Benches with Vertical Airflow
Perfect climate near the plants.
Vertical Airflow Advantages
Homogeneous climate:
• The temperature difference between each point of the Greenhouse on the
same height level is less than 0.5 ⁰C.
• The relative humidity difference between each point of the Greenhouse on
the same height level is less than 0.5%.
Strong climate control:
• Temperature and humidity are independent from outside conditions
Energy saving:
• In combination with a semi closed Greenhouse energy savings up to 50%
can be realized.
Stronger and faster growing plants:
• Due to optimal control in relative humidity, there is no risk of diseases
causes by too much humidity.
• Because climate is controlled perfectly, plants can handle stronger light.
Which leads to more photosynthesis.
• Plants dry quicker after irrigation, which also leads to more photosynthesis.
• Because the air constantly moves past the leaves the CO2 level near the
stomata is much higher. This means growing is possible with less added
CO2.
How Vertical Airflow works
The plants stand on around 12 tiles in the bench.
The tiles stand on an insert, which is air and waterproof.
At one short side of the bench the air moves from an air supply channel below the bench into the bench, crossing a small gap.
Inside the bench the air goes over a ridge and turns to go down to go below the tiles.
The ridge blocks water from entering the air supply channel.
The tiles have hollow spikes, through which the air moves up.
The top of the tile is like the top of a Lego block. This keeps the air vents clear if a pot/tray is standing on top of the hole. This also avoids still water below the pot/tray.
The side of the tiles connects seamlessly to the insert, which blocks the air from escaping at the sides.
Vertical airflow lets conditioned air move upward passing the plants.
Flexibility:
• Can be used with different bench and greenhouse dimensions.
• Can be used in combination with any irrigations method, including ebb and
flow.
• Benches can be moved automatically, or manually around the greenhouse
and processing room.
Why Vertical Airflow
Vertical airflow has the following advantages for the plants.
It allows for a higher humidity level, because the transpiration gets moved away:
• This keeps the stomata open, causing higher CO2 uptake and thus
higher photosynthesis
• Without the increased risk of diseases
The lowest leaves of the plants are reached with fresh air:
• The leaves stay active and can be sold
• This avoids the build-up of ethylene
The temperature and humidity level is static during the growth of the plant. Leaves that were built for a certain humidity level stay in this humidity level during growth.
It has the following advantages for the growing system:
As the air moves up the air gets warmed by the led lighting, so natural air movement of heated air works together with the forced air movement.
The higher humidity helps reduce the energy cost.
Climate control can be in a climate chamber (semi closed greenhouse).
Vertical Airflow Properties
Dimensions:
• Benches can be between 2.500 mm and 8.000 mm long.
• Benches can be between 600 and 2.000 mm wide.
• Level of tiles can be between 10 and 40mm above the insert.
• Tile sizes can be between 300 mm and 800 mm wide and 250 and 620 mm long.
• The channel providing the air has an air supply that is a bit narrower than the bench and that is around 5cm wide.
• The distance between the air supply and the bench is around 10 mm.
Other properties:
• Water level above the tiles for ebb flow can be as high as 30 mm.
• Air speed going up past the plants can be between 5 and 50 mm/s.
• The system can be equipped with a special washing line, including a pick and place robot for the tiles , to wash the tiles and benches automatically.
Get in touch with one of our Sales Engineers for more information
Phone: +31 174 514141
Email: info@logiqs.nl
Address: Honderdland 841, 2676 LV Maasdijk, The Netherlands