Temperature responsive shading solution for greenhouse climate control

用于温室气候控制的温度响应遮阳解决方案

• 批准号: 10053585
• 金额: $ 43.02万
• 依托单位: ALBOTHERM LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10053585
• 关键词: Temperature; responsive; shading; solution; greenhouse

The world needs to produce 50% more food by 2050 to feed a population that will reach nearly 10 billion in this time. Meanwhile arable land has decreased by 30% in the last 40 years due to the effects of urbanisation and climate change. It is essential that we increase the productivity of the arable land we have available to ensure future food security for our population.At Albotherm, we are developing greenhouse coatings that reversibly transition from transparent to white to shade crops in hot weather, allowing internal temperature regulation without electrical input. Our technology can increase light levels compared to standard shading, giving an estimated yield increase of up to 25%. For the UK this would mean up to 578,200 tonnes of extra food produced each year.Moreover, the use of fans in cooling UK greenhouses accounts for 235 million kWh of energy each year, which equates to roughly 55,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted \[4,6\]. Our technology has the potential to decrease the use of fans by 81%, saving 44,500 tonnes of CO2 and helping the horticultural industry's shift towards net-zero emissions.This is a technical feasibility project which will take our existing technology and develop a specific, customisable product for application in commercial greenhouses.Our current innovation is a coating that changes from transparent to reflective-white when heated, resulting in temperature-dependent shading. Our core IP is an active ingredient, that is added to transparent water-based coatings, to achieve reversible opacity at an engineerable transition temperature.This project will allow us to develop this prototype into a market-ready product that is gradually shading, durable and customisable to the specific heat and light requirements for optimal growth of each crop in order to improve crop yields.With these improvements to our first-generation system, we will then be able to quantify our coatings performance and durability in commercial greenhouses with our partners Vitacress, a herb producer in the UK and Flavour Fresh a berry and tomato grower in the UK. During this project, we will also collaborate with our partners Pilkington to test the durability and scale-up application capabilities for product trials.

到2050年，世界需要增加50%的粮食产量，才能养活届时将达到近100亿人口的人口。与此同时，由于城市化和气候变化的影响，可耕地在过去40年里减少了30%。我们必须提高现有耕地的生产力，以确保我们人口未来的粮食安全。在Albotherm，我们正在开发温室涂料，在炎热的天气中从透明到白色再到遮荫作物，允许在没有电力输入的情况下进行内部温度调节。与标准遮阳相比，我们的技术可以提高光照水平，估计产量最高可提高25%。对英国来说，这意味着每年多生产高达578,200吨粮食。此外，使用风扇为英国温室降温每年消耗2.35亿千瓦时的能源，相当于大约55,000吨二氧化碳排放。我们的技术有可能减少81%的风扇使用，节省44,500吨二氧化碳，并帮助园艺行业转向净零排放。这是一个技术可行性项目，将利用我们现有的技术，开发一种特定的、可定制的产品，用于商业温室应用。我们目前的创新是一种涂层，加热时从透明变为反射白色，从而产生随温度变化的阴影。我们的核心知识产权是一种活性成分，添加到透明水性涂料中，在可工程的转变温度下实现可逆不透明度。该项目将使我们能够将这一原型开发为市场就绪的产品，该产品将逐渐着色、耐用，并可根据每种作物最佳生长的特定热光要求进行定制，以提高作物产量。通过对我们第一代系统的这些改进，我们将能够与我们的合作伙伴Vitacress一起量化我们的涂料在商业温室中的性能和耐久性。Vitacress是英国的一家草药生产商，并为英国的新鲜浆果和西红柿种植者调味。在这个项目中，我们还将与我们的合作伙伴Pilkington合作，测试产品试用的耐用性和扩大应用能力。