How energy innovation in indoor vertical farming can improve food security, sustainability, and food safety?

Avgoustaki, Dafni Despoina; Xydis, George

doi:10.1016/bs.af2s.2020.08.002

Cited by 78 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Similarly, Harbick and Albright, found a single layer plant factory required 1014 kWh•m −2 •year −1 of electric lighting assuming a lower PAR efficacy of about 1.7 µmol•J −1 [6]. Graamans [21] of electric lighting energy to meet a DLI target of 20 mol•day −1 , however, achieving this would require an unrealistically high PAR efficacy of 8.74 µmol•J −1 that is beyond physical limitations [36]. Discrepancy among studies is partly due to the variation in modeling assumptions and reported units, reflecting the need to clearly report PAR efficacy in CEA simulation research and horticultural lighting-product labels [40].…”

Section: Skyscraper Farm In a Fieldmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Similarly, others have developed techniques to understand the spatial lighting distribution in greenhouses to aid design and operation [19,20]. Benis et al developed a simulation-based workflow to model urban building-integrated agriculture with access to natural light, which included a lightsimulation step [21]; however their work focused on rooftop greenhouses. Various other studies have considered the viability of urban agriculture focusing on economics, workforce, and reduction in transportation [22][23][24]; however the lighting conditions in skyscraper farms have not received much in depth analysis.…”

Section: Introduction and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling Natural Light Availability in Skyscraper Farms

et al. 2021

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Lighting is a major component of energy consumption in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) operations. Skyscraper farms (multilevel production in buildings with transparent glazing) have been proposed as alternatives to greenhouse or plant factories (opaque warehouses) to increase space-use efficiency while accessing some natural light. However, there are no previous models on natural light availability and distribution in skyscraper farms. This study employed climate-based daylight modeling software and the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) dataset to investigate the effects of building geometry and context shading on the availability and spatial distribution of natural light in skyscraper farms in Los Angeles (LA) and New York City (NYC). Electric energy consumption for supplemental lighting in 20-storey skyscraper farms to reach a daily light integral target was calculated using simulation results. Natural lighting in our baseline skyscraper farms without surrounding buildings provides 13% and 15% of the light required to meet a target of 17 mol·m−2·day−1. More elongated buildings may meet up to 27% of the lighting requirements with natural light. However, shading from surrounding buildings can reduce available natural light considerably; in the worst case, natural light only supplies 5% of the lighting requirements. Overall, skyscraper farms require between 4 to 11 times more input for lighting than greenhouses per crop canopy area in the same location. We conclude that the accessibility of natural light in skyscraper farms in dense urban settings provides little advantage over plant factories.

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Section: Skyscraper Farm In a Fieldmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introduction and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Natural Light Availability in Skyscraper Farms

et al. 2021

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“…Nutrient solutions prepared with feedstock (nitrified synthetic urine) contained excessive amounts of sodium and chloride and consequently had higher EC in comparison to commercial fertilizers (reference module). It was noted that the higher sodium content might result in higher salt concentrations in the plant tissue and that this might cause, leaf necrosis or a slower growth rate [30,31]. The nutrient solution and undiluted feedstock (nitrified urine) compositions are shown in Table 2.…”

Section: Hydroponic Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource Recovery from Synthetic Nitrified Urine in the Hydroponic Cultivation of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa Var. capitata L.)

et al. 2021

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The application of hydroponic cultivation fertilized with biologically nitrified synthetic urine can produce nitrate-rich fertilizer for lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata L.). The mounting water crisis and depletion of natural resources makes nitrogen recovery from human urine a practical option. Nitrified urine can be used in indoor vertical hydroponic cultivation and is characterized by a high degree of element recovery. Because of its high ammonium content, hydrolyzed fresh urine may be toxic. A nitrification sequencing batch reactor with suspended activated sludge biomass ensured urine stabilization and biological conversion into nitrate-rich fertilizer. The diluted nitrate-rich fertilizer was then supplied for soilless cultivation. The results show that diluted nitrified urine is an excellent source of bioavailable nitrogen and phosphorus and, with proper enrichment with microelements, could replace commercial fertilizers in hydroponic systems. The yield and quality parameters of lettuce cultivated with enriched urine were comparable to those obtained with a commercial fertilizer. The mass balance calculation showed that industry-scale lettuce production can be based on urine fertilizer collected from a few hundred people for a single unit.

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“…Scientists have conducted various studies aiming to commercialize plant factories [5]. For example, cultivation experts have focused on artificial light [6][7][8][9], nutrient solutions, environmental control [10,11], energy saving [7,12,13], and planting modes [14,15]. In terms of production equipment, agricultural equipment experts have also studied automatic production in plant factories.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis on Transporting Methods of Cultivation Unit for Vertical Cultivation in Plant Factory

Yang

et al. 2021

Agriculture

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Automatic transport can improve the operational efficiency in plant factory production and reduce the use of labor. However, a determination of a plant factory automation operation mode should comprehensively consider the economic strength of the enterprise, operation objects and operation mode, production scale, technical strength, labor costs, and other factors. In this study, a logistics transport system comprising a set of cultivation units was developed for plant factories, using a mode based on shelf-end delivery without power inside the shelf. Moreover, an analysis was conducted on four modes of common transportation methods for the cultivation units for vertical cultivation in plant factories. The results showed that, when comparing the progressive transport type and warehousing/reciprocating transport type for cultivation units, the transport productivity of the former is higher than that of the latter, and the difference in the two transport productivities is proportional to the capacity for cultivation units in each layer. When the capacities for cultivation units in each layer are 20 and 40, the transport productivity of the former is 115–200% and 130–250% higher than that of the latter, respectively. Moreover, the logistics transport system developed herein reaches an input (output) transport productivity of 330 (270) cultivation units h−1.

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How energy innovation in indoor vertical farming can improve food security, sustainability, and food safety?

Cited by 78 publications

References 41 publications

Modeling Natural Light Availability in Skyscraper Farms

Modeling Natural Light Availability in Skyscraper Farms

Resource Recovery from Synthetic Nitrified Urine in the Hydroponic Cultivation of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa Var. capitata L.)

Analysis on Transporting Methods of Cultivation Unit for Vertical Cultivation in Plant Factory

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