A new approach for soil solarization by using paraffin-wax emulsion as a mulching material

A.W. Al-Kayssi and A. Al-Karaghouli

Renewable Energy, 2002, vol. 26, issue 4, 637-648

Abstract: Soil mulching material significantly affects the energy balance and soil thermal regime. In order to study the effect of soil mulching with a paraffin-wax emulsion on soil thermal regime, we developed a one-dimensional numerical model, which simulates the microclimate of the mulched soil. The model consists of two layers: soil and paraffin-wax emulsion film. Climatic conditions, soil physical characteristics, and photometric properties of the mulching material are considered. Field measurements verify the model's ability to predict the temperature regime of the paraffin-wax mulched soil. Both numerical and field experiments show that mulching the soil with paraffin-wax emulsion, rather than transparent polyethylene ones, results in more effective heating of the soil and, therefore, faster killing of pathogenic soil fungi. Physically based explanations are given for the measured and computed results.

Keywords: Soil solarization; Paraffin-wax; Mulch; Soil temperature; Heating coefficient (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148101001203
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:26:y:2002:i:4:p:637-648

DOI: 10.1016/S0960-1481(01)00120-3

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().