First chemical free, sustainable & scalable disinfection system for intense agriculture in greenhouse facilities

Project Information

SPARC

Grant agreement ID: 868040

DOI

10.3030/868040

Project closed

EC signature date 21 July 2019

Start date 1 June 2019

End date 30 September 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

TECH MIST LTD
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SPARC (First chemical free, sustainable & scalable disinfection system for intense agriculture in greenhouse facilities)

Reporting period: 2019-06-01 to 2019-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In the ideal greenhouse environment fruits and vegetables grow without the risk of infections, pathogen control costs are minimized, and greenhouse workers are not unknowingly compromised by their working environment. This allows for greenhouse operators to attain their maximum yields and profits. Unfortunately, this is not the reality. Pests and pathogens are present and billions of euros in production are lost every year by greenhouse operators stemming from contamination and inefficient greenhouse treatment methods. Once a pest or pathogen is present within a greenhouse it is costly in both time and money to eliminate. Leading to significant increases in the use of synthetic pesticides; from 0.2 million tons in 1950s to more than 5 million tons by 2000. This has a direct effect on the surrounding environment; pesticides can seep into the ground, putting at risk drinking water and surrounding ecosystems. To combat this, techmist has developed SPARC, a highly reactive gas-based system that provides unprecedented levels of disinfection and pest demise and is a unique approach to the infrastructure management of disinfection and pest management in a greenhouse environment. During the project, the company is looking to upgrade the hardware of the system to improve the sensing capabilities, and corresponding firmware. Scale up of in house capacity will allow them to produce additional units for demonstration and validation in Holland and the UK.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

TechMist’s SPARC is unknown player in the EU and competes with a high volume, established chemical pesticide and disinfectant market, therefore market scepticism will be a key barrier for market entry. To overcome this barrier, a key finding from the feasibility study revived that fast market penetration would require engineering upgrades to the SPARC to improve user experience and interfacing during treatment. With simultaneous improvements in treatment efficiency and costs via real time analysis. The ability for smart learning from each treatment was also deemed imperative for entry into Europe’s diverse greenhouse produce and climate. Additionally, the company performed detailed analysis of the of the global and EU greenhouse market. They identified Holland, UK, France, Italy and Spain as the established and growing markets and therefore well placed for initial market penetration. Finally the company decided to execute a B2B model, selling directly to greenhouse growers, and also mapped the regulatory landscape with a special emphasis on acquiring the CE mark.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The expected outcome of the project is to successfully execute the market validation and demonstrate that the value of highly effective disinfection capability in the segment of greenhouses. The powerful disinfection capacity coupled with the data driven analytics of the system will enable easy and seamless greenhouse disinfection to maximize the growing capacity of the growers, minimzing the risk of infection and subsequent financial losses, all while protecting the environment. The SPARC development will boost economic growth and create jobs within TechMist.

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