Modelling of a Liquid Desiccant System for Northern Community Greenhouses

加拿大北部偏远地区的气候使得种植当地食品变得困难。此外，与其他社区的距离太远，缺乏交通基础设施，使得购买新鲜农产品变得昂贵。为了解决这个问题，Cindar电力开发公司正在开发一种适用于北方气候的新型高性能温室。新的温室设计将与高效的木材气化热电联产发电厂相结合。高性能温室将采用全新的超低压降液体干燥剂除湿系统，该系统将被开发用于处理高潜势（即除湿）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。这比传统的蒸汽压缩除湿机使用更少的电能，传统的蒸汽压缩除湿机依靠过冷来去除水分。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除到室外空气中。这些热量将由高效的热电厂提供。这项NSERC Engage资助将皇后大学和Cindar PowerDevelopments公司的研究人员聚集在一起。皇后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的资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。该项目的完成将允许cindara在不久的将来在安大略省西北部社区建立一个试点工厂。该设施应提供低成本的新鲜农产品、暖气和电力，并为社区提供就业机会。

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.