Investigation of Evaporative Cooling Pad Material from Hyphaene Thebaica Fibers

Abstract

Evaporative coolers are technologies highly used as a source of thermal comfort in terms of fresh air provider in areas where weather conditions are harsh and people living standard goes from medium to low earnings. This technology being environmentally friendly still requires a certain minimum maintenance, mostly the change of pads. This paper presents the performance of a cost-effective cooling pad made from the fibers of hyphanene thebaica (wood wool) as an alternative pad to the commercial ones rendering this technology more accessible and affordable for all social classes. The experiment was done in an insulated duct whereby thermodynamic parameters of locally made pad such as temperature, pressure, relative humidity and velocity, were recorded, and effect of physical properties on performances were analyzed. Compared to the commercial pad, the proposed local pad presented the lowest minimum outlet dry bulb temperature (20.00oC), a saturation efficiency of 78.80% with the highest cooling capacity of 0.1867 kW, the highest heat transfer coefficient of 7.3497 kW/m2 oC, the best cost-to-efficiency ratio (CER) and coefficient of performance (COP). By studying and improving the pads thermophysical characteristics, performance could be improved opening ways towards industrial production of such pads for a sustainable development.

Exploring the Role of Active Photosynthetic Pigments in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Crop Growth Process

“…Unfortunately, with climate changing due to anthropogenic activities, most conducive ecosystems are being destroyed leading to less productivity and, at worst case, disappearance of plant varieties [2]. In order to conserve plant species and also agricultural productivity, crop cultivation indoors under controlled microclimate such as greenhouse cultivation attracted many growers and researchers interest [3], [4] especially in the global south. However, in order to assure conducive indoor microclimate for crop cultivation, it is important to understand photosynthetic pigments activity through which plants make use of light energy for its healthy growth under conducive environmental conditions [5], [6].…”