Ivo Kolin

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Ivo Kolin (1924, Zagreb - 2007, Zagreb) was a Croatian economist, engineer and inventor.[http://www.ivokolin.com/info/biography Biography at ivokolin.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111071113/http://www.ivokolin.com/info/biography |date=2014-11-11 }}

After years of experimentation he demonstrated in 1983 the first Low Temperature Difference (LTD) Stirling engine which ran at the temperature difference as low as 15 °C, astonishingly low at the time.{{cite journal

|author1=Hind El Hassani |author2=N. Boutammachte |author3=M. Hannaoui | title=Study of some power influencing parameters of solar low temperature Stirling engine | journal=European Journal of Sustainable Development | year=2014 | volume=3 | number=2 | pages=109–118 | doi=10.14207/ejsd.2014.v3n2p109

| doi-access=free }} It was also the first time in history of piston motors heat was turned into a mechanical work at the temperature lower than the boiling water.{{citation needed|reason=Bottoming cycles have been studied for some time, such as ether cycle engines|date=July 2017}}{{cite journal

|author1=G. Aragon-González |author2=M. Cano-Blanco |author3=M. Cano-Blanco |author4=A. León-Galicia | title=Developing and testing low cost LTD Stirling engines | journal=Revista Mexicana de Física S | year=2013 | volume=59 | issue=1 | pages=199–203

}} The engine was later significantly improved by an American engineer James Senft building on his previous work with Ringbom Stirling engines.{{efn-lr|The Ringbom Stirling engine was patented in 1904 by the Finn Ossian Ringbom.{{Cite patent

|title=Hot-air engine

|country=US

|inventor=Ossian Ringbom

|number=856102

|fdate=17 July 1905

|gdate=4 June 1907

}}}}{{cite journal |author1=Hind El Hassani |author2=N. Boutammachte |author3=J. Knorr |author4=M. El. Hannoui | title=Study of a low-temperature Stirling engine driven by a rhombic drive mechanism | journal=International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering | year=2013 | volume=4 | page=40 | doi=10.1186/2251-6832-4-40

| s2cid=110131012 | doi-access=free }} Senft created an ultra LTD Ringbom Stirling engine which ran at the temperature difference of just 0.5 °C.{{cite news

| author=Caleb C. Lloyd | title=A low temperature differential Stirling engine for power generation | publisher=A master's thesis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand | year=2009 | url=http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/10092/2916/1/thesis_fulltext.pdf

}} Such engines, which could even run from heat absorbed while resting on the palm of a human hand, offer many applications, such as Solar Powered Stirling Engines.{{cite journal

|author1=B. Kongtragool |author2=S. Wongwises | title=A review of solar-powered Stirling engines and low temperature differential Stirling engines | journal=Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews | year=2003 | volume=7 | issue=2 | pages=131–154 | doi=10.1016/S1364-0321(02)00053-9

}}