerable savings," said Rick Steele, co-ordinator of Yukon College's Technology Innovation Centre.
A Stirling engine can cost about $200,000, but Steele said one could make back that amount pretty quickly with the potential savings.
Northwestel's properties manager, Barry Sudgen, said the potential of the Stirling engine is worth the research investment.
"I think there's definitely, you know, money to be saved and an environmental impact to be realized as well," Sudgen said.
Not only could a Stirling engine provide heat for remote stations, Sudgen said, it could also cut down on the number of helicopter trips Northwestel crews would have to make to refuel and maintain those sites.
The Yukon Technology Innovation Centre at Yukon College could also benefit from the research, as it could result in mining companies and the military expressing interest in using the same technology in their remote sites.
How it works
Stirling engines can be hard to understand. Here are the key points, according to the American Stirling Co. website:
Every Stirling engine has a sealed cylinder with one part hot and the other cold. The working gas inside the engine (which is often air, helium, or hydrogen) is moved by a mechanism from the hot side to the cold side. When the gas is on the hot side it expands and pushes up on a piston. When it moves back to the cold side it contracts.
For diagrams, check out the website at: http://www.stirlingengine.com/faq