Thermoacoustic Compression Or Sound Wave Compression

I knew one of the people involved in this technology almost 20 years ago at Harman Industries/JBL in Northridge CA. He showed me one of the prototypes he was working on. (Very hush-hush then.) At that time it was being developed for use aboard spacecraft due to it's light weight and high efficiency.

It is said to be very efficient compared to mechanical compressors.

At that time we were also working on active noise cancellation for refrigerators.

I couldn't have been too hush hush being that I remember reading about it in a popular science or similar magazine in high school around 20 years ago.

JBL thought their design was best and they were competing for a NASA contract at the time. My company had non-disclosure agreements with them or I wouldn't have seen it at all.

They were building loudspeakers for us at the time to cancel the noise of the Army's last diesel powered tank. They were big, but they worked.

4 kW = 4000 watts. Be careful of those units, they bite!

Can anybody give a comparative analysis of thermoacoustic compressors and conventional compressors regarding energy consumption and upto which pressure level thermoacoustic compressors can compress gas/vapor (in bars)?

The claim of "very little energy to compress" is bogus. Such claims invariably involve some failure to understand simple thermodynamics, such as conservation of energy.

Commercial viability of these type of systems particualry for larger systems are yet to be checked. Please check this web site.

http://www.coolsound.us/technology.html

A table is provided comparing thermo acoustics to conventional vapor compression technologies, including the industry's recent advances in adopting carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons as alternative refrigerant gases. You can refer it.

Can you suggest some paper regarding the vapor compression capability of thermoacoustic compressors and conventional compressors?