Brine utilisation for cooling and salt production in wind-driven seawater greenhouses:Design and modelling

Brine disposal is a major challenge facing the desalination industry. Discharged brines pollute the oceans and aquifers. Here is it proposed to reduce the volume of brines by means of evaporative coolers in seawater greenhouses, thus enabling the cultivation of high-value crops and production of sea salt. Unlike in typical greenhouses, only natural wind is used for ventilation, without electric fans. We present a model to predict the water evaporation, salt production, internal temperature and humidity according to ambient conditions. Predictions are presented for three case studies: (a) the Horn of Africa (Berbera) where a seawater desalination plant will be coupled to salt production; (b) Iran (Ahwaz) for management of hypersaline water from the Gotvand dam; (c) Gujarat (Ahmedabad) where natural seawater is fed to the cooling process, enhancing salt production in solar salt works. Water evaporation per face area of evaporator pad is predicted in the range 33 to 83 m3/m2·yr, and salt production up to 5.8 tonnes/m2·yr. Temperature is lowest close to the evaporator pad, increasing downwind, such that the cooling effect mostly dissipates within 15 m of the cooling pad. Depending on location, peak temperatures reduce by 8–16 °C at the hottest time of year

Overview and future challenges of nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) design in Eastern Europe

The European Unions’ ambition for the construction sector is to be carbon neutral by 2030 for new construction. Since 2021, all new buildings in the EU should have been constructed as nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB). However, Eastern European countries struggle to implement the 2018 Energy Performance of Building Directive recast requirements. Next to the economic challenges, equally essential factors hinder renovating the existing residential building stock and adding newly constructed highperformance buildings sourced primarily from renewable energy sources. Therefore, this study provides a cross-study to identify the barriers to nZEB implementation in ten Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The study was conducted between 2019 and 2021 and provides an overview of prospects for nZEB in Eastern Europe. The study examines the challenges of nZEB plans faced in those countries and provides constructive recommendations. The regulations and definitions regarding nZEB energy performance, cooling and heating energy demand, thermal comfort, onsite renewables, and construction quality were analyzed. Results show that most Eastern European countries are unprepared to comply with the EPBD guidelines and cost-optimality approach. The paper ranks each country and recommends specific measures to refine the nZEB definitions. The paper provides a thorough comparative assessment and benchmarking of select EU geography that can help shift the identified gaps into opportunities for the future development of climate-neutral high-performance buildings