Efficient nutrient solution cooler based on adsorption refrigeration system for hydroponic greenhouses
- Authors: Mirmov I.N.1, Mirmov N.I.2, Schiptsov S.A.3
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Affiliations:
- Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Science
- Company 3R-Technology
- Inter RAO LLC – Procurement Management Center
- Issue: Vol 113, No 3 (2024)
- Pages: 137-146
- Section: Original Study Articles
- URL: https://ogarev-online.ru/0023-124X/article/view/356997
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.17816/RF643527
- EDN: https://elibrary.ru/NICMBV
- ID: 356997
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Agriculture performance is directly related to the proper soil moistening. The moistening nutrient solution should have an optimal temperature (19–24°C), providing a sufficiently high oxygen content in the solution and a generally favorable climate for plants. The temperature of the nutrient solution is of particular importance in countries and regions with dry and hot climate, where the main task is to cool the soil when moistened. A large amount of resources is used to cool the nutrient solution, which significantly increases the production cost.
AIM: To develop an efficient, cost-effective, and sufficiently versatile nutrient solution cooling system for greenhouse crop production.
METHODS: To achieve the aim, we used an advanced adsorption refrigeration system (ARS) powered by secondary and waste heat sources for cooling and some previously developed innovative thermal units.
RESULTS: The use of methyl alcohol (methanol) as a refrigerating agent allowed to reduce the temperature of the heating source to 60–75°C, significantly increase operational flexibility of the ARS, and make it more independent of energy supplies. Hardened activated carbon is used as an adsorbent for the refrigeration system. These improvements allowed to double the system’s performance (with the same adsorber dimensions) and reach a significantly lower boiling point in the evaporator (-5°C...-2°C) compared to the existing commercial alternatives (e.g. adsorption chillers by SorTechAG, Germany).
To intensify the nutrient solution cooling, some cooler designs have been upgraded. We developed a compact, high-performance design of a hydroponic solution cooler, which uses heat pipes (two-phase thermosiphons). Heat pipes in the hydroponic solution cooler allow to increase the amount of transferred heat by several times. The solution cooler design provides for solution recirculation or its mixing using a screw agitator, significantly increasing the heat transfer coefficient when cooling the solution.
CONCLUSION: A high-performance nutrient solution cooler has been developed using hydroponic technologies and an adsorption refrigeration system, where methyl alcohol is used as the refrigerating agent and activated carbon is used as an adsorbent. Significant power savings are achieved through the use of secondary and sufficiently low-potential heat sources.
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##article.viewOnOriginalSite##About the authors
Ilya N. Mirmov
Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Science
Author for correspondence.
Email: miily@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0009-0001-2434-7661
SPIN-code: 7958-6128
Cand. Sci. (Engineering)
Russian Federation, Troitsk, MoscowNaum I. Mirmov
Company 3R-Technology
Email: naumir@yandex.ru
Cand. Sci. (Engineering)
Israel, HaifaSergey A. Schiptsov
Inter RAO LLC – Procurement Management Center
Email: pd6@bk.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow
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