Progress 02/02/22 to 08/15/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The team presented work in national meetings, greenhouse growers and interested parties. The related subjects from both plant and engineering perspectives, such as greenhouse basics of lighting, heating and cooling, irrigation, intergrated water treatment (humdification /dehumidfication approach), and envelope materials selection, as well as advanced greenhouse technologies, have been discussed with growers. 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. We also modified plant growth models and this was presented in an horticultural journal well recognized in the field. We also integrated these plant growth models with greenhouse models and water purification systems. In the final stage, the team developed alternative solar water treatement that could be incorporated within the infrastructure of a greenhouse. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has contributed to the training of several PhD students (3) and threepostdoctoral associate (one only during the past summer). In addition we have invited undergraduate students during the summer semester to particate in data acquisition. We have presented our work in a variety of meetings ranging from horticultural meetings to engineerins societies. The work was also presented in several leading journals. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated to several professional societies that include the AIAA (American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), ASME (Americal Society of Mechanical Engineers) , and the ASTFE (American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Major goals of the project have been met and have been exceededby incorporating machine learning algorithms to reduce the computational time needed to estimate the performance of a water treatment system based on humidification / dehumidification system, and we have designed a number of systems that can be incorporated into a greenhouse or other buildings. This has spured innovation and led to publications incorporating solar air heaters into buildings (solar chimneys) and combining them with water treatment systems, We have published new plant growth models, and new greenhouse models that improve the accuracy of our prediction and that incroporate new approaches (film with spectral shifting capability) for improving plant growth. All of these models were validated by experiments for lettuce. A logical extension of this work would be to study the impact of modifiing the incoming spectrum on other crops (we have done preliminary studies on horticultural flowers). In summary, we have completed ourcomprehensive investigations of a novel energy-efficient integrated greenhouse that utilizes a semi-transparent solar water heater for the roof that provides even shading and reduces the cooling load, which is necessary given the harsh conditions a greenhouse would face in those regions, in addition to capability to treat and produce fresh water, through integration with direct-contact packed-bed HDH desalination system. Meticulous assessment of the system's behavior requires four validated models that estimates the plant growth under new spectra, predicts the thermal behavior of the innovative solar water heater, approximates the amount of water production, and performs a thermal assessment of the greenhouse. The innovative solar water heater splits incoming light using a light-shifting semi-transparent film, into useful photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and near-infrared (NIR) segments, which will be utilized for crop growth and water heating, respectively. We developed several experimental pilots of the proposed solar water heater to meticulously assess the behavior of the system for different conditions and various geometries. After that, we designed a measurement system tailored to the proposed configuration, to measure the thermal and optical parameters correlated with the experiment in realtime. Experimental evaluation of the obtained data suggests that PAR (400-700nm) transmittance reached a value of 0.5 when the incidence angle was less than 65°C, while the aggregate transmittance for the spectrum ranging from 300-2500nm registered as low as 0.3. Following the experimental study, we developed a transient mathematical model that predicts transmittance, absorptance, and reflectance of the heater, in addition to the thermal properties of the film and water. The validation of the proposed mathematical model suggested that the uncertainty of thermal properties prediction is around 5 to 10 percent, whereas for the optical properties, the model's predictions are in good accordance with the experimental data. As mentioned earlier, since the solar water heater shifts the spectrum of the incoming light, and considering the fact that the spectral distribution and photon flux density affect plant photosynthetic rate and morphology, it is necessary to modify the existing plant growth model to predict the growth yield under lighting conditions other than natural light. To achieve this, numerous experiments are carried out for a indoor-grown lettuce (Lactuca Sativa) to obtain some insight into broad impact of spectrum variation on the dry mass of the lettuce at the end of the cultivation period. Our preliminary analysis suggested that the predictions of lettuce dynamic growth model have an average error of 200 to 300%. We then propose a mathematical framework to predict the plant light use efficiency as a function of incoming light spectra. Since the light spectrum is a continuous distribution of wavelengths, we defined discrete features for spectral distribution and photon flux density, based on segments of spectrum (400-500 nm, 500-600 nm, 600-700 nm, 700-750 nm) that corresponds to different lights (blue, green, red, far-red). Using these discrete features, the proposed framework suggested a light-use efficiency for the modified spectrum that decreases the uncertainty of the dry mass predictions by a factor of 10. As one of the functionalities of the proposed greenhouse is its ability to treat water, we have continued our work to develop a high-fidelity model that predicts the capacity of greenhouse treated water based on the behavior of the semi-transparent solar water heater. Using our experimental data for different geometries of direct-contact packed-bed HDH desalination system, we implemented a machine learning algorithms to develop a high-fidelity data-driven surrogate model of the desalination system. The proposed model based on deep neural network architecture outperforms the existing mathematical model and estimates the output properties of the desalination system with 2 to 5 percent error. Using the validated models discussed above with a thermal model of the greenhouse utilized in previous study funded by USDA NIFA grant 2018-67003-27407, we performed a real-time assessment of the proposed greenhouse for a case study deployed in Phoenix Arizona. Our analysis suggested that the transparent solar water heater is able to increase the water temperature by up to 25°C, while allowing sufficient light to pass through to maintain plant growth. Furthermore, deploying the innovative solar water heater decreased the heating/cooling load required for the greenhouse at various times of the year by 30-50%, resulting in a more energy-efficient system.
Publications
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Abedi, M., Tan, X., Klausner, J.F., Benard, A.,
"Solar desalination chimneys: Investigation on the feasibility of integrating solar chimneys with humidificationdehumidification systems", Renewable Energy, Volume 202, Jan. 2023, pages 88-102.
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Abedi, M., Tan, X., Saha, P., Klausner, J.F., and Benard, A., "Design of a solar air heater for direct compact-bed humidification-dehumidification desalination system", Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 244, May 2024, 12270.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Abedi, M., Tan, X., Benard, A., "Optimization and sensitivity analysis of data-driven surrogate model of a condenser in a direct-contact packed-bed water desalination system", 9th thermal and fluids engineering conference, april 21-24, 2024
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Tan, X., Abedi, M., Klausner, J.F., Benard, A., "Modeling and experimental validation of light-splitting semi-transparent solar water heater using NIR cut-off film as the rooftop of a greenhouse for arid regions", Applied Energy, Volume 368, August 2024, 123489
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Progress 02/02/23 to 01/01/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Graduate students and a post-doctoral researcher contributed to the projects and also were trained for professional knowledges 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 presented our work in this year in journal publications and professional meetings. Changes/Problems:Changes in the PIs for this project have slowed progress toward realizing high performance desalination systems integrated with the green house, and improved modeling efforts. The PI was concerned about expenditures being unrecorded until the fall semester of 2023 and ensuring that we were not going over budget. We have supported this project in part from other sources (travel funds and TAs). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A PhD students, in part supported by teaching assistantship, continued to work on this project and the results were presented at professional meetings using funding from the universitiy and other discretionary sources. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes we have presented the results at professional meetings, see the list of publications (AIAA and ASME) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Complete testing and experimental validation of a new evaporator/condenser configuration for water treatment (or desalination) that makes the systems easier to integrate into buildings or structures such as greenhouses located near salt water, and incorporate this into our modeling of the integrated greenhouse with solar panels, plant growth, and thermal systems. This can be achieved during spring and summer semester and this will allow publication of results.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have continued our study on comprehensive investigations of a novel energy-efficient integrated greenhouse that utilizes a semi-transparent solar water heater for the roof that provides even shading and reduces the cooling load, which is necessary given the harsh conditions a greenhouse would face in those regions, in addition to capability to treat and produce fresh water, through integration with direct-contact packed-bed HDH desalination system. Meticulous assessment of the system's behavior requires four validated models that estimates the plant growth under new spectra, predicts the thermal behavior of the innovative solar water heater, approximates the amount of water production, and performs a thermal assessment of the greenhouse. The innovative solar water heater splits incoming light using a light-shifting semi-transparent film, into useful photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and near-infrared (NIR) segments, which will be utilized for crop growth and water heating, respectively. We developed several experimental pilots of the proposed solar water heater to meticulously assess the behavior of the system for different conditions and various geometries. After that, we designed a measurement system tailored to the proposed configuration, to measure the thermal and optical parameters correlated with the experiment in real-time. Experimental evaluation of the obtained data suggests that PAR (400-700nm) transmittance reached a value of 0.5 when the incidence angle was less than 65°C, while the aggregate transmittance for the spectrum ranging from 300-2500nm registered as low as 0.3. Following the experimental study, we developed a transient mathematical model that predicts transmittance, absorptance, and reflectance of the heater, in addition to the thermal properties of the film and water. The validation of the proposed mathematical model suggested that the uncertainty of thermal properties prediction is around 5 to 10 percent, whereas for the optical properties, the model's predictions are in good accordance with the experimental data. As mentioned earlier, since the solar water heater shifts the spectrum of the incoming light, and considering the fact that the spectral distribution and photon flux density affect plant photosynthetic rate and morphology, it is necessary to modify the existing plant growth model to predict the growth yield under lighting conditions other than natural light. To achieve this, numerous experiments are carried out for a indoor-grown lettuce (Lactuca Sativa) to obtain some insight into broad impact of spectrum variation on the dry mass of the lettuce at the end of the cultivation period. Our preliminary analysis suggested that the predictions of lettuce dynamic growth model have an average error of 200 to 300%. We then propose a mathematical framework to predict the plant light use efficiency as a function of incoming light spectra. Since the light spectrum is a continuous distribution of wavelengths, we defined discrete features for spectral distribution and photon flux density, based on segments of spectrum (400-500 nm, 500-600 nm, 600-700 nm, 700-750 nm) that corresponds to different lights (blue, green, red, far-red). Using these discrete features, the proposed framework suggested a light-use efficiency for the modified spectrum that decreases the uncertainty of the dry mass predictions by a factor of 10. Since one of the functionalities of the proposed greenhouse is its ability to treat water, we have continued our work to develop a high-fidelity model that predicts the capacity of greenhouse treated water based on the behavior of the semi-transparent solar water heater. Using our experimental data for different geometries of direct-contact packed-bed HDH desalination system, we implemented a machine learning algorithms to develop a high-fidelity data-driven surrogate model of the desalination system. The proposed model based on deep neural network architecture outperforms the existing mathematical model and estimates the output properties of the desalination system with 2 to 5 percent error. Using the validated models discussed above with a thermal model of the greenhouse utilized in previous study funded by USDA NIFA grant 2018-67003-27407, we performed a real-time assessment of the proposed greenhouse for a case study deployed in Phoenix Arizona. Our analysis suggested that the transparent solar water heater is able to increase the water temperature by up to 25°C, while allowing sufficient light to pass through to maintain plant growth. Furthermore, deploying the innovative solar water heater decreased the heating/cooling load required for the greenhouse at various times of the year by 30-50%, resulting in a more energy-efficient system. The investigated greenhouse design is able to sustain hydroponic lettuce cultivation, for example, throughout the year, and satisfy the potable water requirements, thus producing up to 400 kg of fresh lettuce per month.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Abedi, Mahyar, Xu Tan, Eric J. Stallknecht, Erik S. Runkle, James F. Klausner, Michael S. Murillo, and Andr� B�nard. "Incorporating the effect of the photon spectrum on biomass accumulation of lettuce using a dynamic growth model." Frontiers in Plant Science 14 (2023): 1106576
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Tan, Xu, Mahyar Abedi, James Klausner, and Andre Benard. "Modeling and Experimental Validation of Light-Splitting Semi-Transparent Solar Water Heater Using NIR Cut-Off Film as the Rooftop of a Greenhouse for Arid Regions." Manuscript submitted to Applied Energy.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Abedi, Mahyar, Xu Tan, James F. Klausner, Michael S. Murillo, and Andre Benard. "A comparison of the performance of a data-driven surrogate model of a dehumidifier with mathematical model of humidification-dehumidification system." In AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum, p. 2329. 2023
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Abedi, Mahyar, Xu Tan, James Klausner, and Andre Benard. "Integrated Greenhouse for Food and Water Production." In Heat Transfer Summer Conference, vol. 87165, p. V001T01A005. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2023.
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Progress 02/02/22 to 02/01/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Graduate students and a post-doctoral researcher contributed to the projects and also were trained for professional knowledges 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 presented our work in national meetings,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. 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:Both PIs at the University of Colorado left the school and moved abroad, which unfortunately resulted in significant delays in transfering the grant to MSU. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes we have presented results at the ASHS meeting and Dr Runkle held a workshop. Results were also presented in engineering meetings related to food/water/nergy production (ASTFE, APS, and ASME meetings). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Since the project is near it's completion, we will continue to prepare articles for peer reviewed scientific journals and greenhouse trade magazines about recent results in regards of spectral-shifting and light-extracting films for crop growth, and the integration of these systems into greenhouses. We plant to continue presenting ourfindings in international or regional conferences. We have also developed several models related to water treatment integrated with greenhouse and buildings (solar desalination chimneys for agriculture) that need to be further refined.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Dr Runkle and Mr Stallnecht continued to acquire data on lettuce growth and horticultural crops, then presented their data at the ASHS Annual meeting. We used the data collected to develop an improve model for plant growth that can account for a modified light spectrum. Some crops are sensitive to this and others, such as tomatoes, are not. The model is dramatically more accurate when compared to previous data for the lettuce crop studied. We plan to continue studying the impact of modifying the light spectrum on various crop and improving existing predictive models.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
M. Abedi, X. Tan, J.F. Klausner, A. Benard, "Solar Desalination Chimneys: Investigation on the feasibility of integrating solar chimneys with humidification-dehumidification systems", Renewable Energy, 202, 88-102.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Mahyar Abedi, Xu Tan, Eric J Stallknecht, Erik S Runkle, James F Klausner, Michael S Murillo, Andr� B�nard. "Incorporating the effect of the photon spectrum on biomass accumulation of lettuce using a dynamic growth model", Frontiers in Plant Science, V14, 1106576, 2023
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
E. Trallnkecht, E. Runkle, Red-fluorescent greenhouse plastic increases the biomass accumulation of crops by increasing photon interception", American Society of Horticultural Science, Annual Conference, 2022.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
E. Stallknecht, A.E. Kohler, E.S. Runkle, "Targeted applications of monochromatic blue light to increase lettuce yield and pigmentation", American Society of Horticultural Science, Annual Conference, 2022.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
M. Abedi, X. Tan, J. Klausner, and A. Benard, "Solar desalination Chimneys", Bulletin of the Americal Physical Society, 2022, APS Annual Conference.
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