Title: On the energy-efficient evaporative cooling systems for agricultural applications
Abstract:
Primary sources of energy consumption are involved in heating, cooling, humidification, dehumidification, ventilation and/or air-conditioning (HVAC), which may be required for various applications. Currently, Pakistan is facing extreme energy shortage, therefore, low-cost and energy-efficient HVAC systems are principally required. As the Pakistan is an agriculture dependent country, therefore, low-cost HVAC systems are required not only for humans’ thermal comfort but also for various agriculture based applications e.g. greenhouse air-conditioning, agricultural products’ (fruits and vegetables) storage, and animals’ (livestock) air-conditioning etc. In this regard, various innovative cooling and air-conditioning technologies have been introduced worldwide. Consequently, in this keynote speech, evaporative cooling-based HVAC technologies are explored. These technologies are environmentally safe and can be simply operated by water or low-grade waste heat. The low-grade waste heat can be supplied economically by many ways e.g. solar thermal energy, natural coal, bio-gas and/or bio-mass etc. From the prospective of evaporative cooling, the speech focuses on Maisotsenko cycle (M-cycle) based evaporative cooling conception in comparison with conventional direct and indirect evaporative cooling. While adsorption cooling and desiccant air-conditioning systems are focused from the prospective of thermally driven systems. Importance of selection of refrigerant and adsorbent/desiccant is also highlighted. Based on geographic and climatic conditions of Pakistan, role of temporal and spatial variation for the development of sustainable HVAC system is addressed.
Biography:
Muhammad Sultan completed his Ph.D. (2015) and Postdoc (2017) at Kyushu University (Japan) in the field of Energy & Environmental Engineering. He was an awardee of MEXT and JASSO fellowships (from the Japanese Government) during Ph.D. and Postdoc studies, respectively. In 2019, he did a Postdoc as a Canadian Queen Elizabeth Advance Scholar at Simon Fraser University (Canada) in the field of Mechatronic Systems Engineering. He worked for Kyushu University International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER) for two years. Currently, he is working as Assistant Professor at the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University (Pakistan). He has supervised 12 M.Eng. and Ph.D. students so far. In addition, 10 M.Eng. and Ph.D. students are currently working under his supervision. He has published 115+ journal articles, 100+ conference articles, 13 book chapters, and several magazine articles. He has edited/authored 6 books for the publishers like Springer, MDPI, and IntechOpen. He is serving as Guest Editor for the special issue of Energies (MDPI) journal (IF 3.00), Sustainability (MDPI) journal (IF 3.25), Advances in Mechanical Engineering (SAGE) journal (IF 1.32), and Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering (Frontiers) journal. In addition, he is serving as Regional Editor for the Evergreen Journal of Kyushu University. His research is focused on developing energy-efficient heat- and/or water-driven temperature and humidity control systems for agricultural storage, greenhouse, livestock, and poultry applications. His research keywords include HVAC, desiccant air-conditioning, evaporative cooling, adsorption cooling, adsorption heat pump, Maisotsenko cycle (M-cycle), energy recovery ventilators; adsorption desalination; wastewater, and agricultural, poultry and livestock applications.