Desalinated Seawater Greenhouse Cools Desert Agriculture

Seawater Greenhouse uses the sun, the sea and the atmosphere to produce fresh water and cool air where it is needed most: in the desert.

Greenhouses usually provide warm growing conditions in cooler climates. But why not use the idea in reverse to make growing crops possible in inhospitably hot climates. Thats the idea invented by Charlie Paton and engineered by Philip Davies in their Seawater Greenhouse Project.

The reverse greenhouse is designed to create an environment that is cool, humid and bright, a reverse of the warming effect of typical cold climate greenhouses. It is for use in desert climates adjacent to seawater. First, you have to find a desert next to the sea, which is not too difficult. Then, this is how this idea works:

1. Seawater cools inside the greenhouse

Facing the prevailing sea wind the entire front wall of the greenhouse is a honeycomb lattice that catches seawater and evaporates it. Seawater trickles down over the lattice, cooling and humidifying the air passing through into the planting area.

2. The heat of the sun is removed

Sunlight is filtered through a specially constructed roof that only allows visible light through to promote photosynthesis, but trapping the infrared heat in an isolated chamber.

3. Fresh water is created by condensation

Cool air passes through the planting area and then combines with the hot dry air contained in the roof cavity. The mixture passes through a second sea water evaporator creating extremely hot watersaturated air which then flows through a condenser cooled by deep seawater. The extreme temperature difference causes fresh water to condense.

4. Water is stored for irrigation

The freshwater is stored in a tank underneath the ground where it is kept cool and piped back up to irrigate the crops both inside and outside under a canopy.

Continued growth in demand for water and increasing supply shortages are two of the most certain and predictable scenarios of the 21st century. And the desert creeps towards ever more people. Agriculture, with its high demand for water, will be a major pressure point.

For Matternetwork

Read more...

New Ziggurat For A Million Citizens

3000 years after the first ziggurat, a futuristic carbon neutral city will create its own moist weather-system in the desert

Timelinks, a Dubai Engineering firm has created a sustainable design for the largest man-made residential structure on the planet.

With a foundation covering almost a square mile and towering almost a mile high, it dwarfs the tallest tower in the world the Burj Dubai.

But it is more than just the biggest building in the world. This is a design for an entire small city, able to support a million people sustainably. The Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia would be astounded by this luxurious future ziggurat a mere 3000 years into their future. The sheer bravado of this gorgeous concept is just breathtaking.

Using solar and wind power, the mega structure will actually create its own moist internal weather using solar power. Steam generated from solar power and collected through photovoltaic cell panels on the pyramid’s exterior would be piped from the ground level to the uppermost heights of the pyramid’s interior and then released, instantly turning it into a soft drizzle which would fall on the lush garden communities inside the pyramid.

Such an eco system, full of vegetation, mild temperatures and regular rainfall, would make it a highly very desirable city for people living in dry desert conditions. Transport throughout the complex would be connected by an integrated 360 degree network horizontally and vertically. Private cars would be not needed at all for travel within the city.

Ridas Matonis, director of Timelinks, has created a futuristic vision of sustainable cities grounded in an ancient past. It would require 90 per cent less land than a traditional city. Timelinks has patented the design and technology incorporated into the project and has applied to the European Union for a grant for technical projects.

Timelinks will unveil the concept in Oct at the Cityscape Dubai. A number of eminent professors will be on hand to explain the technicalities of how the Ziggurat project works and how these communities can be integrated in master projects.

Via ecoworldly
For Matternetwork Read more...