The world's first super high-rise vertical smart LED plant factory unveiled in Chengdu
On May 22-24, the International Vertical Farming Conference was held in Chengdu. During the conference, the production department of the world's first super high-rise vertical smart plant factory was officially unveiled.
It is understood that the vertical agriculture building was built by the Institute of Urban Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with a total of 7 floors and a height of 44 meters. Horticultural planting exhibition area, vertical farming technology exchange center six functional areas.
In the full-process automated plant factory, the giant cuboid steel frame is precisely divided into 20 floors, and 162 lettuce plants are planted in the space with a floor height of about 40 centimeters. Under the light of purple-red LDG light, the lettuce in the middle growth stage is jointing and growing. The manipulator moves up and down from time to time, flexibly transferring the lettuce with better maturity to the designated area. On the intelligent system, indicator data such as light, temperature, water, fertilizer, and gas are clearly displayed.
Yang Qichang, the executive director of the institute, introduced that this is the world's first super high-rise (20-story) vertical smart plant factory production system, independently developed and designed by the Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The system covers an area of 100 square meters, and the average annual output of leafy vegetables can reach 50 tons. Taking lettuce as an example, under the same planting area, this unmanned plant factory can achieve 15 harvests a year, and the output is 120 times higher than that of traditional fields.
The whole process of intelligence is a highlight of the system. The system is the first to break through the core technology of intelligent equipment and auxiliary robots such as automatic planting, seedling cultivation, transplanting, upper and lower rack transmission, harvesting, and packaging in plant factories, and realizes the automatic operation of the entire cultivation process of leafy vegetables from sowing to harvesting and packaging.
Dr. Xu Yaliang, a key scientific research expert of the institute, introduced that the system combines key technologies such as unified control of ultra-high cultivation environment, precise light control of intelligent LED, online monitoring and control of nutrient solution, etc., which can significantly improve resource utilization efficiency and production efficiency.
The system also has a new breakthrough in solving the high cost of plant factory products. Innovatively proposed a light formula construction method for the optimal light effect and light quality ratio of plants. By using rare earth luminescent materials, innovative packaging technology, and creating LED energy-saving light sources, etc., the comprehensive energy consumption of leafy vegetables is 8.25Kwh/kg. The highest level in the world.
Dr. Peng Jie, a key expert in the transformation of the results of the institute, said that relying on the system, it can break the shackles of traditional field planting of "depending on the sky", minimize the impact of the environment on agricultural production, and realize the factory-like assembly line production of agricultural planting. The system can adjust the parameter mode according to different crops. At present, it is mainly applied to high value-added crops that require high environmental yield stability.
In addition, the system also has many highlights, such as the growth period of wheat and rice can be shortened by 50%, and the yield of tomato is 5 times higher than that of traditional planting.
In the breeding accelerator, multiple varieties of rice are neatly planted on experimental racks. Yang Qichang introduced that in this accelerator, the growth period of high-quality wheat and rice can be shortened by about 50%, and more than 5 generations can be multiplied in a year, which can speed up the selection and breeding of high-quality varieties.
In the horticultural planting exhibition area, a total of 10 kinds of vegetables and fruits were planted in a space of 200 square meters. Vegetables such as butter lettuce and bok choy grow well on the five-layer double-row pipeline. On the other side, tomato vines covered the stand.
According to the on-site staff, using the intelligent water and fertilizer control system can achieve five times more yield than traditional planting methods within a two-month high-yield period under the condition of saving water and fertilizer, which is suitable for areas with scarce water resources such as Gobi and deserts.