15AGRITECHCAT3 WelChic - Welfare Enhanced Living Conditions for healthier Chickens

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The overall aim of the project is to develop and test an efficient and environmentally-friendly, precision engineering solution for cooling/heating to improve indoor air quality and thermal comfort to promote better animal welfare and productivity in poultry houses. The system will use a novel membrane -based dew point evaporative technology using water and air as the working fluids to provide thermal regulation and improved air quality in the summer period. In addition, a low-cost poly heat exchanger ready loop integrated solar roof collector will be used to harness solar energy to heat working fluid to drive a heat pump. This is an efficient method for providing heating requirements in poultry houses. The solar collector has a simple design with direct integration in the poultry house roof. The project will involve the design, construction and testing of a prototype cooling/heating system. The new system will provide an environmentally friendly and economic solution to compete with traditional HVAC systems. The support from the Innovate UK grant will ensure this technology is developed in the UK creating over 20 UK jobs and tax revenue giving a 20 to 30 times return on the Innovate UK investment, over the 2-5 years after the project completes.