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Sustainable production of forest regeneration materials for protection against climate change

Final Report Summary - REGEN-FOREST (Sustainable production of forest regeneration materials for protection against climate change)

Executive Summary:
Currently, forested ecosystems face sustainability problems due to drastic climate changes that are associated with increased temperature values. Forests are particularly sensitive to those changes mainly due to their high and complex biodiversity levels when compared to other ecosystems.
The lack of capital investments for technical developments has implied a situation where cost efficiency in the production of forest regeneration materials is low and often burdened with environmental problems.
The Regen-Forest project successfully introduced a new technology for the production of forest seedlings in order to promote a sustainable production in the most cost efficient and environmentally friendly mobile unit.
The project involves a prototype of growth chamber to cultivate forest seedlings and contains LED lamps with continuous spectrum (not just red and blue) and 10 rotating shelves that can hold 30 trays of up to 17280 seedlings per cycle.
The technology behind the project involves four components owned by three SMEs: Greek-based Alphatec, Italian firm Amcota and the Helsinki-based firm Valoya. Also as partners in this project were important industries and stakeholders like Holmen Skog (Sweden), Egnatia (Greece) and Vivai Torsanlorenzo (Italy).
The unit has 3 LED lamps with a continuous spectrum quite different from the “ordinary” red and blue spectra presently on the market, that are much more adequate for the plants’ growth. Project’s research partners Tuscia University (Italy), Dalarna University (Sweden) and National
Agricultural Research Foundation (Greece) performed growth experiments with several tree species.
Valoya’s AP67 lamp was chosen based on testing different continuous Valoya spectra with varying combinations of blue, green, red and far red in traditional growth chambers, in order to find the optimal combination.
The rotating shelves provide consistent temperature and humidity. Intermittent light was proven to provide excellent growth results. These features can not be achieved with ‘static’ growth chambers and this is “what provides energy savings and creates uniform growth conditions to the plants.”
Sprinklers, temperature and humidity are managed by the control system developed by Alphatec, and in terms of space and energy savings it is five times more efficient than standard models.
The unit manufactured by Amcota requires between 5.5 and 6 amps at 220 volts AC (a load of 1.2 – 1.3 kW) and due to it’s lighter weight and reduced energy consumption it can be relocated, and run on a portable generator.
The REGEN-FOREST project was successfully completed at the end of December 2013, and coordinated by Professor Rosanna Bellarosa of the DAFNE Department at Tuscia University, Italy.
Following an adequate dissemination during the project activities and some articles published on specialized magazines, the project partners have already received several requests of information about possible purchasing of this innovative growth chamber. Now on the project website www.regenforest.eu there is an advice explaining that the unit produced is a prototype , but the SME partners are now studying the commercial production and the price for the customers.
In the meanwhile interested customers can visit for free the unit running in the premises of Tuscia University, and also make a test (full cycle) in the unit with their own seeds and protocols by just paying the expenses .

Project Context and Objectives:
The Regen-Forest project objective is to introduce a new technology for the production of forest regeneration seedlings in order to promote a sustainable production in the most cost efficient and environmentally friendly mobile unit. The environment where the mobile unit will be placed will not be affected by the outdoor climate, while the light source will be based on specific “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)”.
The results achieved, related to the overall project’s objective are:

- to identify suitable LED light spectrum regarding several important forest species in Europe by extensive tests in conventional growth chambers;
- to develop protocols for optimal growth of respective species;
- to develop suitable LED equipment;
- to define characteristics of the mobile production unit in regard to technical performance and growth environment;
- to construct a mobile production unit based on these characteristics;
- to exploit the project results in Europe.
The use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) has increased substantially in recent times. Moreover, it replaced conventional light sources in many areas mainly through its considerably lower energy consumption, reduced heat emission and extended lifetime of the light source.
The possibility to use LEDs in commercial production of forest regeneration seedlings has never been tested before. In pre-cultivation the possibility of using LEDs instead of artificial light will contribute to major economic and environmental benefits. To commercially introduce this technology, extensive tests have been performed to identify suitable LED light spectrum for different European forest species.
The new LED-integrated technology will make a drastic change to the state-of the-art in the forest nursery production that could serve regeneration and reforestation purposes. In addition, it is more cost efficient, improves the sustainable management of forest production and contributes to the environmental protection through a noticeable energy saving by adopting the LED technology. It will also reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and, since the LED lamps do not produce additional warming, there will be further energy saving by reducing the air conditioning costs.
The creation of a mobile production unit that uses the LED lamps has been a challenging task completely fulfilled by the RTD performers in close cooperation with the SMEs.
Such a new technology has been integrated in a flexible mobile production unit that can be now placed on the market to succeed.
Besides 3 RTDs and SMEs the consortium includes 3 end user (OTH) from Sweden, Italy and Greece respectively. Their advice was strategic for the final development of this sustainable system for the production of forest regeneration seedlings.

Project Results:
REGEN-FOREST is a FP7 Capacities–SME project, meaning a project fully dedicated to improve the competitiveness of the European SMEs in the global market; it is targeted to 3 SMEs from Italy, Finland and Greece, with good complementary skills that make them able to achieve the project objective and exploit the results.

The project output is composed by four main integrated components:

a) LED lamps with a continuous spectrum, quite different from the "ordinary" red and blue spectra at the present on the market and more adequate for the plants growth

b) Internal continuous rotating system that guarantees average constant values of light, temperature and humidity for all the plants: this is not possible in the ordinary "static" growth chambers, where the different distance from the lights and the cool air output makes a significant difference in the growth conditions of the single plant.

c) Specific growth protocols, different for each plant species, studied for the use inside this innovative growth unit

d) A control system able to manage all the parameters related to the different protocols, but simple enough to be managed by everybody after few hours of training
The use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) has increased substantially in recent times and replaced conventional light sources in many areas mainly through considerably lower energy consumption, reduced heat emission and extended lifetime of the light source.

The specific characteristics are reported only in some confidential deliverables (only for partners and Commission's eyes), while a general overview is provided as follows:

a). LED Lamps
The SME partner Valoya produces LED Lamps for greenhouses and has studied several different spectra: In order to validate Valoya's LED light system based on the emission of a wide continuous spectrum, several forest tree species (Pinus sylvestris and Abies cephalonica, for Greece; Myrtus communis, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus suber and Quercus ilex, for Italy; Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies, for Sweden) have been studied by the 3 RTD [DU (Sweden); DEMETER (Greece); UNITUS(Italy)] by testing the influence of 4 different LED spectra and one fluorescent spectrum on plant growth according to morphometric parameters (plant fresh and dry weight; root dry weight; shoot/root ratio and, for some species, also some biochemical compound, such as chlorophill, carotenoids, proteins, and enzyme activity) to be collected during both the growth chamber and the outdoor experiments.
Each RTD has defined the cultural conditions (temperature, photoperiod, humidity, mini-plug container type and size, etc) useful for their own tree species and performed the same set of analysis on forest tree species (see the REGEN FOREST - Test setup).
After a deep review of the current Growth chambers practice, Valoya examined the tests results and found out that:
- concerning appropriate light spectrum for growing tree seedlings in a growth chamber, Valoya G2 showed good results in an earlier pilot study at Dalarna University;
- Combined with the current results from Sweden, Greece and Italy, it can be concluded that Valoya AP67 and also Valoya AP67 Arch are the most suitable ones for tree seedlings.


b) New Growth Chamber with internal continuous rotating system

The design of the unit has been delivered in the first 7 months of the project: this new rotating culture system has 10 shelves; each shelve can contain up to 3 plastic trays of size ℓ = 53cm. p x = 31.5.
The usable surface for the cultivation is a net area 5 m² and the environment to be conditioned has a net volume of 6.5 m³.
The total weight of the unit is be less than 600 Kg, including the conditioning system: this means that its position, in a flat paved floor, can be manually changed by a single person through its retractable four wheels .
The unit has been built and tested in an external laboratory , then has been deployed in the premises of DAFNE Department in Tuscia University (Viterbo - Italy), where the final on-site test has been succesfully done. At the present the unit is properly working according to the project expectations.
The following public video clips showing the construction and test phases are available on You Tube:
Test irrigation in lab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA9Tkuqlrjw
Test irrigation in Lab 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVFq2N0iYTg
Test-rotation and lamps in Lab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuOZyTBMw4o
On site test preparation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN5aQK6A3PM
Test-irrigation on site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyR6JSv_vtg
Final test on site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjOfvbGIpxA
As well as on the project website www.regenforest.eu
The full electric load (with the unit placed in an internal premise of the University) is around 1,4KW with all the 30 trays filled.

c) Control System for the new Growth Chamber
The control system of the unit is able to control, through a programmed PLC, the main function of the growth chamber (temperature, irrigation cycle, photoperiod) according to the specific growth tests. Each cycle is automatic but can be modified by the operator, if needed.

d) Growth protocols

The experiments made by the RTD performers with the specific protocols indicated that :
LED lights are suitable for the pre-cultivation of forest plants in controlled environment.
The prototype has proved to be a cost-efficient production system with high potential because of:
-the large number of plants hold by the unit (5 times respect to an ordinary growth chamber with the same volume);
-the energy saving (a power consumption of about one-fifth respects to an ordinary one);
-the high mechanization of the prototype and the results obtained

Potential Impact:
The competitiveness of the SMEs will improved by the new technology, according to the goals of the FP7 Capacities - SMEs projects. The SMEs will become more competitive in various aspects:
- on an economical level, since the new production technology will be advantageous regarding lower prices and higher volumes of the forest regeneration material produced compared to state-of-the-art;
- on a quality level, since the regeneration material produced will be of high quality, ensured by closely controlled germination and growth conditions.
- in regard to environmental protection since the new technology applied by the SMEs will be characterised by low consumption of energy, water and fertilizers as well as by chemical limitations.
- in regard to addressing the market need since the new technology will enable an economical production of regeneration materials of numerous forest species, even the ones previously absent from the forest nursery market.
- in regard to open a future possibility of a large scale production of forest regeneration material based on somatic embryos instead of seeds offered by the closely controlled environment given by the new technology.


The 3 participant SMEs are sharing the ownership of each results and will continue, after the end of the project with the exploitation of the new knowledge.
The new REGEN-FOREST growth unit has noticeable market potentialities:
i. it can be used both in labs and “on site”;
ii. its control system, once the specific growth protocol is loaded, is very simple and adapted to be managed by non-specialized personnel.
iii. the unit has been designed to facilitate a parallel use of more units for larger production.
iv. its adoption will lead to a certified production with significant energy savings, sensitive respect to air conditioning energy and substantial with regard to the lighting system.
v. the impact on the optimization of the reforestation operations will be relevant, both for the quality of the seedlings and the possibility to have the production “on site”.
Due to the above, also the RTD performers are interested in future exploitation: they can provide more growth protocols (we should remember that the protocols developed during the project are owned by the SMEs), or customization of the existing ones, according to the clients needs
The exploitation plan of the Regen-Forest results has been detailed in the Deliverable D5.6..
It is based on an enhanced concept of a “Distributed Company” composed by the SMEs (which will maintain the fully ownerships of the project results) and with the participation of the RTD performers when new or readjusted growth protocols will be required by the customers.
Even if the distributed model still feels very strange to business people who are used to the traditional, centralized way of running a company, it might even work a lot better than the traditional model for this specific type of businesses.
Each consortium partner will continue in doing his specific business and/or research activity in his location; a robust exploitation agreement will define, after the project termination, how they will contribute to create a common competitive advantage, through a set of interrelated activities.
There is also an agreement between the 3 RTD performers to continue the tests also after the project, in order to better prepare the exploitation phase.
The testing program is continuing also after the end of the project, to obtain useful information for the better possible exploitation of the new knowledge raised by REGEN FOREST.

List of Websites:

www.regenforest.eu