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)的一个关键发现是，生活、北方经验和传统知识在定义和解决围绕粮食安全的问题方面的重要性。在南方地区，这可以使用传统农业和温带气候温室系统来实现。然而，在更北部的地区，传统的大田农业即使不是不可能，也是非常具有挑战性的，而且温带气候温室的覆盖范围有限。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、生物质供暖系统、LED园艺照明和新型植物生产系统方面的成熟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北方粮食主权社区的差距。*这项Discovery Grant研究将资助我们实验室现有和建筑专业知识的研究，重点是1)LED用于园艺植物生产，2)植物生物质加热和二氧化碳浓缩，3)水培塔营养输送系统，以及4)水培监测和控制系统。这些基础项目中的每一个都是独立的，由工程学和植物科学两个方面组成。结合这些专业知识，我们将改进我们的原型加拿大北方综合温室(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型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。该计划将专注于一种设计，整合这些技术中的每一项，为北方受保护的农业系统提供光、热、二氧化碳、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，这将通过优化我们的生物质加热系统并将其与我们的LED光管理研究相结合来解决。具体地说，我们的目标是使用不超过30安培的220V电源来运行整个温室系统，包括上面列出的所有因素。这一限制将导致系统的重大优化以及关键部件分析和关键故障点的确定。例如，在低于零下40摄氏度的温度下，维护环境所需的能量将限制可用的照明。了解这些限制和协同效应对于优化拟议的系统至关重要。

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.