THESIS
2021
1 online resource (ix, 76 pages) : illustrations (some color)
Abstract
Vertical farming has attracted a lot of attention since it can significantly increase plant
productivity and land-use efficiency by combining hydroponic and multiple-layer planting
units. Plant growth in a vertical farming system relies on chemical nutrient solutions. The
Aquaponics system integrates the hydroponic and recirculating aquaculture, using fish
excrement as nutrient for vegetable growth. To date, the integration of vertical farming with
aquaponics systems has rarely been reported. In this study, we built a small scale vertical
aquaponic system and compared its environmental burden and ratio of investment and return
with Open Field Agriculture (OFA) and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems
by using a cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method based on a mon...[
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Vertical farming has attracted a lot of attention since it can significantly increase plant
productivity and land-use efficiency by combining hydroponic and multiple-layer planting
units. Plant growth in a vertical farming system relies on chemical nutrient solutions. The
Aquaponics system integrates the hydroponic and recirculating aquaculture, using fish
excrement as nutrient for vegetable growth. To date, the integration of vertical farming with
aquaponics systems has rarely been reported. In this study, we built a small scale vertical
aquaponic system and compared its environmental burden and ratio of investment and return
with Open Field Agriculture (OFA) and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) systems
by using a cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method based on a monetary
functional unit. The result shows that the vertical aquaponic approach the wished-profit,
with low environmental impacts, compared with other systems when running in a land-scarce
city, such as HK. By analyzing the LCA of the vertical farming system, we found that
light plays a dominant role in manipulating plant development, morphology and
resource use efficiency in vertical farming systems. LED is superior to conventional
lighting technologies, such as high-pressure sodium (HPS) fluorescent light (FL),
and tuning of the light intensity and spectra can be achieved by combining LED with
informatics tools. However, experiments on the plant growth under different light
recipes, which included five important light components (B, R, G, Fr, UV), have not
been reported in the literature. Therefore, this research is aimed at developing a light
recipe containing five spectra components for lettuce growth. And moreover,
explores how single-light-component-induced light intensity change affects lettuce
growth. Furthermore, introducing a new research method for light intensity
experiment, an orthogonal method is applied with intelligent LED panels which
integrate five dimmable-controlled spectra components. The result shows that plant
growth response is more significant at optimal light intensity. The insufficient
intensity of a single light component will result in a decrease in plant development. With few exceptions, over-dosed light components generally inhibit plant growth,
which can also guide people who are engaged in CEA work. For example, a blue-light-induced light intensity increase promotes the fresh weight of lettuces by
increasing the water content in the leaves. Plant growth is significantly sensitive to
UV-A and a small dose of UV-A could improve plant growth.
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