Overview and outlook of heat-driven oscillating systems for sustainable heating, cooling and power generation
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Zhu, Shunmin
Chen, Geng
Yu, Zhibin
Markides, Christos N
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
As a class of promising micro- or small-scale energy conversion technologies, heat-driven oscillating systems have drawn growing attention in heating, cooling, and power generation, thanks to their high reliability and high efficiency, especially for the conversion of lower-grade heat in distributed power generation and cogeneration applications. Representative heat-driven oscillating systems include single-phase (e.g., Stirling cycle systems, thermoacoustic systems), and two-phase alternatives (e.g., thermofluidic oscillators, etc.). This vision article reviews the articles featured in the Special Issue ‘Heat-Driven Oscillating Systems for Sustainable Heating, Cooling, and Power Generation’, and summarises the state-of-the-art advances in various heat-driven oscillating systems for heating, cooling, and power generation applications, with an emphasis on Stirling-cycle and thermoacoustic systems, which are currently the most mature. Finally, challenges and prospects within this growing and important domain are identified.
Date Issued
2026-10-01
Date Acceptance
2026-09-13
Citation
Applied Thermal Engineering, 2026, 307
ISSN
1359-4311
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Applied Thermal Engineering
Volume
307
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2026.133305
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
133305
Date Publish Online
2026-09-19