Modeling of a Solar-Aided Heating and Cooling System with Thermal Energy Storage for a Sustainable Agricultural Greenhouse

Abstract

Greenhouses, a primary feature of sustainable agriculture, necessitate sophisticated climate management due to the intricacies of heat and mass transfer processes. Computational modeling tools are utilized to simulate the microclimate within greenhouses under different design scenarios, determine heating and cooling loads, and ascertain optimal control strategies. The current study develops a novel simulation model of a solar-assisted chiller and heat pump system with a thermal energy storage unit for heating, cooling, and ventilation of a climate-controlled agricultural greenhouse. A comprehensive study of the thermal impact of ventilation control and shade cloth, which are passive air conditioning methods used in greenhouses, is conducted using the inhouse code developed in MATLAB. The greenhouse air conditioning system's energy consumption is reduced from 160,447.9 to 80,540.3 kWh by implementing ventilation control and shade cloth. This also leads to a reduction in carbon emissions from 86,882.5 to 43,612.6 kg-CO2 by 49.8 %.