– by AUA
The RES4LIVE project enjoyed, recently, a strong presence at the AgEng-Land.Technik 2022 conference, which took place between 22-23 November 2022 in Berlin, Germany. During the conference, project manager D. Tyris (AUA) provided a detailed overview of the project’s objectives, goals, and most recent activities; additionally, four consortium members presented studies developed within the framework of the RES4LIVE project:
- “Cost-effective implementation of renewable energy sources in livestock barns”
Everaert (UGENT) presented a numerical model which simulated the application of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) technologies, resulting in the determination of the Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) of installation and annual CO2 emissions. The application of the model was demonstrated for a pig stable in Belgium. - “Design of an on-farm biomethane upgrading plant with hybrid compression and filling station”
Dr. L. Wannasek (ATB) rolled out the design and manufacturing of a small-scale, modular biomethane upgrading plant for on-farm production of bio-CNG, to be installed on a dairy farm. Included in the presentation were the main challenges of making the plant economically viable and competitive with larger commercial plants, particularly in terms of OPEX and CAPEX. - “Conversion of a diesel farm tractor to run on CNG”
Marchand (CRMT) introduced the retrofitted agricultural tractor for bio-CNG, including a target price for the conversion. Lower exhaust emissions, according to the current EU non-road emissions standards, are expected during the forthcoming demonstration phase at a dairy farm. - “A pilot system to replace fossil energy with renewable sources in pig barns”
Prof. A. Barbaresi (UNIBO) presented the developments in the design and installation of an integrated RES system in a swine farm located in northern Italy. The system combines a photovoltaic-thermal plant, geothermal storage, and a modular heat pump, as well as their coupling with a smart control system for indoor environment monitoring and energy management.
Further interesting presentations which shared a commission vision with RES4LIVE objectives included:
- “Thermodynamic modeling of a Biomass Organic Rankine Cycle for sustainable heat and power cogeneration in greenhouses” (PSYCTOTHERM)
- “A dynamic heat pump model for precise environment control of a broiler house in Northern Greece” (AUA)
- “A nested semi-mechanistic model to predict the temporal dynamics of ammonia emissions from a solid floor naturally ventilated dairy cattle building” and “Development and validation of a low-cost online monitoring tool to manage barn climate and emissions from livestock housing systems” (ATB)
- “A comparative life cycle analysis of living walls” and “Machine Learning Models for Predictions of Thermal Energy Need in Farm Buildings” (UNIBO)