Available Technologies

Executive Summary

Greenhouses are commonly used to grow fruits and vegetables in controlled indoor environments. One challenge with operating greenhouses is that they can get very hot and potentially damaging to the growing plants. This requires costly temperature controls to maintain optimum growing conditions. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently developed a new semi-transparent solar panel that allows light needed to grow the plants to pass through, but filters the infrared wavelengths that heat the greenhouse up. This filtered light is then used to heat circulating water which, if saline, can be evaporated to produce purified water for further use.

Description of the Technology

The technology is greenhouse panel that uses a near infrared (NIR) cutoff film. The film allows most of the photosynthetically active radiation in the 400nm – 700nm range to pass through, and absorb most of the near-infrared (NIR) light to heat up the water flowing in the panel. Water temperature can be heated to as high as 60°C, which can then be evaporated and purified water condensed out to produce a useable stream.

Benefits

• Regulates greenhouse interior temperatures
• Reduces energy consumption (cooling load)
• Provides hot water that can be used for desalination/purification

Applications

• General greenhouses use
• Especially useful in arid regions where high salinity water is avaiable
• Residential and commercial greenhouses to reduce cooling loads
• Water treatment for polluted waters and purification through heating

Patent Status

Patent Pending

Publications

“Modeling and experimental validation of light-splitting semi-transparent solar water heater using NIR cut-off film as the rooftop of a greenhouse for arid regions”, Applied Energy, 2024

Licensing Rights

US licensing rights available

Inventors

Dr. Xu Tan, Dr. Mahyar Abedi, Dr. Andre Benard, Dr. James Klausner

TECH ID

TEC2022-0091