Free-piston technologies for heating, cryogenic systems and power generation
- Free-piston technology (text version)
Assembly drawing of a free piston compressor. A piston is attached to the moving magnet assembly that passes through the stator assembly as the piston traverses inside the cylinder.
The aim is to develop novel free-piston technologies to decarbonise heating, cooling and thermal propulsion systems for net zero goal.” Dr Kun Liang
Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering
Electrifying domestic heating and cooling is the way forward to achieve net zero by 2050. The key technological challenges to rapid increase in the uptake of domestic heat pumps are the sizing strategy and efficiency. The growing popularity of electric vehicles will place additional demand on the national electricity grid. There is growing demand of Stirling and J-T cryocooler for both space and quantum chips. We are developing free-piston technologies to tackle these challenges, that are scale-up of linear compressor for heat pump, linear Stirling engine CHP and high-efficiency linear compressor for Stirling and J-T cooler.
Current research with the TFMRC is focused on a linear heat pump for low-cost and high-efficiency across the heating season. This work is based on previous development of linear compressor for refrigeration and cryocooler.