Smart application system for evaporation suppressants

Evaporation loss from water storages is a significant challenge for the cotton industry.  Much research has been undertaken to develop and assess evaporation mitigation technologies.  Chemical covers (both monolayer and multimolecular films) are commercially available and have demonstrated evaporation savings of 0%-40%.  This variability in the performance of the chemical covers is primarily due to poor distribution across the water surface when applied from the side of the storage due to wind or wave action. Also chemical films may susceptible to photodegradation and/or consumption by algae or bacteria which then requires regular reapplication. This can be managed using a smart application and monitoring system which detects when the products are likely to have the highest rate of success, then makes decisions on where and how much suppressant product to apply. The advance of precision agriculture and acceptance of drones for automated sensing and control operations (eg precision irrigation and crop spraying) is increasing. However, this is not a drone-only application project. This project will investigate an integrated system that can monitor and automate application decisions based on local and forecast weather, then differentially apply evaporation mitigation products strategically at various locations across the storage, accounting for wind and evaporation rates and other storage conditions. This project will: Identify and assess the scale of evaporation loss across the cotton industry and the technical and economic feasibility of evaporation mitigation technologies, especially smart monolayer and multimolecular systems applied using smart decision support models. Detail the prototyping requirement for the development, testing, and scaling up of a smart evaporation mitigation product application system including monitoring and assessment technologies. Outline the next steps required to develop the system both commercially and technically.