Raza Gulfam

Facility agriculture, which involves agricultural production in controlled environments such as greenhouses, indoor farms, and vertical farms, aims to maximize efficiency, yield, and quality while minimizing resource consumption and environmental impact. Energy-saving technologies are essential to the green and low-carbon development of facility agriculture. Recently, phase change heat storage (PCHS) systems using phase change materials (PCMs) have gained significant attention due to their high thermal storage density and excellent thermal regulation performance. These systems are particularly promising for applications in facility agriculture and related buildings, such as solar thermal utilization, greenhouse walls, and soil insulation. However, the low thermal conductivity of PCMs presents a challenge for applications requiring rapid heat transfer. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the types, thermophysical properties, and various forms of PCMs, including macro-encapsulated PCMs, shape-stabilized PCMs, and phase change capsules (PCCs), as well as their preparation methods. The research methodology involves an in-depth analysis of these PCMs and their applications in active and passive PCHS systems within facility agriculture and related buildings. The major conclusion of this study highlights the critical role of PCMs in advancing energy-saving technologies in facility agriculture. By enhancing PCM performance, optimizing latent heat storage systems, and integrating intelligent environmental control, this work provides essential guidelines for designing more efficient and sustainable agricultural structures. The article will serve as the fundamental guideline to design more robust structures for facility agriculture and related buildings.

Phase change materials, such as paraffin waxes, have recently been introduced in surface science. Paraffin-based slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (P-SLIPSs) provide switchable wettability and various adhesion states. Herein, P-SLIPSs were fabricated on copper plates. To study condensation heat transfer, two condensation rigs were fabricated and optimized via a comparison between the experimental and theoretical heat transfer coefficients, finding a good agreement in the short cold-finger-assisted rig. The condensation mode on P-SLIPSs is dropwise mode. Consequently, the condensation heat transfer coefficients on P-SLIPSs were found to be higher compared with that of pristine copper plates.

Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces are vulnerable to lubricant depletion caused by three major factors encompassing, the evaporation, cloaking, and shearing. Herein, lubricant-infused iron palmitate surfaces (LI-IPSs) are presented addressing the challenges of (1) evaporation-driven lubricant depletion enabled by the immensely clustered micro-/nano-structures of iron palmitate surface (IPS), (2) completely suppressing the wetting ridge even with miscible water-oil combinations enabled by only the handful uptake of oil by IPS. The apparent contact angle θa and sliding angle α of water on LI-IPSs are 98° ± 2° and 3° ± 1°, respectively. Under evaporation-driven lubricant depletion analysis, the shelf-durability of LI-IPSs has been found to last for 10 days in partially open environment at the ambient temperature (25 °C). The heat fluxes and condensate fluxes have been determined. The highest condensate flux on LI-IPSs (14 kgh−1 m−2) is ascribed to the dropwise condensation mode with efficient droplet dynamics. However, the service durability of LI-IPSs has lasted only for 50 ± 5 min under rigorous condensation, which is further addressed by developing a LI-IPS prototype. Based on the excellent wicking capability of IPS, LI-IPS prototype is capable of maintaining the dropwise condensation unless the oil is available in the oil tub. The LI-IPS prototype has been subjected to open environment at ambient temperature for 168 h, and even after that, the stable dropwise condensation has been achieved with the same range of droplet speed as had been observed in the first hour. Meantime, the high condensation heat fluxes at various subcooling temperatures are obtained, justifying the promising ability of LI-IPS.

Opinion on ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)

This review reports the recent progress and future prospects of wettability gradient surfaces (WGSs), particularly focusing on the governing principles, fabrication methods, classification, characterization, and applications. While transforming the inherent wettability into artificial wettability via bioinspiration, topographic micro/nanostructures are produced with changed surface energy, resulting in new droplet wetting regimes and droplet dynamic regimes. WGSs have been mainly classified in dry and wet surfaces, depending on the apparent surface states. Wettability gradient has long been documented as a surface phenomenon inducing the droplet mobility in the direction of decreasing wettability. However, it is herein critically emphasized that the wettability gradient does not always result in droplet mobility. Indeed, the sticky and slippery dynamic regimes exist in WGSs, prohibiting or allowing the droplet mobility, respectively. Lastly, the stringent bottlenecks encountered by WGSs are highlighted along with solution-oriented recommendations, and furthermore, phase change materials are strongly anticipated as a new class in WGSs. In all, WGSs intend to open up new technological insights for applications, encompassing water harvesting, droplet and bubble manipulation, controllable microfluidic systems, and condensation heat transfer, among others.

Opinion on Latent Heat-Based Heat Exchangers Equipped With Thermal Management Systems of Buildings

Perspectives on Bioinspired Functional Surfaces for Heat Transfer Enhancement via Dropwise Condensation