Indoor lighting for aeroponic vegetable plant growth and air quality control in confined underground space - B

Abstract

Food scarcity has been a progressive imminent problem globally for many decades. Although enough food is produced for every one of the world’s population at the moment, the world will face food scarcity in the future. While the world’s population is on a steady rise, on the other hand, natural resources are limited and has been used up throughout the human history. Effects of global warming has caused draughts, forest fires, storms and harsh weather conditions which in turn, distraught the food production across the globe. Moreover, gentrification, urbanization and industrialization resulted in loss of agricultural land and workforce. Food production depend on a number of elements; fertile land, water, light, favourable weather conditions, fertilizers, human resources. Modern farming technologies have been researched and experimented to increase food production and its heavy reliability on the land scarcity and weather conditions. A great number of researches have proved that light source is one of the major factors defining plant’s growth. A plant requires a light source to perform a process known as photosynthesis. A plant acquires its energy from photosynthesis. By controlling the light source, plants can be grown indoor, independent of weather conditions and land availability and moreover, the yield can be improved tremendously. In this project, the effect of light source and its wavelengths on plant’s growth will be discussed. Moreover, PPFD of the light source and the significance of PPFD in growing plants will be covered. PPFD calculations and study of LEDs and LED drivers are also explained in this report. This report will illustrate the system design of LEDs lighting for plant’s growth. Schematics and PCB designs will be disclosed in this report.