Numerical investigation on a low energy-consumption heating method for recirculating aquaponic systems

Abstract In a recirculating aquaponic system (RAS), the heating method based on an electric heater requires considerable amounts of electrical energy to maintain the water temperature for optimal warm-water fish growth conditions. Minimizing electrical energy consumption in the RAS is a great challenge. To solve this problem, a novel heating method that uses a combination of helically coiled heat exchangers (HCHEs) and a thermal energy storage (TES) unit is proposed to replace the electric heater. Several studies on heating and cooling systems with HCHEs and TES tanks have been conducted, but their integration in RASs is very rare. In this study, the thermal energy of the water in an RAS was the research objective. A computational fluid dynamics approach was adopted for transient analysis and inspection of the HCHE model considering eight cases with four temperature levels, 55, 60, 70, and 80 °C, and three mass flow rates, 0.166, 0.249, and 0.332 kg/s. The results showed that the HCHE was compatible with the regular heat sources of the TES unit (including solar collectors and heat pump systems). The temperature distribution of the water in the fish tank, from 26.75 to 30 °C, was suitable for maintaining the health of warm-water fish. To heat 3.4 m3 of the fish tank water from 24.5 to 28 °C, case 6 (where the temperature and mass flow rate of hot water were 70 °C and 0.332 kg/s, respectively) obtained the best results during a period of 26 min, usable heat transfer rate of 31.8 kW, and thermal efficiency of 76.1%. On the contrary, the results for case 1 (where the temperature and mass flow rate of hot water were 60 °C and 0.166 kg/s, respectively) were 70 min, 11.8 kW, and 57.5%, respectively.

[1]  Majdi Hazami,et al.  Experimental study of an air conditioning system to control a greenhouse microclimate , 2014 .

[2]  Jessie P. Bitog,et al.  The past, present and future of CFD for agro-environmental applications , 2013 .

[3]  Joan Oca,et al.  Influence of tank geometry and flow pattern in fish distribution , 2011 .

[4]  Henrik Davidsson,et al.  Retrofitting Domestic Hot Water Heaters for Solar Water Heating Systems in Single-Family Houses in a Cold Climate: A Theoretical Analysis , 2012 .

[5]  M. A. Ebadian,et al.  Turbulent forced convection in a helicoidal pipe with substantial pitch , 1996 .

[6]  Erol Sahin,et al.  Using solar greenhouses in cold climates and evaluating optimum type according to sizing, position and location: A case study , 2015, Comput. Electron. Agric..

[7]  Zhen Hu,et al.  Effect of seasonal variation on nitrogen transformations in aquaponics of northern China , 2016 .

[8]  Krishna D.P. Nigam,et al.  Pressure drop and heat transfer study in tube-in-tube helical heat exchanger , 2006 .

[9]  Joan Oca,et al.  Hydrodynamics in a multivortex aquaculture tank: Effect of baffles and water inlet characteristics , 2014 .

[10]  Timothy J. Rennie,et al.  NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF A DOUBLE- PIPE HELICAL HEAT EXCHANGER , 2005 .

[11]  Paula Adriane Perez Ribeiro,et al.  Efeito do uso de óleo na dieta sobre a lipogênese e o perfil lipídico de tilápias-do-nilo , 2008 .

[12]  Jinxing Wu,et al.  Numerical study on heat transfer and flow characteristics of a tube fitted with double spiral spring , 2015 .

[13]  Barnaby J. Watten,et al.  Importance of rearing-unit design and stocking density to the behavior, growth and metabolism of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) , 1998 .

[14]  Toshinori Kouchi,et al.  Laminar forced convective heat transfer in helical pipe flow , 2017 .

[15]  Hessam Taherian,et al.  Experimental study of mixed convection heat transfer in vertical helically coiled tube heat exchangers , 2010 .

[16]  Radu Zmeureanu,et al.  Residential Solar-Based Seasonal Thermal Storage Systems in Cold Climates: Building Envelope and Thermal Storage , 2012 .

[17]  Joan Oca,et al.  Design criteria for rotating flow cells in rectangular aquaculture tanks , 2007 .

[18]  S. Kalaiselvam,et al.  Sustainable thermal energy storage technologies for buildings: A review , 2012 .

[19]  Kannan N. Iyer,et al.  CFD analysis of single-phase flows inside helically coiled tubes , 2010, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[20]  Yong Wang,et al.  Investigation of the Dynamic Melting Process in a Thermal Energy Storage Unit Using a Helical Coil Heat Exchanger , 2017 .

[21]  David C. Love,et al.  Energy and water use of a small-scale raft aquaponics system in Baltimore, Maryland, United States , 2015 .

[22]  V. T. Chow.  Open-channel hydraulics , 1959 .

[23]  Martin Belusko,et al.  Experimental validation of a CFD model for tubes in a phase change thermal energy storage system , 2012 .

[24]  Michael B. Timmons,et al.  Review of circular tank technology and management , 1998 .

[25]  Irina S. Moreira,et al.  Temperature and dietary carbohydrate level effects on performance and metabolic utilisation of diets in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) juveniles , 2008 .

[26]  Paisarn Naphon,et al.  Effect of coil-wire insert on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop of the horizontal concentric tubes , 2006 .

[27]  J. M. Campos,et al.  Heat transfer coefficients from Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids flowing in laminar regime in a helical coil , 2013 .

[28]  Z. F Li,et al.  Experimental studies on a solar powered air conditioning system with partitioned hot water storage tank , 2001 .

[29]  Seung-Rae Lee,et al.  An applicable design method for horizontal spiral-coil-type ground heat exchangers , 2018 .

[30]  Luisa F. Cabeza,et al.  Thermal energy storage in building integrated thermal systems: A review. Part 1. active storage systems , 2016 .

[31]  Mert Gürkan,et al.  The effects of elevated carbon dioxide and temperature levels on tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus): Respiratory enzymes, blood pH and hematological parameters. , 2016, Environmental toxicology and pharmacology.

[32]  Graeme Maidment,et al.  A novel experimental investigation of a solar cooling system in Madrid , 2005 .

[33]  Dominic Groulx,et al.  A parametric experimental investigation of the heat transfer in a coil-in-tank latent heat energy storage system , 2018, International Journal of Thermal Sciences.

[34]  Georg Frey,et al.  Simulation and performance analysis of combined parallel solar thermal and ground or air source heat pump systems , 2017 .

[35]  Pallippattu Krishnan Vijayan,et al.  Experimental and CFD estimation of heat transfer in helically coiled heat exchangers , 2008 .

[36]  V. Sunnapwar,et al.  Experimental studies on heat transfer to Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in helical coils with laminar and turbulent flow , 2013 .

[37]  V. P. Sethi,et al.  Survey and evaluation of heating technologies for worldwide agricultural greenhouse applications , 2008 .

[38]  Soheil Porkhial,et al.  3-D simulation of heat transfer rate in geothermal pile-foundation heat exchangers with spiral pipe configuration , 2015 .

[39]  Baoming Li,et al.  Numerical modelling of temperature variations in a Chinese solar greenhouse , 2009 .

[40]  W. Wu,et al.  Flow and heat transfer in a curved pipe with periodically varying curvature , 2000 .

[41]  Cheng-Xian Lin,et al.  Developing Turbulent Convective Heat Transfer in Helical Pipes , 1996, Heat Transfer: Volume 2 — Heat Transfer in Turbulent Flows; Fundamentals of Convection Heat Transfer; Fundamentals of Natural Convection in Laminar and Turbulent Flows; Natural Circulation.

[42]  Joan Oca,et al.  Flow pattern in aquaculture circular tanks: Influence of flow rate, water depth, and water inlet & outlet features , 2013 .

[43]  Robin M. Schrock,et al.  Comparative Hydraulics of Two Fishery Research Circular Tanks and Recommendations for Control of Experimental Bias , 2004 .

[44]  Divas Karimanzira,et al.  Efficient and economical way of operating a recirculation aquaculture system in an aquaponics farm , 2017 .

[45]  P. Xu,et al.  Optimization of culture conditions for larval GIFT tilapia Oreochromis niloticus using response surface methodology and effects of HAMP-1 and c-type lysozyme mRNA expression in liver , 2013, Aquaculture International.

[46]  Dingbiao Wang,et al.  Numerical investigation of heat transfer and pressure drop in helically coiled tube with spherical corrugation , 2017 .

[47]  Roberto Pastres,et al.  Aquaponics and sustainability: The comparison of two different aquaponic techniques using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) , 2017 .

[48]  G. S. Vijaya Raghavan,et al.  Natural convection heat transfer from helical coiled tubes , 2004 .

[49]  K. F. Fong,et al.  Analysis of a solar assisted heat pump system for indoor swimming pool water and space heating , 2012 .

[50]  Eleni Ampatzi,et al.  Characteristics of electrical energy storage technologies and their applications in buildings , 2013 .

[51]  Vivek K. Sunnapwar,et al.  Experimental and CFD investigation of convective heat transfer in helically coiled tube heat exchanger , 2014 .

[52]  M. A. Ebadian,et al.  Laminar forced convection in a helicoidal pipe with finite pitch , 1995 .

[53]  K. Vijaya Kumar Reddy,et al.  CFD Analysis of a Helically Coiled Tube in Tube Heat Exchanger , 2017 .

[54]  Jan-Olof Dalenbäck,et al.  Potential of residential buildings as thermal energy storage in district heating systems – Results from a pilot test , 2015 .

[55]  J. R. Stauffer,et al.  Combined effects of water temperature and salinity on growth and feed utilization of juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (Linneaus) , 1996 .

[56]  Krishna D.P. Nigam,et al.  Numerical simulation of steady flow fields in coiled flow inverter , 2005 .

[57]  Dirk Saelens,et al.  Generic characterization method for energy flexibility: Applied to structural thermal storage in residential buildings , 2017 .

[58]  Timothy J. Rennie,et al.  Numerical studies of a double-pipe helical heat exchanger , 2006 .

[59]  Huiqing Guo,et al.  Development of a thermal model for simulation of supplemental heating requirements in Chinese-style solar greenhouses , 2018, Comput. Electron. Agric..

[60]  Boris Delaide,et al.  Plant and fish production performance, nutrient mass balances, energy and water use of the PAFF Box, a small-scale aquaponic system , 2017 .

[61]  Kalpesh V. Modi,et al.  A technical review on regeneration of liquid desiccant using solar energy , 2017 .

[62]  A. Alam,et al.  Food Production and Water Conservation in a Recirculating Aquaponic System in Saudi Arabia at Different Ratios of Fish Feed to Plants , 2008 .

[63]  Vasileios Exadaktylos,et al.  Validation of an open source CFD code to simulate natural ventilation for agricultural buildings , 2017, Comput. Electron. Agric..

[64]  Wei Lin,et al.  Turbulent convective heat transfer of methane at supercritical pressure in a helical coiled tube , 2018 .

[65]  Orhan Büyükalaca,et al.  Heat transfer enhancement in a tube with equilateral triangle cross sectioned coiled wire inserts , 2010 .

[66]  Wenguo Weng,et al.  Modelling heat transfer and physiological responses of unclothed human body in hot environment by coupling CFD simulation with thermal model , 2017 .

[67]  D. W. Stephens,et al.  Turbulence model analysis of flow inside a hydrocyclone , 2010 .

[68]  Gabriel Bernardes Martins,et al.  The utilization of sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate or hydroxide in biofloc system: water quality, growth performance and oxidative stress of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) , 2017 .

[69]  Fariborz Haghighat,et al.  Integration of PCM in Domestic Hot Water Tanks: Optimization for Shifting Peak Demand , 2015 .

[70]  Ming Li,et al.  Advanced applications of solar energy in agricultural greenhouses , 2016 .

[71]  Richard E Thompson,et al.  Commercial aquaponics production and profitability: Findings from an international survey , 2015 .

[72]  Ridha Chargui,et al.  Determining of the optimal design of a closed loop solar dual source heat pump system coupled with a residential building application , 2017 .

[73]  Wei Zhang,et al.  Mixed convective heat transfer of CO2 at supercritical pressures flowing upward through a vertical helically coiled tube , 2015 .

[74]  ÇakırUğur,et al.  Using solar greenhouses in cold climates and evaluating optimum type according to sizing, position and location , 2015 .

[75]  David Saloner,et al.  Transitional flows in arterial fluid dynamics , 2007 .

[76]  M. M. Kraïem,et al.  Effects of water temperature on growth and sex ratio of juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus) reared in geothermal waters in southern Tunisia , 2008 .

[77]  Siamak Hossainpour,et al.  Experimental and numerical study on unsteady natural convection heat transfer in helically coiled tube heat exchangers , 2014 .