Core77

Segway inventor Dean Kamen has spent roughly US $40 million developing his next passion project, the Stirling engine. A Stirling is different from a typical internal-combustion engine in that it's "closed-cycle"; while it still uses expanding gas to drives pistons, it's completely sealed, emitting nothing. The gas stays inside, expanding and contracting when needed.

Kamen's version of the engine generates spare electricity and runs on, well, anything. Two of his prototypes are currently providing power to two Bangladeshi villages, using cow manure (you read that right) as fuel.

Mass production would make Kamen's Stirling engine affordable to the developing-nations people who need it most; in active pursuit of this goal, Kamen is currently trying to install a Stirling in the Think, a Norwegian car. Read all about it here.

via madville