Requirements and features of cultivation system modules in advanced plant factories with artificial lighting

Publication date: 14/09/2023
Extent: 28 pages

Contributions by: Toyoki Kozai and Eri Hayashi, Japan Plant Factory Association, Japan

Chapter synopsis:

This chapter discusses the design and management principles of the cultivation room environment of a plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL), mainly based on its material and energy balance. Resource supply rates, product and waste outputs, and environmental factors can be accurately measured in an airtight and thermally insulated cultivation room. Then, hourly rates of net photosynthesis and transpiration of plants can be accurately estimated. Further, resource use efficiency (RUE) and productivity (PR) can be calculated online successively for each resource element, such as electricity, water, and CO2. The above features of PFAL are beneficial to improving the RUE and PR successively. The RUE and PR can be further improved by introducing plant phenotyping (trait measurements) and three-dimensionally uniform distribution of environmental factors inside the plant community. Then, energy-autonomous PFAL operated by electricity generated only by local natural energy can be realized.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2023.0126.03