In the present work, catalytic cracking of fish oil industrial residue was investigated to study the effect of temperature, type of catalyst and the heating rate on the yield of organic liquid fraction (OLF) and its acid value. The highest bio-oil yield of 72% (wt.) was obtained at temperature range of 300–500 °C and heating rate of 10 °C/min with the mixture of Al₂O₃ and Na₂CO₃ as a catalyst. It was found that the mixture of Na₂CO₃ and MgSO₄ as a catalyst gives lowest acid value of 8.75 mg_KOH/g_oil and 68.1% of OLF yield. Furthermore, the acid value is reduced to 0.36 mg_KOH/g_oil using Na₂CO₃ as an absorbent. The results show that the catalytic cracking process represents a sustainable method to produce bio-oil from fish oil industrial residues with physicochemical characteristics similar to the diesel fuel. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, a comparison of exergetic models between two hot air engines (a Gamma type Stirling prototype having a maximum output mechanical power of 500 W and an Ericsson hot air engine with a maximum power of 300 W) is made. Referring to previous energetic analyses, exergetic models are set up in order to quantify the exergy destruction and efficiencies in each type of engine. The repartition of the exergy fluxes in each part of the two engines are determined and represented in Sankey diagrams, using dimensionless exergy fluxes. The results show a similar proportion in both engines of destroyed exergy compared to the exergy flux from the hot source. The compression cylinders generate the highest exergy destruction, whereas the expansion cylinders generate the lowest one. The regenerator of the Stirling engine increases the exergy resource at the inlet of the expansion cylinder, which might be also set up in the Ericsson engine, using a preheater between the exhaust air and the compressed air transferred to the hot heat exchanger.

The Stirling engine performances depend on several physicals characteristics and functioning parameters. The influence of each parameter and of their interactions is difficult to achieve with classical univariate studies. The experimental design is an alternative to identify the parameters sets allowing optimal Stirling engine performances. Hence, a four factor Central Composite Rotatable Design was used to observe the effect of cooling water flowrate, initial charge pressure, heating temperature, and operation time on a Stirling engine brake power. The influence of each parameter and the effect of the interaction between two or three parameters on the engine performances are presented and discussed. Using the surface response method, it appears that initial charge pressure and heating temperature are the more influencing parameters on the Stirling engine performances. With modeling, optimal conditions for the Stirling engine functioning are the following: charge pressure of 8 bar, heating temperature of 500 °C, and cooling water flow rates of 7.34 l/min, independent of the engine operation time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.