PRESENT STATUS AND NEW AREA FOR INVESTIGATIONS OF THERMAL EFFLUENTS USE FOR HEATING GREENHOUSES

Three and a half years of collaboration in the frame of the FAO/CNRE Networks on Rural Energy – Network on Agricultural Use of Thermal Effluents, with active participation of a great number of the European scientific institutes, scientists and experts, resulted with rich information exchange and consultations about the present status of the explorations, investigations and experiences with the commercial use of thermal effluents in agriculture, particularly for heating greenhouses.

Short review of the State of the Art of the problematics and recent progress of the consisting parts of characteristical technological chains for geothermal energy and industrial thermal effluents use for heating greenhouses in different climatical, economical and social conditions of the FAO European and some Mediterranean countries of Africa and Near East, is given in the paper.
New area for further investigations in near future are identified, too.
Particular attention is paid to the heat exchange installations, developed for low-temperature heating medium use and the climatical and horticultural consequences of it for the most known vegetable cultures.

Possible contribution of the FAO/CNRE Network in the activities for wider introduction of thermal effluents use in agriculture, and particularly for heating greenhouses, is stressed at the end of this introduction paper.

Engineering and Economic Aspects of Energy Saving in Protected Cultivation

K. Popovski

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1989.245.19