Phase change materials applied in agricultural greenhouses

The agricultural greenhouse section takes up the largest part of total final energy consumption in agriculture in the majority of countries. This review focuses on the applications of phase change materials in agricultural greenhouses aiming at energy conservation and providing a comfortable environment for crops’ growth and development. The significance of this article is to offer valuable guidance for choosing proper PCMs for agricultural greenhouse applications and how to appropriately use various PCMs for special scenarios in greenhouses. The research method covers how to search and determine valuable literature of PCM applications in greenhouses recently using incorporating various keyword combinations via popular database sources. . The research content includes the section of results reviews types of PCMs, thermo-physical properties, life cycles of PCMs, PCMs applications in greenhouses, parametric sensitivity study, PCM performance in greenhouses and mathematical models, respectively. The main research conclusions have been drawn that (1) Different from PCM applications in human-occupied buildings, thermal requirement of crop growth between day and night is adequately considered, the PCM melting temperature should be close to each crop’ individual suitable growing temperature; (2) the main type of PCM used in greenhouses is paraffin wax and paraffin wax-based composite, which accounts for 30% of selected literature.