Development of a cost effective UV A&B transmissible coating for the Airbox LED-based lighting system

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Industrial partner BrezaWorks (BW) has recently developed an innovative platform for vertical farming calledthe Airbox. This Airbox is a controlled environment agricultural production platform tailored for the verticaland indoor farming industry. In the AirBox, plants grow in vertical grow towers, in pots and are suppliedautomatically with water and nutrients via hydroponic methods.Lighting for the Airbox is provided by BW proprietary in-house LED lighting, whose spectrum ranges fromsimple low level photon flux in the visible spectrum through to advanced spectra with UV A&B contributions,tailored to the needs of the individual grower. The design of the AirBox is such that it can accommodate theexisting lighting infrastructure of established grow-systems if desired.The current Airbox has two major problems: 1) the LED lightning system is currently open to the chamber andtherefore unprotected; and 2) the materials used for the grow-pots and grow-towers are not UV stable andtherefore degrade over time. The aim of this NSERC-Engage project is to solve these issues, and provide BWwith a low cost coating for its LED lightning system, as well as a lightweight material for its grow-towers andgrow-pots, ready to use for vertical farming.This project will directly train two graduate students on materials selection, manufacturing, characterization,and CAD modeling. These graduate students will benefit from regular visits at BW and direct involvementwith their technical staff. With this Engage project we will develop the required coating which would lead tonumerous additional commercial applications such as where there is risk of exposure to water or tacky plantbased films or new container materials that would support food preservation methods which would lead tosignificant reductions in spoilage of fresh produce. The potential applications are endless and would lead tosignificant employment opportunities for BrezaWorks and would significantly benefit Canada given that thebulk of material and all the manufacturing is located in Ontario.