SBIR/STTR Research Award
High Specific Power Multiple-Cylinder Alpha Free-Piston Stirling Engine
Award amount
$599,441Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IIAward year
2007Award details
- Awarding agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Branch
- Not reported
- Recipient company
- Sunpower, Inc.
- Proposal award date
- 2006-12-12
- Contract end date
- 2008-06-12
- UEI
- QJS8NTDJKJE1
- Solicitation number
- Not reported
- Topic code
- X3.01
Research abstract
The proposed effort will result in a design of a 30 kWe dual opposed alpha free-piston Stirling engine power conversion system for space applications, and provide proof of concept by the operation of a practical alpha engine. The stepped piston three-cylinder alpha FPSE has shown the highest efficiency and excellent specific power among various engines studied in Phase I. In addition, the three phase electric output of a three-cylinder machine is naturally better in the system context. Thus a high efficiency 15 kWe stepped three-cylinder alpha FPSE will be designed for a 30 kWe dual opposed operation by having two engines connected for perfect balancing in all harmonics. The program minimizes the development risks by combining proven technologies of Sunpower and Global Cooling Manufacturing Inc. (GCM). GCM has achieved the successful operation of a four-cylinder alpha free-piston Stirling cooler.
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- Thermo-Acoustic Convertor for Space Power
- High Specific Power Multiple-Cylinder Free-Piston Alpha Stirling
- Thermo-Acoustic Convertor for Space Power
- 4 Kelvin Cooling with Innovative Final Stage of Multistage Cryocooler
- Multi-Stage Pulse-Tube Cryocoolers for Sensor and Electronics Applications
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
- Bio-Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Removal for Air Revitalization in Exploration Life Support Systems
- Ionomer-membrane Water Processor System Design and EDU Demonstration
- Novel Catalysts for Continuous Operation Bosch Reactor
- Novel, Regenerable Microlith Catalytic Reactor for CO2 Reduction via Bosch Process
- Employing Ionomer Membrane Technology to Extract Water from Brine
Research funding history
25 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (1983–2007). Reported award amounts total $4,374,906. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II
Agencies: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation