Engineering and Science Based Solutions for Northern Food Security through the Development of a Northern Greenhouse

加拿大北部面临的最大挑战之一是粮食安全。加拿大科学院理事会的一份报告（2014年）的一项重要发现是，生活经验、北方经验和传统知识在定义和解决粮食安全问题方面的重要性。在南方地区，这可以通过传统农业和温带气候温室系统来实现。然而，在更多的北方地区，传统的田间农业即使不是不可能，也是非常具有挑战性的，温带气候的温室的范围也很有限。该研究项目将以Lefsrud博士的专业知识为基础，通过结合他在受控气候温室、受控环境、生物质加热系统、LED园艺照明和新型植物生产系统方面的专业知识来应对这一挑战。这项研究将把工程方法与改进的植物生产和监测技术结合起来，以弥合从南方农业生产到粮食主权北方社区的差距。******这项发现基金研究将资助我们实验室现有和建设专业知识的研究，重点是1)LED用于园艺植物生产，2)生物质加热和植物二氧化碳富集，3)水培塔养分输送系统，4)水培监测和控制系统。每一个基础项目都是独立的，由工程和植物科学两个方面组成。结合这些专业知识，将用于改进我们的原型加拿大综合北方温室（CING），作为适合北方农业技术的试验台，这些项目将用于开发一种新的北方温室解决方案，可用于解决北方社区在新鲜蔬菜供应方面面临的许多现有科学和工程挑战。该项目将专注于整合这些技术的设计，为北方受保护的农业系统提供光、热、二氧化碳、水灌溉、养分输送和控制。单个组件的测试和优化将在集成到CING之前进行。使北方温室设计具有挑战性的两个关键需求是热和光，这将通过优化和结合我们的生物质加热系统和我们对LED光管理的研究来解决。具体来说，我们设定的目标是使用不超过30安培的220V电源来运行包括上述所有因素在内的整个温室系统。这种限制将导致系统的显著优化和关键部件分析和关键失效点的确定。例如，在零下40摄氏度的温度下，维持环境所需的能量将限制可用的照明。了解这些限制和协同作用对于优化所提议的系统至关重要。

One of the great challenges for northern Canada is food security. A key finding of a report by the Council of Canadian Academies (2014) was the importance of lived, northern experience and traditional knowledge in defining and addressing the issues surrounding food security. In southern regions, this can be accomplished using traditional agriculture and temperate climate greenhouse systems. However, in more northern locations, traditional field based agriculture is very challenging if not impossible, and temperate climate greenhouses have limited range. This research program will build on the expertise of Dr. Lefsrud to address this challenge by combining his established expertise in controlled-climate greenhouses, controlled environments, biomass heating systems, LED horticultural lighting and novel plant production systems. This research will combine engineering approaches with improved plant production and monitoring technologies to bridge the gap from southern agriculture production to food sovereign northern communities. ******This Discovery Grant research will fund research on existing and building expertise in our laboratory focused on 1) LED use for horticultural plant production, 2) Biomass heating and carbon dioxide enrichment for plants, 3) Hydroponic tower nutrient delivery system, and 4) Monitoring and control systems for hydroponics. Each of these fundamental projects are standalone and consist of both engineering and plant science aspects. Combined this expertise will be used to improve our prototype Canadian Integrated Northern Greenhouse (CING) as a test bed for suitable northern agriculture technology, these projects will be used to develop a novel northern greenhouse solution that can be used to solve many of the existing science and engineering challenges faced by northern communities in the supply of fresh vegetables. This program will focus on a design that integrates each of these technologies to provide light, heat, CO2, water irrigation, nutrient delivery and control for a northern protected agriculture system. Testing and optimizing of individual components will occur before integration into the CING. Two critical needs that make northern greenhouse design challenging are heat and light which will be addressed by optimizing and combining our biomass heating system with our research on LED light management. Specifically, we have set a goal of using no more than 30 amps of power from a 220V power supply to operate the full greenhouse system including all the factors listed above. This limitation will lead to significant optimization of the system and determination of critical component analysis and critical failure points. For example, at temperatures below -40 C, energy required to maintain the environment will limit the lighting available. Understanding these limitations and synergies will be critical to optimizing the proposed system.