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With the increase in world population, the continued advances in modern greenhouse agriculture and plant growth practices are expected to help overcome the global problem of future food shortages. The next generation greenhouse design practices will need to address a range of issues, ranging from energy and land use efficiency to providing plant-op...
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... meter was used to directly quantify the power consumed (W), as well as the voltages and currents required by the power supplies of the lighting appliances in each tent. The three lighting configurations were comparable (almost identical) in terms of power consumption, as outlined in Table 1. Therefore, using the more complex lighting appliance configuration employing an optimized triple-wavelength combination source has maintained essentially the same energy-efficiency as a common white light LED source. ...Context 2
... meter was used to directly quantify the power consumed (W), as well as the voltages and currents required by the power supplies of the lighting appliances in each tent. The three lighting configurations were comparable (almost identical) in terms of power consumption, as outlined in Table 1. Therefore, using the more complex lighting appliance configuration employing an optimized triple-wavelength combination source has maintained essentially the same energy-efficiency as a common white light LED source. ...Similar publications
In the Mediterranean region, tomato plants are often cultivated in two short cycles per year to avoid the heat of summer and the low solar radiation of winter. Supplementary light (SL) makes it possible to cultivate during the dark season. In this experiment, a tomato F1 hybrid cultivar DRW7723 was cultivated in a greenhouse for a fall-winter cycle...
Citations
... Greenhouses have revolutionized agriculture, boosting productivity compared to traditional methods. These controlled environments allow precise climate control, extending growing seasons and enabling year-round cultivation [11]. Protection from pests and diseases reduces reliance on pesticides and enhances crop health [12]. ...
... In developed countries, nowadays, most high-rise buildings and other modern infrastructures use more thin-film-coated glass panels and modern glazing windows to save energy towards achieving the smart-city concept [55,56]. Even spectrally selective thin-film-coated glass panels are also used in many greenhouse projects for agriculture, as the properties (transmittance, reflectance, and absorption) of thin-film coatings can be tailored according to the plant's growth requirement [57][58][59][60][61]. The energy-saving potential of advanced coated glass products was illustrated by Nur-E-Alam et al. [34], in terms of performing solar heat filtration through a simple generic thin-film coating on the glass. ...
The electricity crisis is a common issue in Bangladesh; however, recently the electricity scenario has been getting worse due to various reasons including power generation and distribution all over the country. Meanwhile, the large number of people requires a huge amount of energy which is not possible to be met by the national grid due to the limited power generation from different plants. Among all renewable energy sources, the solar photovoltaics (PV) system is the best choice as a generation source, either off-grid or with a grid-tied connection, to reduce the pressure on the national grid. In Bangladesh, there are more than 175,000 schools, and it is possible to generate a huge amount of renewable (solar) power to supply all the schools by using rooftop PV systems. We propose a new approach that combines solar energy harvesting and savings to make the schools self-sufficient and energywise. We performed a Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) pro simulation and find that it was possible to generate approximately 200 megawatts (MW) of power. We conducted a feasibility study on generating power from rooftop PV systems on school buildings and reduced the power consumption using retrofitted thin-film-coated glass by around 16-20% per day depending on the school size, which can help the national power grid system by either making all the schools off-grid or grid-connected to supply power to the national grid. In addition, we perform a HelioScope simulation to investigate the maximum upscaling of PV sizing for the rooftops of school buildings in Bangladesh to realize how to make each school a mini solar power station in the future. The HelioScope simulation performance showed that it was possible to generate approximately 96,993 kWh per year from one school building.
... In developed countries, nowadays, most high-rise buildings and other modern infrastructures use more thin-film-coated glass panels and modern glazing windows to save energy towards achieving the smart-city concept [55,56]. Even spectrally selective thin-film-coated glass panels are also used in many greenhouse projects for agriculture, as the properties (transmittance, reflectance, and absorption) of thin-film coatings can be tailored according to the plant's growth requirement [57][58][59][60][61]. The energy-saving potential of advanced coated glass products was illustrated by Nur-E-Alam et al. [34], in terms of performing solar heat filtration through a simple generic thin-film coating on the glass. ...
... Calibration Factor = Object length in cm/Object pixels number (1) Distance in cm = Distance in pixels × Calibration Factor ...
Aeroponics is a soilless cultivation technology integrating plant nutrition, physiology, ecological environment, agricultural automation and horticulture. One of the soilless advantages is that a non-invasive observation of the root system growth development is possible. This paper presents a vegetative growth evaluation of lettuce plants in an aeroponic chamber, where root and leaf development parameters were measured in three lettuce crops through plant images captured in the visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR) and far infrared (IR) spectra. A total of ninety lettuce plants was transplanted for this research, thirty for each experimental crop. The three lettuce crops were grown for thirty days in an aeroponic growth plant chamber inside a greenhouse under favorable conditions. The morphometric and thermal parameters of the lettuce roots (perimeter, area, length and average temperature) and leaves (perimeter, area and average temperature) were evaluated for each crop along ten image-capturing sessions through an implemented multispectral vision system. The average values of the root and leaf morphometric parameters obtained with the implemented imaging system along the lettuce growing period were statistically analyzed with Tukey testing. The obtained analysis results show no significant difference for a value of p ≤ 0.05 in 86.67%. Hence, the morphometric parameters can be used to characterize the vegetative lettuce growth in aeroponic crops. On the other hand, a correlation analysis was conducted between the thermal parameters computed with the root and leaf thermal image processing and the measured ambient temperature. The results were: R = 0.945 for correlation between ambient and leaf temperature, R = 0.963 for correlation between ambient and root temperature and R = 0.977 for leaf and root temperature. According to these results, the plant temperature is highly correlated with the ambient temperature in an aeroponic crop. The obtained study results suggest that multispectral image processing is a useful non-invasive tool to estimate the vegetative root and leaf growth parameters of aeroponic lettuce plants in a greenhouse.
... Crops, such as corn, rice, tomato, and lettuce, are vulnerable to climate change resulting in lower biomass production [5], [9], [10]. The initial tendency to improve crop quality is through adjusting the irrigation and fertigation [11], air velocity [12], and spectral filters [13]. When the temperature rises to 30 °C in long term scenario, many leafy vegetables experience retardation in growth, and the worst is they will naturally speed up the senescence stage. ...
... This means that when plants are exposed to 4 in proximity to a light source emitting significant infrared, heat energy may cause it to exhibit leaf discoloration, spreading of nodes, and the worst is killing the plant. This measured incident radiation from the artificial light source is different from the far-infrared radiation (FIR) suitable for plant leaves as it is reported to yield no tissue irritation due to lower energy composition [13,[19][20]22]. Violet spectrum consistently exhibited the lowest intensity and Vis/IR for all proximities. ...
Optimizing photosynthesis is vital in maintaining quality farm produce in the agricultural food production sector. The nonlinear behavior of the interaction of crop pre-harvest growth factors can promote or retard its growth. This study employed multigene symbolic regression genetic programming (MSRGP) in developing the chlorophyll-a fitness function allied with bioinspired algorithms, namely genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and multiverse optimization (MVO), in determining the ideal combination of carbon dioxide, light intensity, air temperature, and humidity that will induce photosynthesis based on aquaponic lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. Altima) leaf chlorophyll-a concentration. Light spectra were characterized through the floating leaf disk technique, which resulted in white spectra as the most photosynthetic conducive based on the light reaction and dark respiration. Leaf spectro-textural-morphological signatures were extracted for non-destructive MSRGP chlorophyll-a concentration measurement. Carbon dioxide and humidity have a strong positive impact on chlorophyll-a concentration. Photosynthesis is impeded by Vis/IR above 7.817. The hybrid MSRGP-MVO generated the ideal global solution of 880.744 ppm of CO2, 543.147 μmol m-2 s-1 of the visible white light spectrum, 22.238 °C air temperature, and 67.742% humidity which resulted in 651.144 mg g-1 of Chl-a, 0.934 leaf weight ratio, 0.066 roots to shoot ratio, 141 xylem vessels mm-2 127.389 stomata mm-2, and more prominent intracellular chloroplast concentration for the harvest stage lettuce. The established standard for fresh weight, chlorophylls a and b, and vitamin C concentrations are essential for developing an adaptive nutrient management system to maintain the expected growth signatures of lettuce at the end of the 6-week cultivation cycle.
... It is traditionally used fresh. Its consumption has a beneficial effect on human health [2]. Celeriac (Apium graveolens L.) is a plant species of the family Apiaceae. ...
Seed treatments with zinc, boron, biostimulant Coveron and MIX (zinc + boron + Coveron) were applied to three lettuce and three celeriac cultivars. Seeds of three wheat cultivars were treated under laboratory conditions with Trichoderma harzianum and eight Bacillus spp. Seed germination, seedling growth, and the presence of the following pathogens were determined: Fusarium sp., Alternaria sp., Penicillium sp., and Mucor sp. The Coveron treatment was the most effective on lettuce seeds tested in the germination cabinet. Seed germination was higher by 4% than in the control. Alternatively, germination of seeds treated with boron in the greenhouse was higher by 12% than in the control. The Coveron treatment had the highest effect on the shoot length, which was greater by 0.7 and 2.1 cm in the germination cabinet and the greenhouse, respectively. This treatment was also the most effective on the root length. Zn, B, and MIX treatments increased celeriac seed germination by 14% in the germination cabinet. The Zn treatment was the most efficient on seeds tested in the greenhouse. The germination was higher by 15%. A significant cultivar × treatment interaction was determined in both observed species under both conditions. The maximum effect on wheat seed germination (8%) was achieved with the T. harzianum treatment in the Salazar cultivar. A significant interdependence (p ≤ 0.01 to p ≤ 0.001) was established between seed germination and the seedling growth. The interrelationship between seed germination and pathogens of all cultivars was negative.
... Besides all other costs, such kinds of facilities require a massive budget for energy consumption to regulate as well as maintain adequate temperature, relative humidity, and ventilation. In recent years, energy cost efficiency becomes a key factor for sustainable food and crop storage facilities worldwide, which has stimulated many scientists' enthusiasm to introduce more off-grid, self-sustainable energy-harvesting and saving facilities [7][8][9][10][11]. Hybrid (PV, Wind, Diesel and Battery) power generation systems have recently become very promising for 100% electrification for the rural or remote island areas. ...
This paper reports on the optimization of thin-film coating-assisted, self-sustainable, off-grid hybrid power generation systems for cattle farming in rural areas of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a lower middle-income country with declining rates of poverty among its 160 million people due to persistent economic growth in conjunction with balanced agricultural improvements. Most of the rural households adopt a mixed farming system by cultivating crops and simultaneously rearing livestock. Among the animals raised, cattle are considered as the most valuable asset for the small-/medium-scale farmers in terms of their meat and milk production. Currently, along with the major health issue, the COVID-19 pandemic is hindering the world's economic growth and has thrust millions into unemployment; Bangladesh is also in this loop. However, natural disasters such as COVID-19 pandemic and floods, largely constrain rural smallholder cattle farmers from climbing out of their poverty. In particular, small-and medium-scale cattle farmers face many issues that obstruct them from taking advantage of market opportunities and imposing a greater burden on their families and incomes. An appropriate measure can give a way to make those cattle farmers' businesses both profitable and sustainable. Optimization of thin-film coating-assisted, self-sustainable, off-grid hybrid power generation system for cattle farming is a new and forward-looking approach for sustainable development of the livestock sector. In this study, we design and optimize a thin-film coating-assisted hybrid (photovoltaic battery generator) power system by using the Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER, Version 3.14.0) simulation tool. An analysis of the results has suggested that the off-grid hybrid system is more feasible for small-and medium-scale cattle farming systems with long-term sustainability to overcome the significant challenges faced by smallholder cattle farmers in Bangladesh.
... Since the discovery of solar cells in the 19th century, they have been widely used in various renewable energy generation projects including solar farms, roof-top installations, portable solar battery bank systems, and spacecraft [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Recently, solar cells have also been used in building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) systems for harvesting solar energy, towards the goal of self-sustainable modern infrastructures, such as glass-greenhouse, bus stops, and smart building components i.e., energy generating and saving PV glass [18][19][20][21][22][23]. However, scientists and researchers around the world are still conducting research in this area, including the development of various types of solar cells and focusing on improving the conversion efficiency as well [15,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. ...
This paper mainly focuses on increasing the conversion efficiency of GaAs solar cells by reducing the light reflection losses. The design of nano-structured gratings and their light trapping performance are modelled and optimised by using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The sunlight directly impinges on the solar panel or cells, then a portion of the incident sunlight reflects back to the air from the surface of the panel, thus leading to a reduction in the light absorption capacity of the solar cells. In order to proliferate the light absorption capacity of solar cells nano-grating structures are employed, as they are highly capable of capturing the incident sunlight compared to a conventional (or flat type) solar cell, which results in generating more electrical energy. In this study, we design three different types of nano-grating structures, optimise their parameters and their performance in light capturing capacity. From the simulation results, we confirm that that it is possible to reduce light reflection losses up to 27%, by using the nano-grating structures, compared to conventional type solar cells. This reduction of reflection losses helps to improve the conversion efficiency of next-generation GaAs solar cells significantly for a sustainable green Earth.
Greenhouse horticulture grows increasingly important due to its ability to provide a controlled microclimate which is optimizable for highly efficient crop growth and resource use, although it may come at a significant energy and investment cost. One of the most crucial inputs in any greenhouse is sunlight, giving free energy and light for greenhouse crop growth. However, it is enormously variable, both geographically and seasonally. This review discusses materials and technologies usable in greenhouse cover and screen materials which can passively manipulate the incident sunlight to transmit a light spectrum that is ideal for crop growth, thereby improving the yield, and for greenhouse microclimate management, thereby reducing the energy usage of greenhouses. The current status of spectrum‐manipulating technology in greenhouses, developments over the last few years, some potential innovations adaptable from diverse fields to greenhouse horticulture, and the associated challenges, are discussed.
We report the effects of the substrate deposition temperature on the photovoltaic performance of fullerene (C60) thin films. These thin films were deposited via thermal evaporation at substrate temperatures from 20 to 250 °C. The optical and electrical properties of the films were dependent on the substrate deposition temperature, and improvements in film optical properties were noted for certain temperatures. Both the optical constants n and k and the dielectric constants show theoretical and experimental decreases with the substrate temperature due to the creation of crystalline structures in the thin films. Despite differences between the theoretical and experimental optical constants, the nature of the decrease is similar. The film porosity calculated from the optical constants increased more than 50% for greater substrate temperatures. The conductivity of the films also increased with the substrate temperature and the activation energy ranged from 0.25 to 0.31 eV. We demonstrate an increased energy gap with temperature using a Tauc-plot, and the photopic and solar transmittances improved with the increased substrate temperature during deposition.
