LIGHTING SYSTEM BASED ON LIGHT EMITTING DIODES FOR ROOTING OF PLANT AND SEED MATERIAL

Ziel

The aim of the project is to demonstrate the viability of rooting planting material in fully closed, insulated climate-controlled cells, with less energy consumption compared with the traditional rooting method in glass houses, whereby the quality of the plants grown in the climate-cells must be equal or better than the quality obtained in traditional glass house culture. There is no heating with natural gas or oil, because heating is a result of the rest heat of lamps, fans etc. in the climate cells.
Rooting is induced in the plants using clear red light emitting diodes as a stimulus. Each light source consists of 18 LED's and consumes 1 Watt electrical energy (4,0 W/m2).
In the glass houses the heating is done by natural gas (about 35 m3/m2) and lighting by high pressure sodium lamps which consumes 450 Watt electrical energy (45 W/m2).
The measured energy consumption of a Nijssen climate-controlled cell with a production area of 840 m2 is : 11,86 TOE/yr.
The specific energy consumption is : 14,12 * E10-3 TOE/m2 .yr.
This energy consumption has to be compared with that in a traditional glasshouse for the same production area. The energy consumption of a traditional production glasshouse for rooting planting material for a production area of 840 m2.is :
. lamps : 84 pcs x 450 W x 3800 hours = 37,059 TOE/yr.
. heating : 35 m3/m2 x 840 x 200/360 days/yr = 16.333 m3/yr. = 12,348 TOE/yr
TOTAL 49,407 TOE/yr.
The specific energy consumption is : 58,82 E10 - 3 TOE/m2. yr was the eventually the aim of the project to demonstrate!
THE DIFFERENCE in energy consumption between the climate-controlled cells and a traditional glasshouse, used for rooting plant material, is 49,41 - 11,86 = 37,55 TOE/yr.
This amounts to a 76% reduction!
The aim of theproject still is to demonstrate the viability of rooting planting material, whereby the quality of the planting material must be equal or better than the quality obtainable in traditional glasshouses.
The results show that the growth rate of grafted rose cuttings is less than that of ordinary cuttings. There is also considerable variability between cultivars.
The main conclusion is that the quality of the manting material obtained from the climate-controlled cell at this stage is still imperfect, in spite of the excellent technical performance of the system. In conclusion, the original objective of using a climate-controlled cell incorporating the NLS lighting system was not fully reached (only as a far as the technical aspect is concerned, not the botanical aspect).
Climate-controlled cells (5) have been built for rooting plant material under very bright and clear light emitting diodes (LED's), a patented invention of Nijsen Light Division. The growing and lighting takes place in 6 layers. The cells are fully closed rooms with a concrete floor incorporating floor insulation, built from insulated polystyrene foam filled panels (K)= 0.2 W/k.m2 with insulated doors. To effectively induce the rooting of plant material in the cell, a constant extremely high relative humidity in excess of 99% must be maintained at an ambient temperature of approximately 22 deg. C - 24 deg. C. For this purpose the so called Filacell system is employed, which is a capable of humidifying and, if necessary, cooling the air in the cell.
The principle of the Filacell system is, that the air is cooled and humified at the same time. A pump circulates water over a special package material. The circulating air is in counterflow with the water. At the package material indefinitely heat and mass, transfer takes place.
The water is cooled before in an extra waterbath, provided with cooling coils, which are connected to a refrigeration system. For the 5 climate-controlled cells, is installed a relative small central cooling system, which consists of 4 compressors with a cooling capacity totally of 18 kW.
The heating of the cell is done by the rest heat of the circulation fans, the (little) heat of the lamps, the heat production of the plants (respiration heat in the dark period) and the heat of the water pump. In other words due to the very good insulation of the cell, almost all the heat which is produced remains in the cell. The cooling installation prevents the air temperature from rising higher than the setpoint temperature.

Programm/Programme

ENG-ENDEMO C - Programme (EEC) of demonstration projects and industrial pilot projects (EEC) in the energy field, 1985-1989

Thema/Themen

3.1 - AGRICULTURE

Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung

Data not available

Finanzierungsplan

DEM - Demonstration contracts

Koordinator

NIJSSEN LIGHT DIVISION BV

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Adresse

SCIENCE PARK EINSTEINWEG 3
2333 CC LEIDEN
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