The homemade high-power Stirling engine led by China’s 707 Institute has completed performance tests, which is China’s first large-diameter Stirling engine prototype, sitting in the world’s top position with a rated single power of 320 kW, along with a 40% thermal power conversion efficiency, according to China Ship News on Dec. 21.
It is well known that the most common use of the Stirling engines is the AIP power of conventional submarines, and the breakthrough in the high-power Stirling engine also means that China’s conventional submarine power system will be the most powerful in the world.
The Chinese Navy (PLAN)’s Type 039A/B AIP Yuan-class submarines are powered by a Stirling engine system. This new 320 kW Stirling engine of China, if equipped to China’s AIP submarines, will reach four times the power of Japan’s Soryu class AIP submarines, which are equipped with a Stirling engine of less than 80 kW.
It is said that in the next step, the institute will also develop a megawatt-class Stirling engine, that is, a 1,000-kilowatt class.
It is worth mentioning that earlier this month, Pakistan held a steel cutting ceremony at Karachi Naval Shipyard for Pakistan’s indigenously built Hangor-class conventional-powered AIP submarine, the fifth boat of the Type S-26P (as distinct from the Type S-26T exported to Thailand) conventional-powered submarines exported by China to Pakistan, which is an export variant of the PLAN’s Type 039A/041 Yuan-class submarines.
According to the plan, Pakistan will start the construction of four Hangor-class submarines in the next four years. The four Type S-26P AIP submarines, along with the four Chinese-built submarines, will join the Pakistan Navy between 2022 and 2028, replacing the Pakistani Army’s outdated French-made Agosta-90B submarines.