September 3rd, 2009

Recently Sofiane Benakli and Anthony Kerfyser, of the Nantes school of Mining (polytechnique) have successfully finished their 3 month internship at FACT-foundation. Their assignment has been in the use of small (50 Watt) biomass energy converters using new technologies.  

Sofiane concentrated on the Thermo-acoustic generator technology (TAG) and Anthony on the free piston stirling engine technology (FPSE). Both technologies which use a cooking stove chimney heat, have as a main advantage the minimal use of moving and  wearing parties, extremely high efficiency,  and relatively low costs when mass produced.  

The aim was to come to a proof of concept of both. For the FPSE  this has been reached although it was not able to test the device. For the TAG an  existing design has been studied and looked into the possibility to use it for the conditions of biomass stoves. Also a linear generator design was tested: the output was some 15 watt at a 20 Hertz.

The work by the students has boosted progress in the topic and has led to the conclusion that FACT should continue to support internships in this area.