Agricultural Solutions

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is advanced agricultural technology based on control engineering and plant sciences to produce high quality, high yield, healthy, and competitively priced agricultural products. CEA technology allows the growing environment to be engineered outside the natural growing season to optimize plant growth year-round. Without the use of synthetic chemicals, CEA produce is healthier. Since valuable crops can be produced locally, including in urban areas, CEA technology could solve food logistics and security issues

Traditional Outdoor Agriculture:

Traditional outdoor farming is increasingly displaced due to farmland urbanization and rising labor cost.  Not only are they located further away from consumers, but climate change and severe weather fluctuations also affect their outdoor growing conditions. Because outdoor agriculture is vulnerable to pest infestation, synthetic chemicals, including pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, are often employed, affecting the food quality. These factors and rapidly growing populations will strain the traditional outdoor agriculture industry.

Logistical Challenge:

As land-based agriculture moves further away from population centers, often located remotely thousands of miles away, it poses a logistical challenge. As the city grows, arable farmland becomes displaced. The Covid epidemic has shown the vulnerability of the food supply chain. Long-distance transportation not only consumes significant transportation and refrigeration energy but also affects product freshness. To prevent spoilage, crops are typically picked 7-10 days early, affecting their flavor and nutritional contents. The import of USA fresh fruit and vegetables is increasing.

Climate and Pest Management Challenges:

Outdoor farming is at the mercy of local weather and is susceptible to climate change. Draught and extreme temperature fluctuations cause crop damage. Insect and weed infestation require herbicides and pesticides, impacting the ecosystem. Organic farm, alternatively, with extensive pest control measures, is costly to manage.  Local climate and growing seasons also affect crop yield and variety.

Indoor Agriculture as Important Alternatives:

The future challenge is to revolutionize technology to provide a tangible food supply that is resilient, economical, scalable, and sustainable with a minimum environmental footprint.  The indoor agriculture system, alternatively, can be set up near urban areas and, with proper environmental and climate control, avoid harmful pest chemicals, minimize consumption of water and nutrients, and provide optimal growing conditions for crop production all year round.

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)

CEA allows food to be grown locally, therefore solving the logistical issue and ensuring product freshness on demand.  The growing environment can be precisely controlled in an enclosed space. Imagine growing plants in space stations.

CEA can provide nutritious and sustainable sources of food, vegetables, and aromatic, medicinal, and ornamental plants. With an enclosed greenhouse, pest infestation can be managed, and fresh fruits and vegetables can be grown throughout the year.

Greenhouse and Indoor Farming:

Greenhouse design can be a simple hoop house with wireframes and plastic coverings.  Hoop house has limited climate control as it depends on weather and natural sunlight.  More advanced greenhouses and indoor farming have HVAC control measures.  Sprung Greenhouse uses an advanced architectural membrane, which can withstand high wind and snow loads.  Venlo Greenhouse, with glass or polycarbonate roofs, harnesses natural lights. Insulated greenhouses allow natural thermal heating during colder climates. In indoor farming, such as in warehouse buildings, artificial lights are used.

Vertical Farming:

Vertical farming, typically in a warehouse, is the agriculture practice where the plants are grown vertically on layers one on top of another instead of horizontally. This design maximizes the canopy area, producing a higher yield per land area. A vertical farm could offer 30 times more yield than a traditional outdoor farm per plot of soil. An acre of the area could produce 300 tons of leafy greens per year with 95% less water.

Different Growing Media:

In CEA, there are different methodologies to deliver nutrient-rich water into the plant’s root, both with potting soil and soilless. The roots can be bathed or misted with hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, or aquaculture systems.

Hydroponics:

Hydroponics grow by suspending or immersing the plant roots in nutrient-rich water.  In a place that can handle a large amount of water, for example, a pool, plants can be grown where the root can be freely suspended. The pool nutrients can be easily monitored and adjusted. Alternatively, with less water or to be grown on a table, different growing media such as coconut fiber, rock wool, or sand could be used. The watering flow rate should be controlled so that the media is kept moist.

Aeroponics:

The root is suspended in the air and kept moist by nutrient-rich water spray or drip irrigation. This technique does not waste water and prevents root rot. It requires high skill to operate. Aeroponics delivering mists uses 90% less water than hydroponics.

Aquaponics:

Aquaponic is a self-sustaining combination of hydroponic and aquaculture (i.e., fish). The fish waste containing ammonia and urea is circulated to the plant roots to nourish the plant, returning root-filtered water. Ideal fish are trout, tilapia, perch, and catfish.

With all its benefits, CEA requires large investments and is complex to manage.  It is also energy intensive, contributing to carbon footprints. As greenhouses rely on direct sunlight, supplemental lighting must be provided outside the summer season. Controlling the internal growing climate also consumes significant energy.  Indoor growth, likewise, with total artificial lighting, consumes a very high amount of electricity and sophisticated HVAC to operate.

Sustainable Controlled Environment Agriculture (SCEA)

Sustainable Controlled Environment Agriculture (SCEA) is comprehensive CEA technology developed by REX Company to sustainably manage precious energy and preserve resources while optimizing growing conditions.

Based on the net-zero concept to promote responsible and economical agricultural practices, SCEA will track and control its incoming and outgoing streams throughout the entire agricultural process and ecosystem, from seed to sales. Imagine an imaginary biodome with carbon neutrality and zero emissions. SCEA integrates technology solutions, from energy, environmental, control, and AI solutions.

SCEA, at its core, is energy and environmental management technology. The electrical and thermal energy is produced utilizing a combination of clean LNG, biomass, biogas, renewable energy, energy storage, and advanced thermal management. With Quad-CHP, electricity is produced at high fuel-electrical efficiency.  Its thermal waste from the engine and exhaust system is captured as a useful heat source. With an absorption chiller, this waste heat is converted into chilled water for cooling and dehumidification. The CO2 from engine exhaust is captured and cleaned to become the feedstock for plant growth. With further processing, CO2 can be made into dry ice, used in carbonized drinks, and synthetically converted to biodegradable plastics.

SCEA also plant management technology. With its advanced PicoClimate™ control system, SCEA allows any growing climate to be reproduced in the greenhouse environment, from arid hot, humid tropical, to cold winter climates, by adjusting the temperature, humidity, and lighting conditions. In addition, with its multi-layer sensor systems, plant growth can be monitored from its growing media, watering, nutrients, roots, air, and canopy.

PicoClimate™ Control Solutions:

PicoClimate™ allows precise control of the canopy and root zones to optimize growing conditions. It manages plant growth variables to improve efficiency, conserve scarce water and nutrient resources, and reduce the threat of pests and disease while improving yield and quality.

PicoClimate™ is a state-of-the-art plant environmental control system where a small area can be regulated and monitored precisely to simulate specific growing conditions. 

‘Pico’ is a small unit, one-millionth of micro. This extremely high-resolution grow area allows limitless growing conditions in a single greenhouse, with each growth zone having its light and nutrition control (i.e., PPFD, DLI, color spectrum, N:P: K, micronutrients, pH, EC), accurate monitoring of soil and plant canopy (i.e., CO2, %RH, VPD, VOC), and atmospheric conditions (i.e., T, P, mist, rain, wind speed, direction). 

The PicoClimate™ technology allows customized interactions between the plant and its local environment and its unique evapotranspiration activity with a touch of a SCADA screen. This technology allows a specific plant to be “grown as if anywhere in the world, right here and now,” bringing the best grow climate at any growing season locally.