{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,11]],"date-time":"2026-02-11T20:59:58Z","timestamp":1770843598724,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,13]],"date-time":"2023-01-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1673568000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UIDB\/00151\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/00151\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Applied Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The thermal performance and environmental impact of agricultural greenhouses (GH) connected to earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHE) systems depend on the ambient temperature, soil temperature, EAHE system, and greenhouse specifications. The impact of an EAHE system on the temperature and humidity of a GH microclimate, as well as its effects on CO2 emissions and heating energy consumption, are determined experimentally. Two scaled-down models of agricultural GHs (2 \u00d7 1.4 \u00d7 1.4 m3) were developed. Each GH was equipped with a heater. A spiral EAHE system was integrated into only one of the GHs. The temperature differences in the microclimate range from 3.5 \u00b0C to 7.5 \u00b0C, with the microclimates of GH + EAHE and GH being quite similar. In summary, the EAHE system helped to reduce the hourly energy consumption of the heating system by more than 40%. It also reduced emissions to the environment by more than 100 g (CO2)\/hour. The EAHE coefficient of performance (COP) for the cooling mode has a higher average value than that for the heating mode. The closed-loop performed better in cooling mode, while the open-loop performed better in heating mode. When the difference between the set temperature in the heater and the air outlet temperature of the EAHE system is smaller, the heater performs better in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the heater. The COPheating range is between 0 and 3.4 and the COPcooling range is between 0.5 and 7.3. The energy consumption ranges between 0 and 1.41 kWh and the CO2 emissions are between 0 and 359.55 g. Thus, using EAHE in agricultural greenhouses improves thermal performance and reduces environmental impact, providing an overall benefit in terms of energy consumption and environmental sustainability.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/app13021119","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,16]],"date-time":"2023-01-16T01:31:15Z","timestamp":1673832675000},"page":"1119","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Evaluating the Thermal Performance and Environmental Impact of Agricultural Greenhouses Using Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger: An Experimental Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Samia","family":"Hamdane","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering (LGM), Mohamed Khider University, BP 145 RP, Biskra 07000, Algeria"},{"name":"Department of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Beira Interior, Rua Marqu\u00eas d\u2019\u00c1vila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7964-4623","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luis Carlos Carvalho","family":"Pires","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Beira Interior, Rua Marqu\u00eas d\u2019\u00c1vila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"},{"name":"C-MAST\u2014Center for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2204-3397","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pedro Dinho","family":"Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Beira Interior, Rua Marqu\u00eas d\u2019\u00c1vila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"},{"name":"C-MAST\u2014Center for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1691-1709","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pedro Dinis","family":"Gaspar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Beira Interior, Rua Marqu\u00eas d\u2019\u00c1vila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"},{"name":"C-MAST\u2014Center for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies, 6201-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"483","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2013.03.026","article-title":"Heating requirement and its costs in greenhouse structures: A case study for Mediterranean region of Turkey","volume":"24","author":"Canakci","year":"2013","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.1016\/0168-1923(86)90040-7","article-title":"The Performance of a Greenhouse Heated by an Earth Air Heat-Exchanger","volume":"36","author":"Mavroyanopoulos","year":"1986","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"878","DOI":"10.4028\/www.scientific.net\/AMM.590.878","article-title":"Characterization of the Specific Electrical Energy Consumption of Agrifood Industries in the Central Region of Portugal","volume":"590","author":"Gaspar","year":"2014","journal-title":"Appl. Mech. Mater."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1880","DOI":"10.4028\/www.scientific.net\/AMM.675-677.1880","article-title":"Specific Electrical Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions Assessment of Agrifood Industries in the Central Region of Portugal","volume":"675\u2013677","author":"Silva","year":"2014","journal-title":"Appl. Mech. Mater."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"763","DOI":"10.2495\/ESUS140681","article-title":"Characterization of the specific energy consumption of electricity in the Portuguese sausage industry","volume":"186","author":"Nunes","year":"2014","journal-title":"WIT Trans. Ecol. Environ."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113668","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enconman.2020.113668","article-title":"CO2 utilisation in agricultural greenhouses: A novel \u2018plant to plant\u2019 approach driven by bioenergy with carbon capture systems within the energy, water and food Nexus","volume":"228","author":"Ghiat","year":"2021","journal-title":"Energy Convers. Manag."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"133186","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclepro.2022.133186","article-title":"Toward carbon neutrality before 2060: Trajectory and technical mitigation potential of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from Chinese agriculture","volume":"368","author":"Chen","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Clean. Prod."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pires Gaspar, J., Dinis Gaspar, P., Dinho da Silva, P., Sim\u00f5es, M., and Santo, C. (2018). Energy Life-Cycle Assessment of Fruit Products\u2014Case Study of Beira Interior\u2019s Peach (Portugal). Sustainability, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/su10103530"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"133753","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclepro.2022.133753","article-title":"Design, technology, and management of greenhouse: A review","volume":"373","author":"Badji","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Clean. Prod."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103053","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2021.103053","article-title":"Strategies and scenarios to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission in the urban, rural and sustainable neighbourhoods","volume":"72","author":"Nematchoua","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"EU (2012). State of the Art on Energy Efficiency in Agriculture. 2012, FP7 Program of the EU with the Grant: Energy Consumption in Different Agro-Production Sectors in the European Countries, EU."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"74","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enbuild.2012.11.002","article-title":"Passive cooling dissipation techniques for buildings and other structures: The state of the art","volume":"57","author":"Santamouris","year":"2013","journal-title":"Energy Build."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"843","DOI":"10.1016\/j.buildenv.2005.04.014","article-title":"Thermal modeling for greenhouse heating by using thermal curtain and an earth\u2013air heat exchanger","volume":"41","author":"Shukla","year":"2006","journal-title":"Build. Environ."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2432","DOI":"10.1016\/j.renene.2005.11.006","article-title":"Annual thermal performance of greenhouse with an earth\u2013air heat exchanger: An experimental validation","volume":"31","author":"Tiwari","year":"2006","journal-title":"Renew. Energy"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hamdane, S., Silva, P.D., Pires, L.C., and Moummi, A. (2021, January 12\u201315). Comparison study between using air data and soil data in predicting soil temperature. Proceedings of the 14th World Congress in Computational Mechanics (WCCM), Virtual.","DOI":"10.23967\/wccm-eccomas.2020.093"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100806","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tsep.2020.100806","article-title":"Numerical approach to predict the outlet temperature of earth-to-air-heat-exchanger","volume":"21","author":"Hamdane","year":"2021","journal-title":"Therm. Sci. Eng. Prog."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1805","DOI":"10.1002\/htj.21458","article-title":"Parametric study on the performance of the earth-to-air heat exchanger for cooling and heating applications","volume":"48","author":"Hasan","year":"2019","journal-title":"Heat Transf. Asian Res."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Qi, D., Zhao, C., Li, S., Chen, R., and Li, A. (2021). Numerical Assessment of Earth to Air Heat Exchanger with Variable Humidity Conditions in Greenhouses. Energies, 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/en14051368"},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"e14358","article-title":"Review on techniques and treatments toward the mitigation of the chilling injury of peaches","volume":"46","author":"Rodrigues","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Food Process. Preserv."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1080\/14620316.1987.11515760","article-title":"A review of the effects of atmospheric humidity on the growth of horticultural crops","volume":"62","author":"Grange","year":"1987","journal-title":"J. Hortic. Sci."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Watson, J.A., G\u00f3mez, C., Buffington, D.E., Bucklin, R.A., Henley, R.W., and McConnell, D.B. (2019). Greenhouse Ventilation, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.","DOI":"10.32473\/edis-ae030-2019"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"583","DOI":"10.1007\/s10584-011-0028-6","article-title":"Temperature thresholds and crop production: A review","volume":"109","author":"Luo","year":"2011","journal-title":"Clim. Chang."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Fl\u00f3rez R., V.J. (2011). El Control del Clima de los Invernaderos de Pl\u00e1stico. Un Enfoque Actualizado, National University of Colombia."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"42","DOI":"10.1016\/j.renene.2021.03.120","article-title":"An integrated dynamic model for evaluating the influence of ground to air heat transfer system on heating, cooling and CO2 supply in Greenhouses: Considering crop transpiration","volume":"173","author":"Tahery","year":"2021","journal-title":"Renew. Energy"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"996","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2018.12.109","article-title":"Energy\/exergy based-evaluation of heating\/cooling potential of PV\/T and earth-air heat exchanger integration into a solar greenhouse","volume":"149","author":"Mahdavi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Therm. Eng."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109928","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2020.109928","article-title":"Application of basket geothermal heat exchangers for sustainable greenhouse cultivation","volume":"129","author":"Barbaresi","year":"2020","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"021007","DOI":"10.1115\/1.4007938","article-title":"Three Cooling Seasons Monitoring of Exergetic Performance Analysis of an EAHE Assisted Solar Greenhouse Building","volume":"135","author":"Ozgener","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Sol. Energy Eng."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2017.05.056","article-title":"Seven years energetic and exergetic monitoring for vertical and horizontal EAHE assisted agricultural building heating","volume":"80","author":"Ozgener","year":"2017","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1529","DOI":"10.1093\/ijlct\/ctab052","article-title":"Experimental investigation of a ground-source heat pump system for greenhouse heating\u2013cooling","volume":"16","author":"Harjunowibowo","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. J. Low-Carbon Technol."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applthermaleng.2012.06.005","article-title":"A performance comparison between a horizontal source and a vertical source heat pump systems for a greenhouse heating in the mild climate Elazi\u011f, Turkey","volume":"50","author":"Benli","year":"2013","journal-title":"Appl. Therm. Eng."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Calado, A. (2016). Monitoriza\u00e7\u00e3o da Temperatura do Solo. Desenvolvimento e Estudo Experimental de um Permutador de Calor ar-solo, in Electromechanical Engineering. [Master\u2019s Thesis, University of Beira Interior]."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Vitale, Z. (2020). Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger Application in Passive Greenhouse Heating or Cooling for Agricultural Use: A Practical Case, in Electromechanical Engineering. [Master\u2019s Thesis, University of Beira Interior]."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"279","DOI":"10.18280\/ijht.350208","article-title":"Numerical and experimental investigation on the transient behavior of an earth air heat exchanger in continuous operation mode","volume":"35","author":"Belloufi","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Heat Technol."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Bergman, T.L., Lavine, A.S., Incropera, F.P., and DeWitt, D.P. (2017). Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, Wiley. [8th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"IEA (2022, December 19). CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion 2013. Available online: https:\/\/www.bilans-ges.ademe.fr\/documentation\/UPLOAD_DOC_FR\/index.htm?moyenne_par_pays.htm."}],"container-title":["Applied Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-3417\/13\/2\/1119\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T18:05:48Z","timestamp":1760119548000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-3417\/13\/2\/1119"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,13]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1]]}},"alternative-id":["app13021119"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/app13021119","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-3417"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2076-3417","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,13]]}}}