Seawater Greenhouse 470212756 03/05/2019

Seawater Greenhouse Systems – Decentralized

technology Report
Introduction
Technologies must advance beyond the aim of providing towards centralized urban rich environments. The
increasing value and rarity of resources paired with the discrepancy of who those resources are provided to, gives
high importance to the requirement of agile, innovative design solutions to form a flexible framework from which
political, social and economic progress can flourish, must be prioritized. The key to tackling the worlds multifaceted
problems in rural harsh environments is to understand decentralization and Decentralized technologies. This refers
to the process of designing technologies to tackle issues independent of a central location or authority, to ultimately
provide value to local communities whilst creating independence and minimizing waste.

Sea water greenhouse - Berbera, Somaliland

This report utilizes research in an implemented design, completed near Berbera, Somaliland 2017. Somaliland lies in
the middle of the worlds isolated and most insecure food regions. Traditional technologies have proven to not be
meeting the demand of the local people due to cost and centralized nature of existing technologies. By the
implementation of a sea water greenhouse Somaliland will be able to perform more independently without the need
for dependence of foreign donors and centralized networks. The seawater Greenhouse being implemented works as
a shade net system of previous systems but manages to contain core evaporative cooling elements. This was
developed through modeling techniques allowing simplification of design have allowed a simplification of design,
drastically reducing its cost without the reduction of performance.

Berbera, Somaliland- Sea water Greenhouse

Local Members collecting first Harvest 2018

Seawater Greenhouse 470212756 03/05/2019

How do sea water Green Houses work?

Seawater greenhouses utilize the natural surrounding and environment of arid and or hot rural places otherwise
known to be isolated and scarce of food and water produce; The sunlight and ambient air are used to produce fresh
water and the cooler moist air to cultivate horticultural crops in remote and arid coastal areas, or in other regions
with high salinity groundwater unsuitable for crop production.

The Greenhouse works by utilising the local environment, as air enters the greenhouse which is in turn pulled
through evaporative pads with saltwater trickling through them. This sea water evaporation cools the air to create
humid and cool conditions within the green house.

The Greenhouse has multiple evaporators, the first being the entire front wall of the greenhouse which faces the
prevailing wind and acts as a seawater evaporator. The wall made up of traditional wet wall systems in which surface
sea waters runs on the carboard honeycomb lattice to cool and humidify the air before it passes into the plant
growth area. As the cool air passes through plants in the growth area it becomes warmer whilst picking up extra
moisture from plant Evapo-transpiration on its way to the far end of the greenhouse. The second evaporator at the
far end of the greenhouse uses seawater heated by the sun while causing evaporation by flowing through a solar
heating system, located above the plant growth area, adding more moisture in the form of vapour to the warm air at
the end of the development area and humidifying the air to capacity.

The saturated air from the subsequent evaporator passes through a condenser using cold seawater deeper down.
The moisture in the saturated air condensates onto the external surfaces of the condenser in the form of purified
water. This is composed and deposited in a reservoir where nutrients are supplemented to irrigate the plants in the
greenhouse. Surplus distilled water is used to irrigate crops growing outside or under shade nets or collected as
drinking water.

Seawater Greenhouse design in Berbera, Somaliland

Seawater Greenhouse 470212756 03/05/2019
Justification and benefits of Sea water greenhouses?

Remote communities such as Berbera, Somaliland and many other communities have issues to address when
investments are completed in their local communities, these include:

- Combatting food scarcity and malnutrition

- The introduction of Fresh water sources in Saline, brackish or arid areas.
- A resilient infrastructure and salvageable design to provide a resistance to local people doing vandalism and
natural disasters.
- To minimise waste by using clean energy and have a good eco Footprint

In general Greenhouses serve as a specially engineered man-made environment producing optimal conditions to
produce nutritious, high valued crops by utilising PV rays through convection, increasing crop density from 10 to 20
times that of standard agricultural techniques. This process allows a promotion biodiversity in the environment by
mimicking natural environments and biological food cycles. To create an entirely sustainable system it is essential
that man-made frameworks work in cooperation with natural biological processes to engineer an optimal solution
for the challenges facing the world today, including climate change, desertification and soil erosion.

Saltwater greenhouse technologies are

currently being used to promote optimal
growth of high-value crops such as salad
tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, or flowers in
harsh desert rural climates. Saltwater-Cooled
Greenhouses provided suitable conditions
enabling all year-round cultivation in cool
and humid desert conditions. This
technology aims to provide the climate and
crop control typical of very high productivity
commercial greenhouses, while avoiding the
high environmental and economic costs of
traditional cooling methods.

These greenhouses Furth more utilize

produce creating freshwater for irrigation or
drinking, safely manage brine and harvest
useful compounds from the resulting salt,
grow biomass for energy purposes without
competing with food cultivation, and
revegetate desert lands. The synergies
arising from integrating the technologies
improve performance and economics
compared to those of the individual
components. The report details this
technology and how solar power is being
used in conjunction to accelerate
performance of growth within these
greenhouses.

Saltwater infrastructure system, an example by the Sahara forest

project
Seawater Greenhouse 470212756 03/05/2019

Limits, Harm and Mitigation

Misuse and Costs
When new technology is implemented in many rural and remote environments the potential for misuse and
misappropriation can be encountered. Since these technologies can be considered somewhat foreign, and with no
authority available to properly guard and monitor these damages in these systems are likely to occur. On the other
hand just like the construction of Seawater Greenhouse in Somaliland, the process of using local Resources and
community to construct these green houses and to continuously refer to sustainable principles are by their very
nature help combat misuse of these technologies Minimizing harm and misuse. Unfortunately it is also very
important to note these Greenhouses, although as 10 times cheaper then regular greenhouse systems can still be
damaging to the local economy. Although I strongly believe in the construction of Sea water greenhouses it is
essential to note Investing heavily into a single industry without sufficient insight is a very ill-advised practice and
could result in the over reliance on reliance on immature or outdated technology. From this thought it is important
to approach every situation in remote areas as individual circumstances and cognizance of the intricacies.

Limits
Being seawater greenhouses, several site requirements are limiting to location and design these include

- Solar exposure must be of high Levels – These designs are built for hard hot rural climates.
- Saltwater access readily available – Pipeline installation from the nearest coast may be.
considered which require different amounts of financial backing depending of the location.
- Wind Direction – Wind should be ideally constant and in one direction. Although this is not as important it
should be considered when selecting the site.
- Land size and type- The land must be of Dry – Arid environments and being large quantities for efficiency
- Engineering and costs – Although the Greenhouses can be locally maintained the original designs should be
consulted through outside sources such as universities and engineers, to and create efficiency on design for
things like location.

Social and Financial trouble

When a new Technology of such large scale is to be implemented social factors must be taken into consideration.
The land where this technology will sit needs to be addressed in local communities as opposition may arise from the
fear of financial burden or such a new technology. This technology also is supposed to be self-sustaining so resources
should be tried to sources locally and Furthermore local communities have to be part of the process so if anything
goes wrong they are able to depend on themselves. One should also note as this product is one to help the whole
community corruption and unfair dealings with its produce should be taken into consideration.

Conclusion
After deep analysis of with holistic consideration of the issues that we are faced with in the present day along with
the existing contributions to modern day Berbera, Somaliland. It is evident a decentralized system such as the
Seawater Greenhouse is not only self-sustaining but a practical major solution towards modern stabilization of
remote environments. They are a way of allowing life to be better and more livable in such desert Coastal
environments, increasing the access of food and water whilst creating a self-maintaining community.

References
extentions, T. (2019). Technologies - Sahara Forest Project. [online] Sahara Forest Project. Available at:
https://www.saharaforestproject.com/technologies/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].

Organisation, S. (2019). Somaliland — Seawater Greenhouse. [online] Seawater Greenhouse. Available at:

https://seawatergreenhouse.com/somaliland [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].