SolWaAg

Along with an increasing world-wide demand for food available at any time, problems in groundwater supply arise in numerous climatically favored growing regions. A sustainable approach for the greenhouse cultivation needs to be developed. This approach shall conserve groundwater resources and enable an efficient irrigation for the cultivation of food.

The objective of the joint project is to develop a suitable water recovery concept to save water in greenhouse cultivation and to realize the concept in a demonstrator, characterized by a high degree of irrigation in order to save water and to contribute to the conservation of the groundwater resources. The concept shall also show a high energetic efficiency to meet the requirements of an increasing world population and, at the same time, reduce the environmental impact.

Figure 1 shows a concept for water recovery, drafted by our project partner airwasol. In order to provide the required operating energy, highly efficient vacuum tube air collectors are used, developed and manufactured by airwasol.

IGTE are in charge of an in-depth monitoring of the operating parameters temperature and humidity in the air and soil in a greenhouse of a gardening company. The recorded data are the basis for the numerical simulation of the entire process to evaluate the thermal efficiency of the procedure.

01/10/2022 – 30/09/2024

Funding initiative: KMU-innovativ (English: small and medium-sized enterprises SME innovative)
Field of technology: Resource efficiency and climate protection
Field of application: Sustainable water management