EXALT - Coupling thermal desalination and dewatered salt discharge with hydroponic crop production using heat pumps. Water Research in the Near and Middle East (MEWAC)

Freshwater is a severely limited resource, especially in the Near and Middle East, and therefore there are increasing attempts to incorporate saline or brackish water into crop production processes. Under intense solar radiation, ventilation to cool greenhouses also allows moisture in the air to escape, resulting in significant water loss. In a closed system, this loss can be avoided via active cooling and condensation to recover the water, while the heat extracted from the greenhouse can be further used as process heat. By coupling desalination and greenhouse air conditioning via heat pumps, the partners in the EXALT collaborative project are developing an energy-efficient process to reduce both the water requirements for plant production in the greenhouse and the energy requirements for desalination. With the objective of removing dehydrated salt, a problem of conventional desalination processes is also addressed.

The EXALT project is jointly supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) within the Middle East Regional Water Research Cooperation Program (MEWAC). 2022-2024

People

PD

Dr. Jörn Germer
Project coordination

PhD

Hemanth Puppala
Salinity effects on nutrient uptake dynamics in hydroponically grown crops

MSc

BSc

Link to project leader - Water stress management - University of Hohenheim

link to project website

Link to BMBF

link to FONA-MEWAC

Publications

Paper

Poster

Talks