Suitability of wetland macrophyte in green cooling tower performance

Abstract

Green cooling towers, or thermal green-walls, recirculate hot water flowing through a living plant and porous material. Through convective and evaporative heat and mass transfer they can actively cool a building or an industrial heat waste. Thus they can provide an alternative cooling technology. Thermal green-walls use wetland plant species in highly constructed wetlands selected for their heat tolerance. In addition, they offer such co-benefits as carbon capture and control of local microclimates. Optimal heat rejection (HR) requires the plant rhizosphere to be completely inundated at temperatures much higher than the ambient air temperature, potentially inducing thermal physiological stress. To study the viability of specific plants within a HR system, we exposed three macrophytes, Iris versicolor, Scirpus cyperinus and Carex lurida, to hydroponic recirculating water at three different temperatures (25 °C, 35 °C, and 40 °C). We assessed the plant responses over a period of eight weeks by measuring photochemical efficiency, leaf temperature, stomatal conductance, Gs and biomass output. Plant biomass was highest at 35 °C (particularly in I. versicolor), even higher than ambient water temperature at 25 °C. We observed a general homeothermic-like response in Gs over a 5-week time period, but the response was species-specific with respect to temperature. Results suggests a possible leaf-level physiological acclimation mechanism as well as high maintenance of tissue moisture that allows macrophytes to tolerate hydro-thermal stress, and support their suitability to perform in HR systems at input temperature, Twin = 35 °C.