Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region
Drip irrigation has the potential to conserve water and increase crop yields. However, existing drip irrigation systems often require high pumping power, making them financially inaccessible to smallholder farmers. Integrating a holistic system model with a cost-optimization scheme can enable the de...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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ASME International
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137996 |
| _version_ | 1811085592682823680 |
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| author | Sokol, Julia Grant, Fiona Sheline, Carolyn Winter, Amos |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Global Engineering and Research Laboratory |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Global Engineering and Research Laboratory Sokol, Julia Grant, Fiona Sheline, Carolyn Winter, Amos |
| author_sort | Sokol, Julia |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Drip irrigation has the potential to conserve water and increase crop yields. However, existing drip irrigation systems often require high pumping power, making them financially inaccessible to smallholder farmers. Integrating a holistic system model with a cost-optimization scheme can enable the design and implementation of low-cost, solar-powered drip irrigations systems, ultimately making this technology more cost-effective for smallholder farmers. This paper describes the algorithms comprising an integrated model of solar-powered drip irrigation systems, consisting of agronomic, hydraulic, pump, and power system modules. It also introduces a preliminary optimization scheme for the power system, which uses the system hydraulics and pump curve to select an optimal solar array and energy storage configuration that minimizes capital cost. The system model and power system optimization is applied to three case studies, and the resulting power system configurations are compared to outputs from commercially-available software for sizing solar pumping systems. The results show that the model successfully captures the nuances in crop type, local weather patterns, and hydraulic system layout between different cases. This offers a greater level of flexibility than commercially available software, which tends to have broader applications and focuses on larger systems. Future model generations will add more variables to the optimization scheme — including pump selection, variable emitter flow rates and pipe geometries — to provide a versatile design tool for cost-optimized, solar-powered drip irrigation systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:12:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/137996 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:12:03Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | ASME International |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1379962022-10-01T13:44:08Z Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region Sokol, Julia Grant, Fiona Sheline, Carolyn Winter, Amos Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Global Engineering and Research Laboratory Drip irrigation has the potential to conserve water and increase crop yields. However, existing drip irrigation systems often require high pumping power, making them financially inaccessible to smallholder farmers. Integrating a holistic system model with a cost-optimization scheme can enable the design and implementation of low-cost, solar-powered drip irrigations systems, ultimately making this technology more cost-effective for smallholder farmers. This paper describes the algorithms comprising an integrated model of solar-powered drip irrigation systems, consisting of agronomic, hydraulic, pump, and power system modules. It also introduces a preliminary optimization scheme for the power system, which uses the system hydraulics and pump curve to select an optimal solar array and energy storage configuration that minimizes capital cost. The system model and power system optimization is applied to three case studies, and the resulting power system configurations are compared to outputs from commercially-available software for sizing solar pumping systems. The results show that the model successfully captures the nuances in crop type, local weather patterns, and hydraulic system layout between different cases. This offers a greater level of flexibility than commercially available software, which tends to have broader applications and focuses on larger systems. Future model generations will add more variables to the optimization scheme — including pump selection, variable emitter flow rates and pipe geometries — to provide a versatile design tool for cost-optimized, solar-powered drip irrigation systems. 2021-11-09T17:46:03Z 2021-11-09T17:46:03Z 2018-08 2020-08-13T14:19:31Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137996 Sokol, Julia, Grant, Fiona, Sheline, Carolyn and Winter, Amos. 2018. "Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region." Volume 2B: 44th Design Automation Conference. en 10.1115/detc2018-86297 Volume 2B: 44th Design Automation Conference Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf ASME International ASME |
| spellingShingle | Sokol, Julia Grant, Fiona Sheline, Carolyn Winter, Amos Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region |
| title | Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region |
| title_full | Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region |
| title_fullStr | Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region |
| title_short | Development of a System Model for Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation Systems in the MENA Region |
| title_sort | development of a system model for low cost solar powered drip irrigation systems in the mena region |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137996 |
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