Solar-Driven Hybrid Atmospheric Water Generator with Energy Storage and Supplemental Lighting for Greenhouse Climate Control

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Freshwater is becoming a scarce commodity as climate change, man-made pollutants entering the water system, and over-withdrawal of existing aquifers are placing enormous strain on freshwater supplies. Based on the United Nation reports, more than 48 countries will face serious water scarcity by 2025 and the global water crisis was identified as the highest risk in terms of impact at the 2015 World Economic Forum. With an estimated 12,800 trillion liters of renewable water held in the atmosphere, atmospheric water generation will be one of the reliable technologies to address future water crises. The proposed equipment is based on the Hybrid Atmospheric Water Generation (HAWGen) technology, recently invented and patented at Dr. Bahrami’s Laboratory for Alternative Energy Conversion (LAEC) at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and will allow an array of cutting-edge research projects to investigate and advance water harvesting and climate control technologies. The proposed equipment will be used to develop a facility utilizing solar energy to extract humidity from air and provide potable water in addition to climate control for sustainable food production in greenhouses under any climatic conditions. The HAWGen technology has proven more than 300% improvement in the water harvesting rate and up to 68% reduction in the energy consumption compared with conventional systems. The proposed equipment involves a variety of novel research disciplines and provides a platform for investigation into sustainable integrated “water-food-energy-climate control” nexus. The equipment will be designed and built at LAEC and includes: photovoltaic and thermal solar systems, vapor compression refrigeration system, water filtration, sorption-based humidity collector, graphite heat exchangers, programmable controller, and data acquisition system. It will essentially be used for ongoing and future projects in the applicant’s and co-applicants’ labs at SFU and University of Victoria (UVic), with focus on mathematical model validation, experimental investigation, material characterization, and performance optimization. The City of Surrey will provide access to their BioPod greenhouse for on-site testing of this novel water harvesting and climate control system. The clean-tech and agri-innovation are among the City’s current priorities, as food production plays a significant role in the City’s economy. Finally, the applicant has established successful research collaborations with a number of industrial partners, all of which will be significantly benefited by the investigations using the proposed equipment.