Modelling of a Liquid Desiccant System for Northern Community Greenhouses

加拿大北方偏远社区的气候使种植当地食品变得困难。此外，与其他社区的距离很远，缺乏交通基础设施，使购买新鲜农产品的费用昂贵。为了解决这个问题，Cindar Power Developments Inc.正在开发一种新的高性能温室，用于北方气候。新的温室设计将与一个高效的木材气化热电厂相结合。高性能温室将使用一种新的、超低压降的液体干燥剂除湿系统，该系统将被开发用于处理高潜在的（即，温室负荷。液体干燥剂系统使用吸水盐溶液来降低空气湿度。这比传统的依靠过冷来去除水分的蒸汽压缩除湿器使用更少的电能。所需的主要能量输入是热量，用于将干燥剂溶液中的水分排出到室外空气中。这些热量将由高效热电厂提供。这个NSERC参与赠款汇集了皇后和辛达电力发展公司的研究人员。女王大学的研究人员在新型液体干燥剂系统的建模和评估方面拥有丰富的经验，Engage基金将允许在北方气候条件下研究新温室和液体干燥剂系统的性能。该项目的完成将使辛达在不久的将来在安大略西北部社区建立一个试验工厂。该设施应提供低成本的新鲜农产品、供暖和供电，以及社区就业机会。

The climate of remote northern Canadian communities makes growing local foodstuffs difficult. Additionally,the long distances to other communities and the lack of transportation infrastructure make the purchase of freshproduce expensive. To solve this problem, Cindar Power Developments Inc. is developing a newhigh-performance greenhouse for use in northern climates. The new greenhouse design will be coupled with ahigh-efficiency, wood-gasification cogeneration power plant. The high-performance greenhouse will make usea new, ultra-low pressure-drop, liquid desiccant dehumidifier system that will be developed to handle the highlatent (i.e., dehumidification) greenhouse loads. Liquid desiccant systems use water absorbing salt solutions toreduce air humidity. This uses less electrical energy than traditional vapour-compression dehumidifiers thatrely on overcooling to remove moisture. The main energy input required is heat, which is used to reject themoisture from the desiccant solution to the outdoor air. This heat will be supplied from the high-efficiencycogeneration plant. This NSERC Engage grant brings together researchers from Queen's and Cindar PowerDevelopments Inc. Queen's researchers have extensive experience in the modelling and evaluation of novelliquid desiccant systems and the Engage funding will allow the performance of the new greenhouse and liquiddesiccant system to be studied under Northern climatic conditions. Completion of this project will allow Cindarto build a pilot plant in a North-Western Ontario community in the near future. This facility should providelow-cost fresh produce, heat and electricity, as well as jobs in the community.