DOE EERE Research Reports

Thermally Activated Heat Pumps

Engine Driven Heat Pumps: Internal Combusion (IC) Engines, Stirling Engines, Brayton Cycle, and Rankine Engines

Heat engines can be used to drive a refrigerant compressor in a reverse Rankine heating or cooling cycle. While engines may use recovered waste heat or solar energy as the motive force, most use either liquid or gaseous fossil fuel combustion. The Department of Energy (DOE) funded developments in:

• free piston Stirling engine (FPSE) driven compressors,
• internal combustion (IC) engine technologies,
• Steam/Rankine engine driven systems, and
• Brayton Cycle (Air Cycle)/Rankine engine driven systems.

Links to Project Areas: Internal Combustion Engine Technologies Free-Piston Stirling Engine (FPSE) Driven Technologies Stirling/Rankine System (Linear Inertia Compressor) Diaphragm-Coupled FPSE/Compressor System Magnetically-Coupled FPSE/Compressor System FPSE System Modeling, Simulation and Analysis Steam/Rankine Driven Systems Brayton/Rankine Systems System Performance Evaluations and Progress Overviews
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