Evaluation of earth-air heat exchanger for cooling and heating a poultry house: Case study in Morocco

Recently, the Moroccan poultry industry has become an important sector of activity for the Moroccan economy. This industrial activity significantly contributes not only in the national economic growth, but also in the national food security. Nevertheless, this sector is currently facing numerous challenges that hinder its progress. One of the major obstacles facing poultry industry in Morocco is climate conditions including heat stress wave in summer and cold wave in winter that causes mortality and drop in performance (weight drop). Another problem facing the poultry industry is the relatively high consumption of conventional energy and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions. To overcome these problems, our work intends to introduce a modeling and design of an earth-air heat exchanger for a typical poultry house.