Water, land, and energy use efficiencies and financial evaluation of air conditioner cooled greenhouses based on field experiments

doi:10.1007/s40333-021-0060-y

Journal of Arid Land

2021, Vol. 13

Issue (4): 375-387 DOI: 10.1007/s40333-021-0060-y

Research article

Water, land, and energy use efficiencies and financial evaluation of air conditioner cooled greenhouses based on field experiments

Ibtihal AL-MANTHRIA¹, Abdulrahim M AL-ISMAILIA¹^,^*(

), Hemesiri KOTAGAMAB², Mumtaz KHANC³, L H Janitha JEEWANTHAD⁴^,⁵

¹Department of Soils, Water and Agricultural Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat PC123, Oman
²Department of Natural Resource Economics, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat PC123, Oman
³Department of Plant Science, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat PC123, Oman
⁴Centre for Future Materials, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD 4350, Australia
⁵School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD 4350, Australia

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Abstract

High temperature and humidity can be controlled in greenhouses by using mechanical refrigeration cooling system such as air conditioner (AC) in warm and humid regions. This study aims to evaluate the techno-financial aspects of the AC-cooled greenhouse as compared to the evaporative cooled (EV-cooled) greenhouse in winter and summer seasons. Two quonset single-span prototype greenhouses were built in the Agriculture Experiment Station of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, with dimensions of 6.0 m long and 3.0 m wide. The AC-cooled greenhouse was covered by a rockwool insulated polyethylene plastic sheet and light emitting diodes (LED) lights were used as a source of light, while the EV-cooled greenhouse was covered by a transparent polyethylene sheet and sunlight was used as light source. Three cultivars of high-value lettuce were grown for experimentation. To evaluate the technical efficiency of greenhouse performance, we conducted measures on land use efficiency (LUE), water use efficiency (WUE), gross water use efficiency (GWUE) and energy use efficiency (EUE). Financial analysis was conducted to compare the profitability of both greenhouses. The results showed that the LUE in winter were 10.10 and 14.50 kg/m² for the AC- and EV-cooled greenhouses, respectively. However, the values reduced near to 6.80 kg/m² in both greenhouses in summer. The WUE of the AC-cooled greenhouse was higher than that of the EV-cooled greenhouse by 3.8% in winter and 26.8% in summer. The GWUE was used to measure the total yield to the total greenhouse water consumption including irrigation and cooling water; it was higher in the AC-cooled greenhouse than in the EV-cooled greenhouse in both summer and winter seasons by almost 98.0%-99.4%. The EUE in the EV-cooled greenhouse was higher in both seasons. Financial analysis showed that in winter, gross return, net return and benefit-to-cost ratio were better in the EV-cooled greenhouse, while in summer, those were higher in the AC-cooled greenhouse. The values of internal rate of return in the AC- and EV-cooled greenhouses were 63.4% and 129.3%, respectively. In both greenhouses, lettuce investment was highly sensitive to changes in price, yield and energy cost. The financial performance of the AC-cooled greenhouse in summer was better than that of the EV-cooled greenhouse and the pattern was opposite in winter. Finally, more studies on the optimum LED light intensity for any particular crop have to be conducted over different growing seasons in order to enhance the yield quantity and quality of crop.

Key words： land use efficiency energy use efficiency water use efficiency gross water use efficiency financial evaluation air conditioner cooled greenhouse evaporative cooled greenhouse

Received: 15 March 2020 Published: 10 April 2021

Corresponding Authors:

About author: * Abdulrahim M Al-ISMAILIA (E-mail: abdrahim@squ.edu.om)

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	AL-MANTHRIA Ibtihal
	M AL-ISMAILIA Abdulrahim
	KOTAGAMAB Hemesiri
	KHANC Mumtaz
	JEEWANTHAD L H Janitha

Cite this article:

Ibtihal AL-MANTHRIA, Abdulrahim M AL-ISMAILIA, Hemesiri KOTAGAMAB, Mumtaz KHANC, L H Janitha JEEWANTHAD. Water, land, and energy use efficiencies and financial evaluation of air conditioner cooled greenhouses based on field experiments. Journal of Arid Land, 2021, 13(4): 375-387.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-021-0060-y OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2021/V13/I4/375

Fig. 1 Illustration of evaporative-cooled (EV-cooled) prototype greenhouse (a) and air conditioner-cooled (AC-cooled) prototype greenhouse (b). The EV-cooled greenhouse is equipped with a fan (A)-pad (B) evaporative cooling system, 200 μm? thick polyethylene plastic sheet (C), and two hydroponic irrigation system frames (D); the AC-cooled greenhouse is equipped with an air conditioner (E), 50 mm thick rockwool insulation material sheet and double layers of polyethylene plastic sheets (F), a small fan (G), two hydroponic irrigation system frames (D), and four different height levels red and blue light emitting diodes (LED) lights (H).

Table 1 Energy equivalents of different input and output values used in agricultural production

Table 2 Performance of the AC-cooled greenhouse and EV-cooled greenhouse in winter

Table 3 Initial capital and annualized investments of an AC-cooled greenhouse (18 m²) with lettuce production in winter

Table 4 Initial capital and annualized investments of an EV-cooled greenhouse with lettuce production in winter

Table 5 Agricultural budgets of the AC- and EV-cooled greenhouses in winter

Table 6 Performance of the AC- and EV-cooled greenhouses in summer

Table 7 Agricultural budgets of the AC- and EV-cooled greenhouses in summer

Fig. 2 Relationships of the internal rate of return (IRR) with sale price, yield and electricity cost after subsidy in the AC-cooled greenhouse (a, b and c, respectively) and EV-cooled greenhouse (d, e and f, respectively)


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