An investigation into the potential of the reversed Stirling cycle heat pump

The validation of a theoretical model of a Stirling cycle heat pump, which involved the construction of a practical prototype machine, is described. The model is used to investigate the potential COP and specific performance which could be achieved by a full-size machine, for use in industrial waste recovery. It is shown that by a suitable choice of design parameters a commercial-size machine, of perhaps 500 kW heat output, could achieve a COP of about 3.4, i.e. well above the economic break even figure of 3.0