Innovation in Greenhouse Engineering

Abstract

Innovations in greenhouse engineering are technical developments which help evolve the state-of-the-art in CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture). They occur in response to the operational demands on the system, and to strategic changes in expectations of the production system. Influential operational factors include availability of labor, cost for energy, logistics of transport, etc. Influential strategic factors result from broader, regional issues such as environmental impact, product safety and consistency, and consumer demand. These are industry-wide concerns that have the effect of changing the production system in the long term. Global issues are becoming more influential on greenhouse production sustainability, and include less tangible issues such as social acceptance, political stability, quality of life benefits, and environmental stewardship. These offer much more complex challenges and are generally beyond the realm of engineering. However global issues do affect greenhouse engineering innovation. The most effective innovations in greenhouse engineering design, operations and management, will incorporate input from partnerships with the academic, private and public sectors of society. Furthermore, successful applications include, at least to some degree a multidisciplinary approach of the sciences, engineering and economics, while for ultimate success and sustainability, societal and political support must also be attained. For this overview of innovation in greenhouse engineering a list of influential factors, or "driving forces" affecting the development, application, evolution and acceptance of greenhouse systems have been described. The factors are similar for all greenhouse systems around the world, as they include the plant biology of the crop, the physical components of the structure and production system hardware, the management and logistics of labor and materials, and the mechanism of marketing the crop. Each greenhouse system, wherever located, must resolve similar problems for its specific application. The magnitude of the factors and their relative local importance are different for the specific sites. The design response will be introduced and related to the factors, as examples of innovation.

Green-energy, water-autonomous greenhouse system: an alternative-technology approach towards sustainable smart-green vertical greening in smart cities

“…The Naples event of the Greensys 2007 symposium (Giacomelli, 2007) demonstrated that room for improvement in greenhouse cropping is evident. In Naples, the main focus was on a famous closed greenhouse prototype named Watergy Regarding innovation in greenhouse engineering, Giacomelli (2007) points out in his address that: (1) greenhouse components and designs directly impact on crop growth; (2) correctly assessing the importance of crop-greenhouse interactions is needed; (3) real-time measuring of a maximum number of parameters is necessary; and (4) other than the Watergy project, engineers have to find the ways and means to substantially reduce energy and water use and to ensure that an acceptable return on investment can be achieved when high enough yields are produced.…”

“…In Naples, the main focus was on a famous closed greenhouse prototype named Watergy Regarding innovation in greenhouse engineering, Giacomelli (2007) points out in his address that: (1) greenhouse components and designs directly impact on crop growth; (2) correctly assessing the importance of crop-greenhouse interactions is needed; (3) real-time measuring of a maximum number of parameters is necessary; and (4) other than the Watergy project, engineers have to find the ways and means to substantially reduce energy and water use and to ensure that an acceptable return on investment can be achieved when high enough yields are produced. In the opinion of Prof. Stefania De Pascale, convener of Greensys 2007, a greenhouse system is in some respect already an energy-saving system compared to open field agriculture and is an excellent environment to achieve an optimal balance between an efficient environmental control and an efficient plant use of the available resources (Giacomelli, 2007).…”

Solar Driven Agricultural Greenhouse Integrated with Desalination System; Energy-Water-Food Nexus

“…An agricultural greenhouse (GH) is an enclosed transparent house used to protect crops from critical ambient climate conditions and pests, and provide the opportunity to adjust the indoor microclimate suitable for crop growth and production, both in terms of quantity and quality [6]. GH enables year-round crop production and improves the yield and quality of crops through control of the physical environmental factors such as light, water, temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration, and ventilation [7]. GH technology can guarantee the sustainable and secure food production by increasing the production yield up to ten times more [1], and decreasing the 11.8 m 3 /d per capita water requirements by 80 % compared to conventional cultivation [2,3].…”

Modeling of Energy Demand of a High-Tech Greenhouse in Warm Climate Based on Bayesian Networks

“…Nonetheless, these averaged climatic conditions and 2 Mathematical Problems in Engineering strategies are the result of a dynamic interaction between the greenhouse structures and the varying daily values of outdoor temperature, solar irradiance, relative humidity, and wind velocity. In spite of the overall good performance shown above, it is possible that in a relevant number of hours over the year, active measures are required to maintain crop growth and increase greenhouse productivity [7][8][9]. In addition to this, the passive and eventually active climate control strategies must address both demands: heating and cooling, introducing an added complexity factor to the system's selection and operation [10].…”