Progress 12/15/17 to 02/24/22
Outputs
Target Audience:A group of undergraduate student assistants, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers contributed to the projects and also were trained for professional knowledge covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production, recent developments in greenhouse technologies, and advances in energy and materials for potential agriculture technologies according to regular monthly meeting and seminars. To disseminate greenhouse technologies and our new developments, we hold regular seminars/educational talks and an annual open house for the community of greenhouse growers and interested parties. The related subjects from both plant and engineering perspectives, such as greenhouse basics of lighting, heating and cooling, irrigation, and envelope materials selection, as well as advanced greenhouse technologies, have been discussed with growers. Moreover, oral presentations are delivered during local or international conferences about our latest work relative to this project and the results are summarized and reported in international journals. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our team offers multidisciplinary education experiences for researchers at all levels including three undergraduate research assistants at CU-Boulder, three graduate students (one student at CU-Boulder and two at MSU) and three post-doctoral research associates (one at CUB and two at MSU) being recruited in areas of INFEWS. The INFEWS project provides a stimulating environment for these students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden horizons of their knowledge.Monthly project meetings and regular seminars in the team increases their professional knowledge covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production, recent developments in greenhouse technologies, and advances in energy and materials for potential agriculture technologies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A straightforward but effective way to disseminate our recent results to communities of interest is to publish them in high-qualified academic articles. In 2021, we have published several articles in high-impact peer reviewed journal including Nature Food, Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer, and Computational Thermal Sciences. In addition, we presented important results related to the greenhouse project to peers in the DOE Solar Prize Round 5 Hardware Track. Our team advanced to the semi-finalist stage. We will use this competition to team up with a local greenhouse manufacturer to continue participating for the next round. Additionally, we delivered an oral presentation entitled "Increasing Greenhouse Production by Spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting Photonics" during the annual NCERA-101 meeting held virtually in November 2021. The NCERA-101 is a group of academics, government scientists, and industry professionals who perform research and outreach in controlled-environment technology and use. Approximately 110 people were in attendance. Besides, we also presented important results relevant to this project in international conferences including 2021 SPIE Photonics in San Diego, and 2021 ASHS Conference in Denver. Constructive feedback is being used to improve interpretation of some of the results. We have also organized regular seminars in the CUB or the MSU for students and other communities of interest to talk about recent progress in greenhouse covering materials and latest techniques in agriculture. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Development of Spectral-splitting and Light-converting Greenhouse Envelope Materials We have successfully fabricated spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting films in large scale based on a solution method for greenhouse envelope materials. The film properties have been completely examined in terms of efficiency. We found that the film with converters has an internal quantum efficiency of 90% and a total external quantum efficiency up to 44%. More importantly, we demonstrated an increase in biomass production of leafy-green lettuce by more than 20% in both indoor LED environment with controlled conditions and outdoor greenhouses under natural sunlight by simply using the developed photonic thin films. The work has been published in a peer reviewed journal (Nature Food 2021, 2, 434-441). In the last year, we also evaluated blue light effect on biomass production of lettuce and the results showed that blue light predominantly dominates the morphology of lettuce plants. Based on the experimental data, we concluded that the increased biomass production of lettuce under spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting film is mainly attributed to the green-to-red conversion which provides more photosynthetically efficient red light for lettuce growth. Secondly, we successfully developed a method to simulate the spectrum of the near infrared (NIR)-absorbing film. Using a similar solution method, we fabricated large area NIR-absorbing films consisting of commercially available polymers. The films are flexible, which are competitive for practical applications. 2. Development of Solar Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) Water Purification Subsystem In the last year, we have continued working on the innovative solar Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) desalination system which consists of three major components including a solar receiver that heats water for the evaporator, an evaporator to generator air-vapor for the condenser, and a condenser that produce freshwater. A crossflow system was also developed. The HDH process is relatively inefficient in terms of total energy requirements when compared with other desalination technologies such as Reverse Osmosis (RO). To improve the performance of direct contact evaporation, modeling of the transport phenomena at the small local scale is required. The objective here was to accurately model the hydrodynamic as well as heat and mass transfer as it typically occurs in a HDH counter-current direct contact evaporator, a sub-component of the HDH system. The numerical model is based on the Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method included in ANSYS Fluent v19.2, which is modified to properly model diffusion driven evaporation. The study with multiple fluid distribution patterns shows a high increase in liquid hold-up and evaporated mass with an increase in water spray density, while the gas distribution does not have a noticeable impact on the performance of the evaporator column. The insight provided by the CFD model highlights the importance of considering the water distributor in conjunction with the packed column design for improving the performance. In addition to detailed CFD simulations, we also performed system-level studies using a simplified mathematical model. These models allow to predict the performance of the condenser, but existing system models contain empirical correlations with limited or undefined ranges of validity. In this aspect of our research, a comparison between several mass transfer coefficient correlations for air/vapor and liquid and the interfacial area is performed. An experimental setup has been built and tested for validation purposes. The boundary conditions and experimental data have been compared with the prediction from various listed models. We concluded from the study that the Onda and Billet correlations are compatible with most of the results obtained from the experimental study. 3. Advanced Greenhouse System Integration and Demonstration We tested the performance of the NIR-absorbing films for water heating under natural sunlight and thereafter assembled those films into a solar water heater. The solar water heating system can be incorporated as part of the rooftop of a greenhouse and was tested under natural sunlight. The spectral distribution of the sunlight passing through the water heater was characterized with and without the NIR-absorbing films. A numerical model was therefore developed and verified satisfactorily to predict the performance of the solar heater with the films that accounts for the sun position in the sky. In addition, a new combined solar air/water heater is also being developed that can provide a very high efficiency. This novel system would provide hot air and water using a single system to the HDH. Moreover, A comprehensive thermal model has also been developed to evaluate the performance of the integrated greenhouse in terms of producing the required water and the reduction in cooling load. A C++ code was developed to numerically solve the equations required for the thermal modeling of the integrated greenhouse. A plant growth modeled is being implemented and we are looking into accounting for variation in the solar spectrum and its effect on plant growth model. 4. Dynamic Model and Decision Making for the Advanced Greenhouse Efforts include system modeling based on the energy and mass balance, modeling coupled with season-growing cycles and growing performance, development multi-criteria decision analysis for optimal greenhouse operation. First, we analyzed the results of experiments performed in the last year that evaluated growth and quality of lettuce and geranium seedlings grown under the developed greenhouse envelopes with the spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting films. Correspondingly, the mechanism underling was proposed. The augmentation of biomass production can be further improved by tailoring the spectrum intercepted by the plants. In addition, we grew red-leaf lettuce under the spectral-splitting film for incorporation into an existing growth model framework. This work will help investigate how spectral manipulation through a novel greenhouse film can affect a traditional lettuce growth model based on the solar light spectrum and more importantly examine its wide use in promoting biomass production of other lettuce cultivars. Moreover, we grew tomato, pepper, petunia, snapdragon, and lettuce under two blue photo-selective materials, a commercially available greenhouse plastic, and the spectral-shifting film. We investigated how the fraction of blue transmission through a greenhouse cover influences the growth and development of the listed crops. We also incorporated area-based photosynthetic measurements to determine how the spectral-shifting film influenced the quantum yield of each crop. 5. Broader Impacts: Education, Outreach, and Broadening Participation Plan Efforts include classroom instruction, agriculture practice on the field, national and international collaboration and outreach activity to grower community. We have provided agricultural infrastructures and facilities at the MSU Plant Science Research Greenhouse range with unique opportunities for our engineering students to experience agriculture practice on the field, national and international collaboration, and outreach activity to grower community. We presented summary information about growing plants under our experimental spectral-shifting film during the Floriculture Research Alliance annual meeting, which was held virtually in October 2021. Approximately 90 growers and industry professionals were in attendance. Moreover, we developed our walk-in indoor "greenhouse" in CU boulder to provide a stimulating environment for our students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden horizons of their knowledge.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Roy, C., Klausner, J.F., Benard, A., Numerical Study on the Impact of Fluid Distribution on a Counter-Current Direct Contact Evaporator , Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer 2021, 166.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Roy, C., Benard, A., and Klausner, J.F., General Mass Transfer Modeling for Multiphase Flows: VOF Method with PLIC-1 and PLIC-2 Schemes , Computational Thermal Sciences 2021, 13, 37-54.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Shen, L., Lou, R., Park, Y., Guo, Y., Stallknecht, E.J., Xiao, Y., Rieder, D., Yang, R., Runkle, E.S., and Yin, X. Increasing greenhouse production by spectral-shifting and unidirectional light-extracting photonics. Nature Food 2021, 2, 434-441
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Shen, L., Lou, R., Yin, X. Asymmetrical Interfaces Design for Unidirectional Light Extraction from Spectrum Conversion Films.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Shen, L. and Yin, X., Oral presentation. American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), Denver, CO, USA, August 5-9, 2021
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
" Shen, L. and Yin, X., Oral presentation. SPIE Optics + Photonics, San Diego, California, USA, August 1-6, 2021
|
Progress 12/15/19 to 12/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:A group of undergraduate student assistants, graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers contributed to the projects and also were trained for professional knowledge covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production, recent developments in greenhouse technologies, and advances in energy and materials for potential agriculture technologies according to regular monthly meeting and seminars. ?The public dissemination of our knowledge and technology was largely impeded by the Covid pandemic. However,we hold multiple seminars/educational talksfor the community of greenhouse growers as well as our students. In addition, byleveraging the state-of-art agricultural infrastructure and facilities at the MSU Plant Science Research Greenhouse range,we provided unique opportunities for engineering students to experience agricultural practice at the Greenhouse facility during the summer seasons. Team members from CU Boulder, including both graduate students and postdoc obtained travel permission and visited MSU greenhouse facility. They spent nearly four weeks at MSU for collaborative research and field practices in the greenhouse. The fieldwork promoted valuable interactions between engineering and agricultural student researchers. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our team offers multidisciplinary education experiences for researchers at all levels including three undergraduate research assistants (one at CU-Boulder and two at MSU), three graduate students (one student at CU-Boulder and two at MSU), and three post-doctoral research associates (one at CUB and two at MSU) being recruited in areas of INFEWS. The INFEWS project provides a stimulating environment for these students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden the horizons of their knowledge. Monthly project meetings and regular seminars in the team will increase their professional knowledge covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production, recent developments in greenhouse technologies, and advances in energy and materials for potential agriculture technologies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A straightforward but effective way to disseminate our recent results to communities of interest is to publish them in high-qualified academic articles. In 2020, we have published several articles in the peer-reviewed journals including Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer and Computational thermal sciences: An international journal. Some other articles about our recent findings related to the project are still under review or in preparation. In addition, we presented important results to peers during the virtual 2020 annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Science and the 2020 ASHS Annual Conference. Constructive feedback is being used to improve the interpretation of some of the results. We have organized regular seminars in the CUB or the MSU for students and other communities of interest to talk about recent progress in greenhouse covering materials and latest techniques in agriculture. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?List of plans for the next reporting period: 1. Test the performance of the NIR-absorbing film for water heating under natural sunlight and therefore on HDH water purification system. 2. Improve the comprehensive thermal model to examine the performance of the integrated greenhouse in terms of producing the required water and the reduction in cooling load. 3. Examine the proposed model by experimental validation. 4. Expand evaluation of the spectral-shifting and light-extracting envelope materials by comparing them to commercially available greenhouse films. Future evaluation will also include economically important greenhouse crops in addition to lettuce. 5. Monitor the spectral stability and mechanical properties of the spectral-shifting film during additional plant growth cycles inside a glass research greenhouse. 6. Conduct lettuce growth experiments including additional greenhouse crops (i.e., culinary herbs like basil and floriculture crops like geranium). We will systematically evaluate crop growth and collect environmental data to improve the dynamic model's predicting power. 7. Prepare articles for peer-reviewed scientific journals and greenhouse trade magazines about recent results in regards to spectral-shifting and light-extracting films for crop growth. In the meantime, we will present our latest findings at international or regional conferences.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Development of Spectral-splitting and Light-converting Greenhouse Envelope Materials We have successfully fabricated large-area spectral-shifting and light extracting greenhouse envelope materials based on a solution method. Since last year, we have paid more attention to the concept demonstration of using the materials for crop growth in various growth environments. First, we demonstrated more than 20% of enhancement in biomass production of lettuce indoors under LED illuminations when the spectral-shifting and light-extracting films were incorporated between LED and crop. Secondly, we evaluated two cultivars of lettuce grown under the developed greenhouse envelopes. Despite the spectral-shifting material reduces the light intensity reaching the lettuce by ~25% (compared to the fluorophore-free material), we observed a yield increase by up to ~ 5-10%. Thirdly, we finished two replications of lettuce growth inside a greenhouse and one replication inside a controlled growth room at MSU. During these growth cycles in the summer with high solar irradiance, there were similar growth trends of lettuce to studies conducted in the winter (low solar irradiance). Generally, despite the reduction in transmitted light, lettuce grown under the spectral-shifting envelope had up to 20% greater yields. 2. Scalable Manufacturing and Reliability Testing of Greenhouse Envelope Materials The spectral-shifting and the unidirectional light-extracting film could be easily manufactured in the lab on basis of a solution method. The solution-based methods show promise for scalable fabrication of the films. As greenhouse envelope materials, more than 100 m2 films were fabricated. To test the reliability of the materials, we integrated the film into four homemade growth chambers which were located inside a glass-glazed research greenhouse at MSU. We monitored spectral characteristics inside the growth chambers over several growth cycles of lettuce. The experimental data show no discernable degradation of the fluorophore-doped greenhouse covering materials, nor the loss of the material's flexibility. Similar results were obtained at Boulder, Colorado when the films were exposed to natural sunlight for more than 120 days. The fluorophore-doped film shows excellent durability upon continuous exposure. 3. Development of Solar Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) Water Purification Subsystem We have fabricated an innovative solar Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) desalination system which consists of three major components including a solar receiver that heats water for the evaporator, an evaporator to generator air-vapor for the condenser, and a condenser that produces freshwater. Both the system and individual component was further developed toward high purification efficiency. A novel solar receiver adopting the NIR cut-off film has been modeled, analyzed, and built. The solar panel, as the rooftop of a greenhouse, can produce hot water, transmit most of PAR, and reduce the cooling load of the greenhouse at the same time. A 1D thermal model has been proposed to predict the performance of the novel solar receiver, and a model to predict the optical properties of the panel has also been proposed. The results of 1D thermal performance analysis have been compared with 2D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation using software ANSYS Fluent, which match each other within small differences. A panel has been built and preliminarily tested, and the tested performance accords with the prediction using 1D model within a reasonable range of error. More experiments will be conducted in the following year. Intensive CFD analysis has been performed to develop a robust CFD framework to study diffusion-driven evaporation, which in the future will be a guide for details design of packed beds. The framework is applied toward the modeling of a direct contact evaporator for a counter-current Humidification-Dehumidification desalination system. 4. Advanced Greenhouse System Integration and Demonstration We conducted two growing cycles of lettuce at MSU tailored for incorporation into the dynamic greenhouse growth model being developed by project collaborators. Growth cycle data collected includes the physical characterization of lettuce growth and the hourly environmental conditions around lettuce plants. A comprehensive thermal model has been developed to evaluate the performance of the integrated greenhouse in terms of producing the required water and the reduction in cooling load. A C++ code was developed to numerically solve the equations required for the thermal modeling of the integrated greenhouse. The results demonstrate that the integrated greenhouse can produce up to 85% of the required water for tomato growth in the introduced sample greenhouse, while significantly reducing the cooling load. The current study can be further improved by implementing plant growth models in which a varying plant growth rate, variable water demand, and seasonal cultivation patterns can be embedded. A plant growth modeled in being implemented. A constant water demand (used in this study) overestimates the water demand and underestimates the ratio of water produced using the HDH system in the greenhouse. Additionally, a future study for various locations and plants can highlight the effectiveness of the proposed integrated greenhouse for different climates and different regions across the world. Finally, experimental validation of the proposed technology is required to verify the performance of the proposed model. 5. Dynamic Model and Decision Making for the Advanced Greenhouse Efforts include system modeling based on the energy and mass balance, modeling coupled with season-growing cycles and growing performance, developing multicriteria decision analysis for optimal greenhouse operation. The previous model has been improved with several new features that will make the model more accurate. First, an innovative solar panel that takes account of sun position over the year. At different locations on earth and different times of the year, the varying incident angle of solar radiation against the solar panel surface plays an important role in both thermal and optical performances. Therefore, adding the influence of sun position will significantly improve the accuracy of the system modeling. Second, the growth model of lettuce is implemented into the model, so the crop production can be estimated in the new system modeling. According to our plant grow experiment results, the growth model can precisely predict the production by adjusting some coefficients for different types of spectral-splitting and light-converting greenhouse envelope materials. In the end, as the plants grow, the leaf area and root depth also dynamically increase resulting in a dynamic water requirement. A model of water requirement prediction is also included in the system modeling. 6. Broader Impacts: Education, Outreach, and Broadening Participation Plan We have provided agricultural infrastructures and facilities at the MSU Plant Science Research Greenhouse range with unique opportunities for our engineering students to experience agriculture practice on the field, national and international collaboration, and outreach activity to grower community. Moreover, we further developed our walk-in indoor "greenhouse" in CU boulder to provide a stimulating environment for our students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden the horizons of their knowledge. Our team also supports opportunities for undergraduate students to practice greenhouse film fabrication, facility installation, and crop growth in a controlled growth environment.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Roy, C., Klausner, J.F., and Benard, A., Numerical study on the impact of fluid distribution on a counter-current direct contact evaporator, Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer, V 166, Feb 2021 (published online Nov. 2020).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Stallknecht, E. and Runkle, E.S., 2020. Oral presentation. Lettuce Growth Under an Experimental Fluorescent Film That Converts Blue and Green Radiation into Red Radiation. 2020 ASHS Annual Conference.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Shen, L., Lou, R., Runkle, E.S., etc.. Augmenting Photosynthesis using Spectral-shifting and Unidirectional Light-extracting Photonics. Under review.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Roy, C., Benard, Al, and Klausner, J.F., General mass transfer modeling for multiphase flows: VOF method with PLIC-1 and PLIC-2 schemes , Computational thermal sciences: An international journal, V.13, 2021, Issue 1. (Published online Oct. 2020).
|
Progress 12/15/18 to 12/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:To disseminate innovative materials for modern greenhouse technologies, we hold regular seminars/educational talks and an annual open house for the community of greenhouse growers and interested parties. The related subjects from both plant and engineering perspectives, such as the basics of greenhouse lighting, heating and cooling, irrigation, and envelope materials selection, as well as advanced greenhouse technologies, have been discussed with growers. Moreover, oral presentations are delivered during local or international conferences about our latest development with key results reported in international journals. Locally, a group of undergraduate student assistants, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers were trained with multidisciplinary knowledges covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production and recent advances in energy and materials for potentially disruptive agriculture technologies. Leveraging the state-of-art agricultural infrastructure and facilities at the MSU Plant Science Research Greenhouse range, we provide unique opportunities for engineering students to experience agricultural practice at the Greenhouse facility during the summer seasons. Involvement in the field promotes valuable interactions between engineering and agricultural student researchers. These personal experiences educate future engineers with global picture of the urgency of agriculture revolution. Moreover, several lectures in ME 416 Computed Aided Design of Thermal Systems class at the MSU are dedicated to modeling building energy consumption and the greenhouse project is presented during a lecture as an example of new developments in the field. To date, we have recruited four graduate students (one at CU-Boulder and three at MSU) and four post-doctoral research associates (two at CU-Boulder and two at MSU) in areas of INFEWS. The project also involves five undergraduate students (two at CU-Boulder and three at MSU). The project provides a stimulating environment for these students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden horizons of their knowledge. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our team offers multidisciplinary education experiences for researchers at all levels including five undergraduate research assistants (two at CU-Boulder and three at MSU), four graduate students (two students at CU-Boulder and two at MSU) and four post-doctoral research associates (two at CUB and two at MSU) being recruited in areas of INFEWS. The INFEWS project provides a stimulating environment for these students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden horizons of their knowledge. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Regular seminars have been organized at CU-Boulder and MSU for students and local communities of interest. Several lectures inME 416 Computed Aided Design of Thermal Systemsclass at the MSU are dedicated to modeling building energy consumption. The greenhouse project is presented during a lecture as an example of new developments in the field.Furthermore, oral presentations are give at local or international conferences, for instance, American Society for Horticultural Science annual conference in Las Vegas and ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference (SHTC) 2019: K20 - Application of Computational Heat-Transfer.Our recent results related to this project are also be summarized and submitted to scientific Journal for publication to spread technologic knowledge for other researchers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. Perform accelerated weathering tests and long-term exposure tests for the spectrum-converting greenhouse polymer films. 2. Fabricate greenhouse envelope materials using R2R embossing procedures and blade coating processes. 3. Evaluate the performance of the batch-processed envelope materials for the greenhouse testbed deployment (~ 195 ft2 each greenhouse span). 4. Investigate the effects NIR-absorbing film on water heating efficiency and therefore on HDH water purification system. 5. Develop a comprehensive thermal model to evaluate the performance of the integrated greenhouse in terms of producing the required water and the reduction in cooling load. 6. Verify the performance of the proposed model by experimental validation.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Development of Spectral-splitting and Light-converting Greenhouse Envelope Materials We have successfully fabricated green-to-red spectrum-converting polymer films with desirable light extraction efficiency up to 64.5%, i.e. approximately a 4-folds enhancement compared to that of plain film (13.0%) last year using cellulose acetate (CA) as polymer substrate and rhodamine B (RhB) as light converting dye. This year, near-infrared (NIR) absorbing polymer films has been developed successfully, which enables us to harness more than 90% of the remaining approximately 50% of unused solar energy (750-4,000 nm) while to transmit light in the range of 400-750 nm for crop growth. To meet this goal, we incorporated two NIR-absorbing dyes in one PETG copolymer to achieve desirable spectral property. Currently, we are evaluating the performance of the NIR-absorbing films on water heating efficiency. 2. Scalable Manufacturing and Reliability Testing of Greenhouse Envelope Materials In the past experiments, we have demonstrated a solution-based method for fabricating large-area films. The film could be batch-processed easily by well-developed blade-coating method using a precisely manufactured replica mold. Up to date, we have fabricated about 100 m2 films. These films have been routinely integrated in the walk-in growing chambers as roof materials for crop production. Moreover, we realized that both the CA and the RhB possess poor long-term reliability, and more importantly, the emission spectrum of RhB does not match well with the action spectrum of green crop which is expected to achieve negative effects on augmenting crop yield. Therefore, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and perylene-based fluorescent dye (LF305) are selected in an attempt to achieve long-term durability and desired spectral conversion. The fluorescent PMMA films show an excellent photostability for more than 300 hours upon contiguous exposure under emulated sunlight with an energy dose of 1000 W/m2. 3. Development of Solar Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) Water Purification Subsystem The project INFEWS for Advanced Greenhouse involves the use of a humidifier-dehumidifier (HDH) desalination system. This system has two main tasks in this greenhouse. Firstly, it provides the fresh water that is suitable for crop growth out the brackish water and secondly it reduces the cooling load that is usually required for greenhouses located in areas with high sun exposure. Hence the dimensioning of the HDH unit is critical because it must be able to supply enough fresh water to feed crops. The state-of-the-art modeling is only taking interest into a macroscale modeling of this units which limits the efficiency enhancement compared to what a deeper understanding is likely to provide. A benchtop scale solar humidification-dehumidification (HDH) water purification system driven by a solar simulator has been fabricated and is currently being tested to guide the system design of innovative greenhouse technology for different climates. The heat and mass transfer coefficients and pressure drop for variable flow conditions through the evaporator and condenser can be measured. The experimental data will be used to calibrate existing correlations or develop new phenomenological models based on fundamental principles. The performance of the HDH facility will be experimentally measured for different solar heating profiles with and without the visible portion of the solar spectrum, and the system performance will be compared with the transient computational model. 4. Advanced Greenhouse System Integration and Demonstration We have completed a study indoors that emulated how a modified solar spectrum influences plant growth. In particular, we investigated how partially substituting green light with red light influenced plant growth, with and without far-red radiation. We grew young plants of lettuce and tomato indoors under lighting from LEDs in a controlled-environment growth room at 22 ºC. All nine lighting treatments provided a photosynthetic photon flux density of 180 µmol?m−2?s−1 for 18 hours per day. The substitution of green with red light had little or no effect on leaf number and leaf size of either crop, or fresh and dry weight of tomato. However, as more green light was substituted with red light, and in the presence of far-red radiation, fresh and dry weight of lettuce increased by up to 34% and 29%, respectively. The addition of far-red radiation promoted plant growth of lettuce and tomato, regardless of green-light and red-light treatments. For example, the addition of far red increased plant diameter of lettuce by 18-30%, fresh weight by 29-74%, and dry weight by 26-92%. These results show value in including of far red in a plant lighting spectrum, while from a growth standpoint, there is little to no value of including green radiation. In addition, we have built a walk-in indoor growth compartment with environmental controlled conditions to evaluate the performance of the developed spectrum-converting films on augmenting crop yield under LED light with sun-like spectrum. We observed the spectrum-converting films promote the biomass productivity of leafy green lettuce by more than 20% compared to the control. We are now performing an additional set of experiments inside the real greenhouse where the developed spectrum-converting films have been integrated as roof materials to investigate their performance in improving crop productivity. Two varieties of lettuce, a butter-head variety 'Rex' and red-leafed variety 'Cherokee' are selected as crop models under a spectral conversion film and a non-selective control film. Lettuces are currently being grown under larger chambers inside the greenhouses. To date, our project is on schedule. 5. Dynamic Model and Decision Making for the Advanced Greenhouse A novel integrated greenhouse concept is introduced in this project in which a spectral-splitting material is employed to reduce heat transfer to the greenhouse by utilizing part of the solar spectrum for heating a water solar collector and modifying solar spectrum to wavelengths propitious for plant growth. The solar collector is part of an integrated humidification-dehumidification system that can produce freshwater for plant irrigation from a variety of compromised water sources. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed integrated greenhouse, a multivariable thermal model is presented which includes modeling of the solar collector, the desalination system, and the greenhouse (accounting for the air, the soil, the plants, and the ground). A representative greenhouse is modeled and used to estimate freshwater production and reduction in cooling or heating loads. The model also allows evaluating the performance of the representative integrated greenhouse in various locations across the United States. The results indicate that the proposed greenhouse in Phoenix (Arizona, USA) can produce about 85% of required water for tomato growth, while reducing the cooling load by more than 25%.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Park, Y. and E.S. Runkle. Investigating the merit of including green and far-red radiation in plant growth of lettuce and tomato under sole-source lighting. American Society for Horticultural Science annual conference, Las Vegas, NV.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Roy, C. and Klausner, J.F., ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference (SHTC): K20 - Application of Computational Heat-Transfer
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Sina Jahangiri Mamouri, James F. Klausner, Ronggui Yang, X. Yang, and Andr� B�nard, Performance of an Integrated Greenhouse Equipped with Light-Splitting Material and an HDH Desalination Unit
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Validation of Evaporative Mass Transfer Modeling for Multiphase Flow Part 1: Exact Solutions for Fully Developed Laminar Duct and Pipe Flow
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Validation of Evaporative Mass Transfer Modeling for Multiphase Flow Part 2: VOF Method with PLIC-1 and PLIC-2 Schemes
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Lihua Shen, Runnan Lou, Erik Runkle, Ronggui Yang and Xiaobo Yin, Unidirectional light extracting Photonics for augmenting photosynthesis
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Ablimit Aili, Dongliang Zhao, Gang Tan, Xiaobo Yin, and Ronggui Yang, Reduction of Water Consumptionin Thermal Power Plants via Supplemental Radiative Sky Cooling
|
Progress 12/15/17 to 12/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience: The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), one of our supporters during the project initiation phase, is interested in facilitating the advanced greenhouse development with local Kuwaiti scientific and academic institutions since the technological development in advanced greenhouses could be critical to countries such as Kuwait, whose crop supplies are predominantly imported. Co-PI Yin was invited to the KFAS and presented at the Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (FOSEM) Symposium organized by the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in Kuwait City in Nov. 1018. Co-PI Yin had an in-depth discussion on the general research topic of advanced greenhouse with the Director General of KFAS, Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, the acting Research Director, Dr. Ameenah Farhan, and other KFAS managers. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, who fosters path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the special character of the San Francisco Bay Area. Co-PI Yin visit the Moore foundation and presented the advanced greenhouse concept to the science team and environmental conservation at the foundation. A group of undergraduate student researchers contributed to the projected and also were trained for professional knowledge covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production, recent developments in greenhouse technologies, and advances in energy and materials for potential agriculture technologies. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our team offers multidisciplinary education experiences for researchers at all levels including two graduate students (one PhD student at CU-Boulder and one at MSU) and two post-doctoral research associates (MSU) being recruited in areas of INFEWS. Our team also involves one undergraduate students with about 300 hours each of participation. The INFEWS project provides a stimulating environment for these students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden horizons of their knowledge. Monthly project meeting and regular seminar in the team will increase their professional knowledge covering the basics of energy and water consumption in agricultural food production, recent developments in greenhouse technologies, and advances in energy and materials for potential agriculture technologies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have emphasized on a continuous evaluation cycle with quantitative and qualitative assessment methods employed to assess the project's success in meeting its objectives. Students are tracked after exiting to the program to determine additional research activity including presentations at technical meetings. Mentors and associated faculty are also surveyed to provide additional perspectives on the program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?List of plans for the next reporting period: 1. Reliability and weathering test for the down-converting greenhouse polymer films including an accelerated weathering tests and long-term exposure tests. 2. Scalable manufacturing of greenhouse envelope materials using R2R embossing procedures 3. Testing of R2R processed envelope materials for the greenhouse testbed deployment (~ 195 ft2 each greenhouse span). 4. Spectral splitting between visible light and NIR spectrum 5. To understand the physiological response of crops like tomato and lettuce crops for maximal productivity with emulated lighting, and further to integrate our films into advanced greenhouse system 5. To optimize NIR solar-HDH water purification system and investigate its performance
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Greenhouses elongate the production season by creating optimal growth conditions within the house and improve water efficiency to reduce irrigation water withdrawal by ~ 70 % compared to open-field agriculture. To create a physiologically optimized environment for maximized crop quality and yields, greenhouse production is extremely energy intensive. Surprisingly, there have been very few technological developments for greenhouses over the past decade. Inefficient use of energy and water are common with contemporary techniques such as supplemental lighting and greenhouse cooling. An advanced energy-efficient greenhouse critically relies on the quality use of geoclimatic-dependent sunlight, utility energy, and water in-takes. While complicated and intrinsically intertwined, modeling the energy and mass balance within a greenhouse allows us to identify the most energy and water intensive processes associated with greenhouse food production, thus providing multi-criteria decision analysis to identify opportunities for improving energy and water efficiency. The main goal of this research effort is to exploit energy transport sciences to develop advanced energy and water efficient greenhouse technologies, which will be integrated and tested within an existing greenhouse facility managed by the team, for high-yield crop production--with little-to-no liquid discharge and fresh water intake, and > 50 % enhancement in photosynthetically efficient light. Major results relative to Objectives for the project: 1. Development of Spectral-splitting and Light-converting Greenhouse Envelope Materials We have successfully developed light-converting polymer films with light extraction efficiency of 64.5%, i.e. approximately a 4-folds enhancement compared to that of plain film (13.0%). To achieve the results, we incorporated well-designed spherical dome arrays on one side of films to enhance light extraction efficiency. Cellulose acetate (CA) and rhodamine B (RhB) are selected by taking material properties and specific application into account. We found that the patterned CA film doped with RhB absorbs most green photons and converts them to red light, which supplies an extra irradiance of 33.5 W/m-2 in the red-light wavelength range (600-700 nm), corresponding to a 25.8% enhancement compared to solar irradiance (AM1.5 Global) behind a clean CA film (129.5 W/m-2). For actual greenhouse applications, we have fabricated the film with a dimension of 9.8"×6.3" (250mm ×160mm). In addition, we are developing polymeric films to split the solar spectrum and to harness the remaining approximately 50% of unused solar energy (750-4,000 nm) to purify sufficient water to be used for crop production. 2. Scalable Manufacturing and Reliability Testing of Greenhouse Envelope Materials. For large scale manufacturing of the thin film greenhouse envelope materials, we will upgrade the existing roll-to-roll (R2R) instruments. The R2R manufacturing routes will be combined with an embossing procedure to achieve a pattern transfer. We are now contacting the suppliers to explore the possibility for a roller replacement. Moreover, we performed reliability testing of wafer-scale films. We observed that the halftime of RhB in CA film is less than 10 hours. For long-term applications, we are now developing a method to extend overall lifetime of the developed light-converting film. In addition, we have developed an accelerated chamber in the lab with controlled temperature, light intensity and moisture, which will be used for long-term reliability test for the films. 3. Development of Solar Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH) Water Purification Subsystem. To achieve highly efficient water purification, the systems-level knowledge base will be used to fabricate and test the coupled water purification and greenhouse systems. We have designed HDH components for improvements on the HDH evaporator and condenser performance, and optimization of HDH components is still in progress. 4. Advanced Greenhouse System Integration and Demonstration? To study the physiological response of crops in the advanced greenhouse, we focus on tomato and lettuce crops for maximal productivity with emulated lighting. "Warm crop" tomatoes are grown semi-hydroponically in rockwool slabs and water/fertilizer is provided intermittently based on crop needs (a function of ambient light and maturity). In the control treatment, supplemental lighting is delivered to crops and operate for up to 18 hours/day but only when the outdoor PPFD is < 250 µmol/m2s. The day/night temperature set points are 24/20 °C in all greenhouse sections. Similar experiments are also performed on "cool crop" lettuce; seedlings of three cultivars (two red-leaf varieties and one green variety) are raised as plugs and then transplanted into 11.5-cm pots and grown in each greenhouse section at a day/night of 18/16 °C, with the same photoperiod and supplemental lighting parameters as for tomato. We have demonstrated that green light is less efficient for selected crops compared to red light. Next, the scalable manufactured greenhouse envelope materials will be ready to be integrated into the greenhouse system. 5. Dynamic Model and Decision Making for the Advanced Greenhouse. Eliminating or at least minimizing the energy inefficient processes will substantially improve the overall efficiency of the greenhouse. Currently, we have developed down-converting polymer films which absorb most useless green light and re-emit photosynthetically efficient red light. For the remaining 50% of light above 750 nm, it will be concentrated for water purification. Therefore, models will be developed to study energy efficiency of the advanced greenhouse with spectral-splitting and HDH water purification systems. Most importantly these models will quantify the impact of energy and water use due to the innovative greenhouse technology developed in this work will have in local growing regions with specific climatic constraints. 6. Broaden Project Impact through Education and Outreach Activities. We will develop a transformational greenhouse system with the potential for > 50 % improvement in efficient photosynthesis light and little-to-no fresh water consumption. Since water resources are rapidly becoming scarce in arid regions of the US and the world, these developments will promote the economic competitiveness of the United States and reconcile the severe food, energy, and water security challenges across the globe. Two graduate students (one PhD student at CU-Boulder and one at MSU) and two post-doctoral research associates (MSU) are recruited in areas of INFEWS. Our team also involves one undergraduate students with about 300 hours each of participation. The INFEWS project provides a stimulating environment for these students and post-doctoral trainees to cross disciplinary boundaries and broaden horizons of their knowledge.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Shanshan Xu, Dongliang Zhao, Lixin Yang, Xuehu Ma, Wei Liu*, Yung-Cheng Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Sustaining enhanced condensation on hierarchical mesh-covered surfaces [Link], National Science Review, 2018. DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwy098. (Published online.)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Xuehu Ma, Yung-Cheng Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Liquid-vapor phase-change heat transfer on functionalized nanowired surfaces and beyond [Link], Joule, 2018, 2(11): 2307-2347.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Shanshan Xu, Yung-Cheng Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Capillary-driven liquid film boiling heat transfer on hybrid mesh wicking structures [Link], Nano Energy, 2018, 51: 373-382.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Shanshan Xu, Yung-Cheng Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Hierarchical microporous surfaces for enhancing capillary boiling heat transfer, ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE), Pittsburgh, PA, USA, November 9-15, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Yung-Cheng Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Sucking-flow condensation heat transfer on hierarchical structured surfaces, ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE), Pittsburgh, PA, USA, November 9-15, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Shanshan Xu, Yung-Cheng Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Capillary evaporation and boiling heat transfer on hybrid wicking structures, 16th International Heat Transfer Conference (IHTC 2018), Beijing, China, August 10-15, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Rongfu Wen, Shanshan Xu, Yung-Cheng, Lee, Ronggui Yang*, Capillary boiling heat transfer on hierarchical microporous surfaces, Twentieth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, Boulder, CO, USA, June 24-29, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Xiaobo Yin, the 6th Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (FOSEM) Symposium organized by the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Jahangiri Mamouri, Sina, Klausner, J.F., Yang, R.,, and Benard, A. Performance of a Greenhouse Equipped with Light-Splitting Material and Desalination Unit Presented at the International Mechanical Engienering Conference IMECE2018, Nov. 2018, Pittsburgh, PA
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Roy, Cleman, and Klausner, J.F., CFD Modelling of Counter-Current Packed Bed for HDH Desalination System Presented at the International Mechanical Engienering Conference IMECE2018, Nov. 2018, Pittsburgh, PA
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