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To ensure food security, agricultural production systems should innovate in the direction of increasing production while reducing utilized resources. Due to the higher level of automation with respect to traditional agricultural systems, Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) applications generally achieve better yields and quality crops at the expenses of higher energy consumption. In this context, Digital Twin (DT) may constitute a fundamental tool to reach the optimization of the productivity, intended as the ratio between production and resource consumption. For this reason, a DT Architecture for CEA systems is introduced within this work and applied to a case study for its validation. The proposed architecture is potentially able to optimize productivity since it utilizes simulation software that enables the optimization of: (i) Climate control strategies related to the control of the crop microclimate; (ii) treatments related to crop management. Due to the importance of food security in the worldwide landscape, the authors hope that this work may impulse the investigation of strategies for improving the productivity of CEA systems.

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In the present work, the thermophilic aerobic membrane reactor technology was studied for the treatment of high strength aqueous wastes mainly containing dyes, surfactants and solvents. The thermophilic biomass resilience and the process stability under critical conditions (such as rapid rise of the mixed liquor pH, oxygen supply interruption, etc.) were also evaluated. The experimental work was carried out with the use of a pilot plant at semi-industrial scale, which was managed throughout for 14 months; the operation temperature was 49 °C and the organic loading rate was increased from 3 to 12 kg m d. Critical conditions, especially the interruption of oxygen supply, affected the pilot plant performance but did not cause a complete system break down. After the temporary reduction of process performance, also proven by the decrease in the oxygen consumption, the normal working conditions were restored. Moreover, the longer non-aerated phase involved a significant reduction (40%) of volatile suspended solids concentration in the biological reactor and the increase of 30% in foaming power; nevertheless, once the oxygen supply was reactivated, optimal conditions were rapidly restored. Therefore, the study showed the high resilience of the thermophilic biomass, which was able to recover full functionality after critical events.