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Performance Evaluation of an Evaporative Pad Greenhouse System for Utilization of Power Plant Reject Heat¹

ABSTRACT

The overall performance of an evaporative pad greenhouse is considered in terms of the pad heat and mass transfer, the energy budget of the vegetation, and the performance of the power plant. An analytical predictive model for the pad performance was developed utilizing the Merkel total heat approximation. Data obtained from actual greenhouse performance provides an experimental verification of the pad model. Energy balance considerations on the vegetation provide a means of viewing optimal plant growth in terms of the power plant energy dissipation. In general, the results indicate that when an evaporative pad greenhouse system is used for waste heat dispersal, the vegetation can be maintained within its thermal requirement zone, crop irrigation requirements are significantly reduced, and the power plant performance is comparable with conventional closed loop heat rejection systems.

Key Words: waste heat utilization • thermal vegetation model

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of Calif., Berkeley, CA 94720.

² Graduate Research Assistant (present address Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.) and Professor, respectively.

Received for publication May 16, 1975.