For those of you that don't know a Stirling engine is an external combustion engine that generates movement by alternately heating and cooling a sealed volume o

For those of you that don't know a Stirling engine is an external combustion engine that generates movement by alternately heating and cooling a sealed volume of working gas. Due to the lack of high-velocity gas moving around these engines can be nearly silent, can burn almost anything available and result in complete combustion of their fuel (so less nasty monoxides). They had some applications in industrial usage around the turn of the 20th century but are now largely unknown. They are slow to react to changes in fuel input, making them largely inappropriate for conventional automobiles (although demonstration which varied the pressure of the working gas have been shown to work). However in a series hybrid this isn't an issue as they may operate at a constant power output. I'd really like this to work but there are serious engineering issues with Stirling engines for example their low power to weight ratio etc. I'll keep my hopes up but will not hold my breath!