A greenhouse farm (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Institute of Energy Research said Wednesday that it has developed an innovative heat exchanger that can store the cold of the winter under the ground and use it later for the cooling of farm greenhouses during the summer.
The new heat exchanger is based on the concept of heat transfer from high-temperature objects to low-temperature objects.
It consists of a winding capillary tube exposed to the cold outside air and connected to a cold storage tank, with refrigerant inside the tube.
Installed under the ground, the cold storage tank uses water as a storage medium to store the cold.
The heat exchanger does not require any external power supply for operation, and therefore, does not have any operational costs.
Compared to existing heat exchangers, the new one can reduce energy consumption by more than 50 percent, despite being more than 30 percent smaller than existing devices.
The research team installed the heat exchanger at a site on Seoul National University’s Pyeongchang Campus, and has been carrying out tests since March.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
