EFFECTIVENESS OF APPLYING SOLAR ENERGY IN THE AQUAPONIC SYSTEM FOR SAVING ENERGY

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assoc. Prof. of Ag. & BioSystems Eng., Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin El-kom, Egypt.

2 Prof. of Ag. & BioSystems Eng., Dean of the Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin El-kom, Egypt.

3 Assist. Lect. of Ag. & BioSystems Eng., Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin El-kom, Egypt.

Abstract

Solar energy (pv) is one of the renewable energy sources used to reduce the impact of climate changes and the rise in energy prices. Aquaponic system considered an important turn for food security with water shortage and climate change. The main objective of this study is to apply solar energy in the aquaponic system as a new technology of agriculture for water and energy saving. Design solar photovoltaic system to supply the energy to aquaponic system and evaluate its performance. The results showed that the maximum calculated and measured solar radiation were 789.67 and 856.90 W m-2, Which indicates agreement between the calculated and measured results. Accordingly, the maximum calculated and measured output power of the solar panel were; 252.77 and 233.24 W, respectively. The results indicated that the efficiency of the solar panel ranged from 13.51 to 14.68% during daylight hours. The total value of the electrical energy productivity from PV was 10.49 MJ day-1, with various values throughout the day. The aquaponic system's integrated water and air pumps required a combined 10.32 MJ of specific energy per day, which was generated by the PV system's electrical energy productivity. The results also obtained for lettuce plants indicated that with increasing the flow rate from 0.5 to 1.5 L min-1, dry and fresh weight of shoots, concentration of the nutrient in shoots, lettuce production, and water use efficiency were all increased. Therefore, the study recommends that solar energy can be used to operate the aquaponic system.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Abu-Aligah, M. (2011). Design of Photovoltaic Water Pumping System and Compare it with Diesel Powered Pump. Jordan Journal of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, 5(3), 273 – 280.
Ali, M.M. (2016). Comparison between hydroponic and aeroponic systems for lettuce production. M.Sc. Thesis, in Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Moshtohor, Benha University, Egypt.
Bhatt, P. and A. Verma (2014). Design and cost analysis of PV System using nano solar cell. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 4(3), 1-7.
Diantari, R. A. and I. Pujotomo (2016). Calculation of electrical energy with solar power plant design. International Seminar on Intelligent Technology and Its Applications (ISITIA) (pp. 443-446). ‏
Djidonou, D., X. Zhao, E.H. Simonne, K.E. Koch and J.E. Erickson (2013). Yield, water and nitrogen use efficiency in field grown grafted tomatoes. Hort. Sci. 48(4), 485–492.
Elgeziry, A. A. (2022). Study the Effect of Some Engineering Factors on the Performance of an Integrated Aquaponic Unit. M.Sc. Thesis, in Agricultural & BioSystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Shebin El-kom, Menoufia University, Egypt.
Genuncio, G. D. C., M. Gomes, A. C. Ferrari, N. Majerowicz and E. Zonta (2012). Hydroponic lettuce production in different concentrations and flow rates of nutrient solution. Horticultura Brasileira, 30(3), 526-530.
Khater, E.G. ( 2006). Aquaponics: the integration of fish and vegetable culture in recirculating systems. M.Sc. Thesis, in Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Moshtohor, Benha University, Egypt.
Maucieri, C., C. Nicoletto, E. Van Os, D. Anseeuw, R. Van Havermaet and R. Junge  (2019). Hydroponic technologies.  In Aquaponics food production systems. Springer, Cham, (pp. 77-110).
Okasha, A. M. (2016). Performance of a small drip irrigation system powered by solar photovoltaic for corn production. Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 33(4), 1369-1386.‏
Omar, M.N., A.T. Taha, A.A. Samak, M.H. Keshek, E.M. Gomaa, and S.F. Elsisi (2021). Simulation and validation model of cooling greenhouse by solar energy (P V) integrated with painting its cover and its effect on the cucumber production. Renewable Energy 172 (July 2021) 1154-1173, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.092
Omar, M.N, A. A.  Samak and S. F. Elsisi  (2022). Effect of the solar evaporative cooling and reducing the cover permeability on the production and quality of greenhouse cucumber. Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering., 39 (3): 425 – 448 DOI: 10.21608/mjae.2022.133228.1071
Pantanella, E. (2018). Aquaponics production, practices and opportunities. In Sustainable Aquaculture. Springer, Cham, (pp. 191-248).
Ruiz J., P. Martínez, H. Sadafi, F.J. Aguilar, P.G. Vicente and M. Lucas (2020). Experimental characterization of a photovoltaic solar-driven cooling system based on an evaporative chimney. Renewable Energy 161 (December 2020) 43 – 54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.06.111
Samak, A. A,  M. N. Omar and S. F. Elsisi (2022). Developing and evaluating a multi nozzle spraying machine powered by solar energy for agricultural smallholdings. Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering., 39 (3): 353 – 374.
Sharma, R., S. Sharma and S. Tiwari (2020). Design optimization of solar PV water pumping system. Materials Today: Proceedings, 21, 1673-1679.‏
Shivrath, Y., P. B. Narayana, S. Thirumalasetty and E. L. Narsaiah (2012). Design & integration of wind-solar hybrid energy system for drip irrigation pumping application. International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER), 2(4), 2947-2950.
Somerville, C., M. Cohen, E. Pantanella, A. Stankus and A. Lovatelli (2014). Small-scale aquaponic food production: integrated fish and plant farming. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper, (589), I.‏
Taha, A. T. H. (2010). Estimation of hourly global solar radiation in Egypt using mathematical model. Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 27(4), 2033-2047.‏
Yang, T. and H. J. Kim (2020). Effects of hydraulic loading rate on spatial and temporal water quality characteristics and crop growth and yield in aquaponic systems. Horticulturae, 6, 9: 1-23.
Yang, T., and H. J. Kim (2020b). Characterizing nutrient composition and concentration in tomato-, basil-, and lettuce-based aquaponic and hydroponic systems. Water, 12(5), 1259:1-32.
Yep, B. and  Y. Zheng  (2019). Aquaponic trends and challenges – A review. Journal of  Cleaner Production, 228, 1586–1599.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics