Progress 09/01/20 to 04/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems:We came across two changes/problems that we overcame. One was the extended timelineof the project and we overextended the scope of the project. However, we did complete the project objectives. The second change was how we were comparing our results to previous results. We had to reconsider the location and climate conditions of the two mealworm production systems being compared. Oonincx & Boer, 2012 used data from a mealworm farm in the Netherlands, which is characterized as a temperature climate that experienced small diurnal temperature fluctuations with mean temp ranges 3.4°C-18°C, with full temperatures that range from 0.91°C-23°C (WorldData.info, 2023). Whereas, in Yucaipa, a Mediterranean Climate with drastic diurnal temperature fluctuations and mean temperature ranges 10.3°C-26°C, with full temperatures that range from -7.2°C- 42.8°C (Weatherbase, 2023). We needed to make a better comparision and therefore compared our energy results for heating and cooling in the Cob test building with simiar sized wooden (oriented strand board/plywood) and steel buildings. Though we asked for no-cost extensions due to longer than expected build timelines and pivoting building designs and result comparisons, as From The Land co-founders, we were able to prove technical feasibility. We also expanded our commercialization plan, exponentially expanded our mealworm colony, validated multiple mealworm revenue streams, successfully marketed our mealworms and products, built strong community partnerships, and built initial mealworm business packages for small farmer adoption What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Phase 1 Results Major results from Phase I work included the measured and calculated thermal properties of the adobe/cob mixed by the co-founders, inner and outer Cob wall temperature data to calculate heat flux, positive and negative test results of the proposed heat storage systems, and successful algorithm designs for the smart temperature control systems. This laboratory-scale test cob facility was necessary to build for proving our innovation feasibility in increasing energy efficiencies for mealworm production. The variables either measured and calculated in Table 1 all describe a material's thermal behavior and allow a building designer to predict thermal storage performance in a given environment (Rempel & Rempel, 2013). Describing our Cob thermal properties was a major accomplishment for Phase I that allowed us to prove our building design energy efficiency feasibility. To prove feasibility, we used Table I values combined with our Cob sensor data to experimentally quantify heat flux, heat storage capacity, and estimate steady state and transient state thermal inertia (below). Results from our LCA include quantifying energy consumption per kg of live mealworms produced during a winter season. Here, during December 26th 2022 through March 07th 2023, we measured 11.26 MJ/kg live mealworms in our test Cob building. When directly comparing our results to 12 MJ/kg live mealworms from Oonincx & Boer, 2012 LCA, we did not prove feasibility. However, we must consider the location and climate conditions of the two mealworm production systems. Oonincx & Boer, 2012 used data from a mealworm farm in the Netherlands, which is characterized as a temperature climate that experienced small diurnal temperature fluctuations with mean temp ranges 3.4°C-18°C, with full temperatures that range from 0.91°C-23°C (WorldData.info, 2023). Whereas, in Yucaipa, a Mediterranean Climate with drastic diurnal temperature fluctuations and mean temperature ranges 10.3°C-26°C, with full temperatures that range from -7.2°C- 42.8°C (Weatherbase, 2023). We needed to make a better comparision and therefore compared our energy results for heating and cooling in the Cob test building with simiar sized wooden (oriented strand board/plywood) and steel buildings. In Phase I, we calculated heat storage (steady state thermal inertia, Figure 2A) for our Cob walls and compared those to OSB and Steel. We can use thermal load (Q, Figure 2B) and U-values to estimate how much energy it will take to heat or cool on indoor space, however, this does not account for thermal inertia. This was calculated using the Thermal load equation Qwall =UAΔT, where A is the facility wall surface area With this, exposed Cob will yield 32% less thermal load than un-insulated OSB. But, when all three materials are insulated on the outside of the walls with 0.05 m insulation foam, all of their thermal load decreases significantly and are all almost the same values. This method describes only a snap shot, a one-time difference in outdoor temperatures from indoor temperatures. Therefore, this data is not sufficient to describe the dynamic environmental conditions or for accounting for any thermal inertia from thermal masses, like cob. Therefore, we use transient state thermal inertia that measured the rate of temperature change across the thermal wall mass over time to better account for Cob thermal inertia and was used as the major algorithm in our smart system (Nowarski, 2022). However, from these results we needed to increase energy efficiencies to prove feasibility and decided that outer Cob wall insulation was needed. But, we did not want static, installed insulation placed outside the Cob since we still wanted to fully utilize the Cob thermal mass and passive heating and cooling by having exposed Cob walls intermittently. Our solution was moveable/retractable insulation. To achieve greater energy reductions, we wanted to test how well our solution of moveable insulation would be at decreasing energy usage during a winter season in our Cob test facility. R-Tech 0.05 m foam insulation with R-7.7 was purchased and was used to manually cover the outside of the cob test building on colder and cloudy days and anytime after sunset. To test whether our "manual movable insulation" improved energy efficiency, we compare two weeks of our LCA data were average indoor temperatures were 25°C and the average outdoor temperatures were most similar, during January 9-15, where insulation was used and average temperatures were 9.9 8C, and January 30-February 5 2023, when insulation was not used and average temperatures were 9.4°C. During week January 9-15 we measured 8.64 MJ/kg live mealworms. During January 30- February 5, 2023 we measured 13.16 MJ/kg live mealworms. This is a 34% decrease in energy usage when comparing energy used for "manually moved" insulated Cob walls versus exposed Cob walls. Furthermore during this trial, the insulation panels did not fit well on the Cob walls and there were major areas of the Cob walls that could not be covered easily. Therefore, we predict even greater energy reductions with automatic insulation that will make better contact with the Cob walls and cover them more completely. This design is patent-pending as of March 10, 2023. With external/movable insulation, the Cob walls will provide a much higher thermal inertia compared to exposed Cob walls. Now, comparing OSB and Steel buildings of similar size, we are confident that our Cob with movable/retractable insulation will reduce energy consumption from heating and cooling an indoor space by at least 66%, which exceeds our energy goals and proved technical feasibility. Yet, the proposed moveable insulation further complicates mathematical expressions for thermal transfer across the thermal mass wall into and out of the inside of the building. This is because sometimes the Cob walls will be exposed to gain heat from the Sun for heating or to let extra heat radiate out of the walls for cooling. Other times the insulation will cover the Cob walls to either retain heat or to avoid excess heat penetration into the Cob walls. The previous transient thermal inertia equation only accounted for the Cob wall and no other layer. Consequently, in Phase II we will need to use computational simulations to understand how the thermal wall and insulation properties affect heat flux in dynamic, actual environments for our smart temperature control system and measure additional energy reductions from adding the moveable/retractable insulation. Regarding labor hours, we measured an average of 35 labor hours worked per week managing, marketing, and selling our live mealworms. This is for our mealworm colony that produced 7-8.4 kg/week. Managing the mealworm colony involved sifting all T. molitor life stages (beetle/egg, pupae, and larvae) from bran and from each other, using simple and common sifting, sorting, cleaning systems that consists of 5 different sieve sizes on a mechanized shaker, using a dicer to cut carrots and manually distributing moisture to the colony, using egg cartons for live/dead, and using a dog grooming wash nozzle with soap dispenser for washing dirty mealworm trays. This was a 20 hour reduction in labor hours compared to using only one sieve/mesh size with manual shaking, manually cutting carrots and distributing moisture to the colony using egg cartons for live/dead, and hand washing dirty mealworm trays. However, further labor hour reductions are needed and during Phase I, we developed and tested custom 3D printed sieve inserts that can be connected together and fit into larger sifting trays to sift larger quantities of T. molitor life stages from each other and from bran and frass.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Initially, our target audience was other mid to small farmers and though they are still a major future target audience, more immediately during this reporting period our local zoos, local pet stores, local community members, and local high school students have been most impacted or helped by our Phase I efforts this past year. Since we have built the new mealworm growth facility, we have increased live mealworms production, a main product for this project, and we have been able to increase the amount we sell to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. At the beginning of this reporting period, we were able to produce and sell 30,000 live mealworms a week to The Living Desert. This was with the help of purchasing live mealworms from Rainbow mealworms to increase our beetle population and we have been transparent with The Living Desert Zoo. However, now we are selling 40,000 live mealworms a week, which is a 100% increase since the beginning of this project, and have not needed to purchase live mealworms from Rainbow Mealworms since January 2022. We are now self-sustaining and have increased our customer base. We are also selling our live mealworms to two local pet stores, a second zoo (Wild Wonders Inc.), and to local communitity member at a local farmers market, where we are regular vendors. Additionally, Dr. Oliver and Mr. Hutchison have volenteered at two local high schools in San Bernardino, CA, Pacific and Arroyo Valley High Schools, this year and brought in our live mealworms and taught them about our STEM innovations. Changes/Problems:A major change for this project and setback has been in our expected timeline. We have asked for a second 12-month no-cost extension in light of the additional time needed for two people to manually build the cob mealworm growth facility, build and install the active systems, build and test the smart systems, build automation systems, troubleshoot, and maintain and grow a mealworm colony. The Cob facility construction began in September 2020 and was completed in early July 2021, which was substantially longer than the original timeline. Building and installing the active systems, the solar system array, building the new mealworm growth racks, installing the temperature and humidity sensors began in July 2021 and completed in December 2021. Also, writing the code and implementing the first iteration for the active systems and smart self-regulating system occurred from January -August 2022. However, completing the work without hiring outside help did allow the co-founders to stay within budget. Also, from the experience of building everything, we have the knowledge to improve on existing designs and methods. Additionally, from further experience, we do want to maintain indoor air temperatures between 23-25°C to maintain 26-28°C temperatures inside of the mealworm bins. Furthermore, we have conclude that in the future we can use a building method called "Rammed Earth", which uses the same materials and has similar thermal properties but is much faster to build. Additionally, there are professional architects and construction teams in Southern California that have built these types of building that we would plan to hire if awarded the SBIR Phase II grant. Furthermore, cob is still a favorable building technique that we would recommend to other farmers who could ask for eager volunteers to help build an economical zero-net energy agricultural facility. During this reporting period we did come across two setbacks. First, in January 2022, we spotted mold formation inside of the cob facility and we had to sterilize that area, then applying lime plaster to the interior of the facility. Additionally, in March 2022, our area in Southern California experiences extreme winds and our first living roof was blown off. We rebuilt our greenroof to better withstand these winds and our living roof is now flourishing. A major factor that has contributed in extending our project timeline has been increased time spent expanding and managing the growing mealworm colony. Even though basic automated systems have been incorporated into our operations and have cut down significant labor hours, we do spend on average 15-20 hours a week managing the mealworm colony. We have incorporated a shaker that is used with a multi-sieve system to filter out different size mealworms, frass (mealworm excrement) from bran, and beetles from bran. Additionally to cut down on time cutting add carrots as wet feed, a commercial vegetable dicer has been incorporated. These systems have reduced labor hours by, on average, 10-15 hours a week per person. Though these are common automated equipment used in other mealworm productions to cut labor hours, there is a great need for additional automation technologies for mealworm production to make significant reductions in labor costs. We also decided to make some changes in our original heating and cooling system designs for the cob facility. In our original facility design, we hoped to have one large water tank built directly beneath the floor of the cob facility to store heat. Water from the storage tank would cycle though two solar troughs and back into the storage tank during sunny days to heat the water. Then that stored heat would be exposed to the interior of the facility for heating by flowing through a heat exchanger and fan system. However, with further consideration of the size of the facility, we decided to pivot from our original design to better preserve the structural stability of the cob facility. Instead of one larger water tank for heat storage directly underneath the cob floor, we decided to bury three 55-gallon water storage tanks outside of the southern facing wall of the facility. Instead of solar troughs, we decided to use a single solar water heater, which is usually used for heating swimming pools, to heat the water tanks. After testing both water heating methods, we found that the solar water heater heated the water to higher temperatures compared to using multiple solar troughs in parallel over the same time period. Additionally, this method of using a single solar water heater and three water tanks has proven favorable in summer conditions as well, which was an unexpected positive outcome. We can use our water tanks as both a heating and cooling method. In colder winter and spring conditions, we can pump water through the solar water heater during sunny days to heat the water. In hot summer conditions, we can pump water through the solar water heater at night to cool the water and later flow that cooler water into our facility. Next, we needed an additional method to reflect direct solar radiation on to the cob facility during the very hot summer days to decrease heat absorption into the Cob walls. We incorporated an additional passive cooling system that we later plan to automate into an active system. For now, we have chosen to place insulation panels on the outside of the cob walls during the summer days to decrease the amount of heat absorbed by the cob walls. At night, these panels are removed to allow heat to transfer out of the cob walls. We have designed a system to automate this process for future implementation. Finally, we have discovered that the roof is not sufficiently insulating the top of the facility. We measuredsignificant heat loss to the roof this winter and heat gains this summer thus; we need to make design adjustments to the roof. Furthermore, we are also loosing heat from our door and we are working on better sealing the door to decrease heat lose/gain. These setbacks have greatly extended our timelines, but it is still expected that we will have a working net-zero prototype facility and preliminary data to support these claims when applying to Phase II in April 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?From The Land LLC has provided mealworm farm tours to local community members. During this reporting period, we have given free tours of our USDA SBIR funded mealworm facility to over 40 individuals. Many of our guests are families with small children. We have also provided tour to other local farmers and urban farming advisors with the UCR extension. These tours are about 1 hour long where guest learn about our facility, how it was funded by the USDA SBIR program, the mealworm life cycle, mealworm production, temperature and humidity control, active heating and cooling strategies, living roof design and construction, and renewable energies. At the end of the tour, we ask each participant what was one thing they learned during the tour and offer a fun "worm" snack for answering. As mentioned in the "Other Products" section, we volunteered attwo San Bernardino, CA high schools, Pacific and Arroyo Valley High Schools, to give Earth Day Presentations. We discussed why we are raising mealworms and how this type of work contributes in a circular and more sustainable economy, business, and production practice. We discussed what climate change is, what it is not, what the scientific community has agreed upon as the cause of climate change today, the affects of climate change, and how people are working towards innovative ideas to mitigate these affects. We discussed how our SBIR funds have made it possible for our small business to make a prototype zero-net energy mealworm production facility and how this invention could help grow more food locally while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contributes to global warming. Again, as mentioned in the "Other Products" section, we created a small-scale model of our cob, innovative mealworm production facility. We take this model to the weekly local farmers market, in Yucaipa, CA, where we are regular vendors. We actively engage and teach our local community members how we are growing the mealworms they purchase for their animals. We also share that the USDA SBIR program, that has allowed us to provide them a nutritious protein source grown locally and more sustainably, funded this facility. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Starting on October 1, 2022, we will be conducting our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and will be completing that LCA on March 1, 2023. The completion of this LCA will address this project's second and final obective and provide results to show that our innovation design is feasible. These results will be provided in our final project report and also in our Phase II application that we will submit in April, 2023.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Major accomplishments for this project during this reporting period was installing a temperature and humidity data collection system, the active heating and cooling systems, the solar photovoltaic system, and testing the first iteration of our smart systems. These accomplishments worked towards completing the first objective of this project. During this reporting period, we installed our temperature and humidity data collection system. This included placing and installing 40 temperature and humidity sensors and connecting them all to centralized microcontrollers, where data is continually collected and stored. Four sensors were placed on each wall on the inside and outside of the facility and the roof. Inside and outside sensors were placed in the same position directly across the Cob walls from each other so that temperature gradients across the walls could be measured. We did experienced some shortages and setbacks with continual data collection, but we have made progress to successfully overcome these challenges. Sensors and the collection system were calibrated and tested. We have been collecting temperature data with this system since October 2021. Next, we installed our active heating and cooling systems. This system includes actively transferring heat in and out of our water storage containers. In this system, water is either pumped through a solar water heater/cooler or into our cob facility through a heat exchanger. We have included 3, 55-gallon water storage tanks for this prototype facility. The installation of this active heating and cooling systems included digging out holes for burying the 55-gallon water tanks, building an insulation box for 2 of the 55-gallon tanks, burying the pest protected insulation box and the water tanks, filling water tanks with water and installing water pumps, connecting to tubing and temperature sensors inside the water tanks at appropriate depths, creating a tank cap that allows for tank accessibility, and insulating these tank caps, connecting the water pumps and tubing to 4 different 3-way solenoid valves, connecting the water heater/cooler to the 3-way solenoid valves, connecting the radiator/fan system to the tubing and 3-way solenoid valves, and insulating all of the tubing. After these active systems were installed, the photovoltaic system was constructed and installed. First, a frame for the solar photovoltaic systems was made with the help of a family carpenter. The 8 solar panels were installed onto a large wooden frame. Sets of two panels are framed together and connected to the larger frame and can be moved to face east and west directions and the tilt of the panels can be adjusted depending on the season. These movements are done manually but we plan to automate this in the future. The 8 solar panels were connected to 8-100Ah lead acid batteries and the panels and batteries are connected to two, 30 Amp solar controllers. The batteries are protected in heavy-duty bins that are partially buried. This was done to protect the batteries from overheating in the summer and to protect them from pests and water damage. The next accomplishment for this project has been creating the first iteration of the smart self-regulating temperature system that controls the active heating and cooling systems. We have created and implemented the initial algorithm and started to connect active systems to test and calibrate our system. We are continuing this testing phase now and will be completed by late September to start our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on October 1, 2022. Finally, we have made significant progress with increasing our customer base and proving our concept that selling live mealworm locally can be profitable for small and mid-size farmers. At the beginning of this reporting period, we were able to produce and sell 30,000 live mealworms a week to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, CA. During our first two years of growing live mealworms, we were purchasing live mealworms from Rainbow mealworms to increase our beetle population. This was something that we have been shared with The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. However, now we are selling 40,000 live mealworms a week to this zoo, which is a 100% increase since the beginning of this project, and have not needed to purchase live mealworms from Rainbow Mealworms since January 2022. We are now self-sustaining and have increased our customer base. We are also selling our live mealworms to two local pet stores, a second zoo (Wild Wonders Inc.), and to local community member at a local Yucaipa, CA farmers market, where we are regular vendors.

Publications

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Initially, our target audience was other mid to small farmers and they are still a major future target audience. However, more immediately during this reporting period our local zoo, local community members, local nursery, and local community college scientific community and students have been most impacted or helped by our Phase I efforts. Since we have built the new mealworm growth facility, we have increased live mealworms production, a main product for this project, and we have been able to increase the amount we sell to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. At the beginning of this project, we were only able to produce and sell 20,000 live mealworms a week to The Living Desert. However, now we have been reliably producing and selling 30,000 live mealworms a week since July 2021. Additionally, local community members including the project manager for the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District have been interested in our agricultural activities. During this reporting period, we have given several demonstrations to small groups of interested community members. We have given demonstrations to groups with ages that ranged from 3 to 75 years of age. Next, we have reached out and worked with our local nursery, The Cherry Valley Nursery in Cherry Valley, CA. We have purchased most of our building material from them and also have shared our greenroof results with them. Through our interactions, we have build a relationship and they have expressed a future interest in purchasing or procuring our mealworm by-product, frass or insect excrement, as a natural plant fertilizer. Finally, the last targeted audiences we have reached this reporting period were San Bernardino Valley College (SBVC) Earth and Spatial Sciences faculty, Oceanography students, and Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) students. As an adjunct faculty member, Dr. Oliver has shared From The Land's mealworm project goals and innovation progress with other faculty members, with her oceanography students, and the MESA students. There is a growing interest from these specific communities to create STEM opportunities in the San Bernardino, CA area. Both faculty members and students are eager to collaborate in our future agricultural efforts, including mealworm production. We hope to expand mealworm production and innovation so that we can create STEM internship opportunities for these students in the near future. Changes/Problems:A major change for this project has been in our expected timeline. We have asked for a 12-month no-cost extension in light of the additional time needed for two people to manually build the cob mealworm growth facility. This process started September 2020 and was completed in early July 2021, which was substantially longer than the original timeline. However, this did allow the co-founders to stay within budget and from the experience we have conclude that in the future we can use a building method called "Rammed Earth", which uses the same materials and has similar thermal properties but is much faster to build. Additionally, there are professional architects and construction teams in Southern California that have built these types of building that we would plan to hire if awarded the SBIR Phase II grant. Furthermore, cob is still a favorable building technique that we would recommend to other farmers who could ask for eager volunteers to help build an economical zero-net energy agricultural facility. We also decided to make some changes in our original heating and cooling system designs for the cob facility. In our original facility design, we hoped to have one large water tank built directly beneath the floor of the cob facility to store heat. Water from the storage tank would cycle though two solar troughs and back into the storage tank during sunny days to heat the water. Then that stored heat would be exposed to the interior of the facility for heating by flowing through a heat exchanger and fan system. However, with further consideration of the size of the facility, we decided to pivot from our original design to better preserve the structural stability of the cob facility. Instead of one larger water tank for heat storage directly underneath the cob floor, we decided to bury three 55-gallon water storage tanks outside of the southern facing wall of the facility. Instead of solar troughs, we decided to use a single solar water heater, which is usually used for heating swimming pools, to heat the water tanks. After testing both water heating methods, we found that the solar water heater heated the water to higher temperatures compared to using multiple solar troughs in parallel over the same time period. Additionally, this method of using a single solar water heater and three water tanks has proven favorable in summer conditions as well, which was an unexpected positive outcome. We can use our water tanks as both a heating and cooling method. In colder winter and spring conditions, we can pump water through the solar water heater during sunny days to heat the water. In hot summer conditions, we can pump water through the solar water heater at night to cool the water and later flow that cooler water into our facility. This active heating and cooling system is currently being installed and will be completed by early September 2021. Finally, we needed an additional method to reflect direct solar radiation on to the cob facility during the very hot summer days to decrease heat absorption. We incorporated an additional passive cooling system that we later plan to automate. For the passive cooling system, we installed two light cream-colored shade clothes on the eastern and western facing side of the cob facility to passively reflect direct sunlight and avoid the cob walls from absorbing excessive amounts of heat. One shade cloth on the eastern side covers the cob from the intense morning sun and the shade cloth on the western side of the cob reflects the late afternoon sunlight. The northern and southern sides of the facility do not receive appreciable amounts of sunlight due to the design of the greenroof. The greenroof extends 18 inches out past the cob walls in all directions and is angled downward towards the southern side. In the summer, when the sun is nearly perpendicular to Earth's surface, the greenroof completely shades both the northern and southern side of the facility. Before using the shade cloths during the summer heat waves, we measured the outside cob wall temperatures and found that they reached up to 52-55°C when exposed to direct sunlight. Here, we have found that passive shading cloth greatly decreases heat absorption into cob walls. Once we included these shade cloths, on average, all four of the outside cob wall temperatures only reached up to 35°C during the hottest parts of the day (from 2-5pm). These shades do prevent the cob walls from absorbing excessive heat and in the future we plan to automate this system where during the summer, they will be brought down during hot days and will be pulled up during the night to let the cob walls release heat back into the surrounding environment. We also see the value of the shades to help prevent heat loss from the cob walls during cold days and nights during the winter. Beyond these design improvements and extended timeline, our original objectives or goals have not changed. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have shared our preliminary temperature results during demonstration events for local community members, at STEM presentations for San Bernardino Valley College faculty, Oceanography and Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) students, to The Living Desert Zoo and Garden animal curator through direct communication, and to the local nursery staff and management through direct communication. We have taught these audiences that the results of this project could provide incentives for other interested farmers who would like to add a high value crop to their existing operations. Also, we highlight that food production is greatly impacted by changing climate and building more agricultural facilities that are resilient to climate change, like our zero-net energy agricultural mealworm facility, can help secure future food security. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Currently, we are determining the thermal properties of the cob using a calorimeter for measuring specific heat capacity and are finishing placing a total of 64 temperature and humidity sensors on the inside and outside cob walls, indoor cob flooring, and on the greenroof of the cob facility to measure heat flux and thermal conductivity of the cob and greenroof. Additionally, with these sensors, we will be able to create a heat flow map of the facility and continuously measure indoor temperatures for mealworm growth. These thermal measurements will then be integrated in our self-temperature regulating system. Additionally, we have completed the installation of an active cooling system and we are half way through installing the active heating system, the solar energy system, and the smart self-temperature regulating system. During the next reporting period, we plan to complete installation of the entire active and solar systems and the smart self-temperature regulating system. Once those are in place, we will be able to automatically regulate optimal indoor mealworm growth temperatures with our active and passive system as we continuously collect and record temperature data. This will complete our first project objective and goals. Furthermore, we have observed that mealworm growth and development times have decreased. Though we have yet to quantify this with measuring mealworm growth rate, this will be quantified when we perform the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). We will begin our LCA in November and will conclude the LCA in February 2022. We will be measuring energy usage (MJ), land usage (m2), and the water footprint (m3) for the duration of the entire life cycle of Tenebrio molitor. Performing the LCA will allow us to address our second objective. Additionally, from September through October, we will be completing our mealworm sifting automating systems to significantly decrease labor hours that we will be measuring in our LCA. We have been measuring our time spent on various mealworm maintenance tasks and will compare our manual labor hours with labor hours spent on these tasks using our automation systems to quantify how much time has been decreased. Finally, we will be submitting an application to host a seminar at the Tulare, CA World Ag Expo in 2022 to disseminate our results to targeted audiences.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Insects, especially mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), are an excellent source of protein, fat, and essential nutrients for livestock, pet, and animal (wild and in captivity) feeds and their mass production uses minimal land and water resources. However, live mealworms and other insects are expensive to produce, partially due to high electrical operational costs to maintain optimal growth temperatures. To address this issue, From The Land LLC is proposing an innovation to increase energy efficiency and economical value of insect production to strengthen food supply chains and increase food security from current and ongoing crisis (e.g. COVID-19, climate change, energy shortages, and feeding growing populations). For our USDA NIFA SBIR Phase I project, we proposed to build the first zero net energy insect production facility, specifically for live mealworms, using sustainable architectural strategies and renewable energies. The proposed facility utilizes naturally sourced building material (adobe/cob), passive and active solar collection practices, geothermal ventilation designs, a smart self-regulating temperature controlled system to regulate optimal mealworm growth conditions (26-28°C), and photovoltaic technology to operate mechanical and automated systems. To date the two co-founders, Dr. Oliver and Mr. Hutchison, have completed building the cob facility with the geothermal ventilation system, which is a major accomplishment for this project and addresses the first part of the first project objective. Building the cob facility included manually digging out a 1.5 x 3 x 50 ft. (WxDxL) trench and placing a rubble trench drainage system, building a 1 x 2.7 x 42 ft. (WxDxL) concrete foundation and stem wall on top of the rubble trench, mixing and testing different ratios of our sand, clay, straw, and water to find the best cob mixture that did not develop cracks or fractures once dry, then building the cob walls using manual cob methods of collecting and mixing water, sand, clay, and straw by hand and manually placing a total of ~300 ft3 of cob in 18 (~6-inch high) layers that formed the walls, building the green roof, building a custom built insulated door, laying down the insulated cob floor, sealing the floor with non-toxic Tung Oil, and building the geothermal ventilation system. The green roof included building the wooden frame, creating a drainage system, lining the top inner frame with pond liner and fleece to protect the pond liner from roots, then placing 400 lbs. of potting soil across the roof, and finally planting 80 sedum plants on the roof. The insulated floor included leveling the ground, spreading out and tamping down 20 ft3 of lava rocks, then placing 6 mil plastic on top of the lava rocks, placing and leveling 20 ft3 of pea gravel, then placing and leveling 27 ft3 of cob, filling in edges and cracks in the floor, and finally sealing the floor with Tung Oil. The geothermal ventilation system included digging out a 12 x 7 x 10 ft. (WxDxL) hole in front of the cob facility, creating the geothermal manifold in that hole by laying down two 10-inch diameter by 5 ft. long perforated tubing with 4-inch diameter cutouts across the top of the tubing, placing sleeves on 4, 4-inch diameter by 25 ft. long perforated tubing and connecting the 4-inch tubing to the 10-inch tubing, then finally connecting the manifold to two vertical 10-inch perforated tubing up to and into the cob facility. Some of the 10-inch perforated tubing sticks up out of the ground before leading into the facility. Because the tubing is black and would be exposed to sunlight, we needed to insulate this part of the geothermal ventilation system to keep the air blowing through this system cool. So, this part of the geothermal ventilation system was insulated with Pink EcoTouch insulation with an R-19 value and then the insulation was covered with a reflection insulation wrap. Furthermore, we built the doorframe into the cob walls and foundation and had to create a custom insulated door. We did this by using OSB board, 2-inch rigid insulation, and 2x4 lumber cut to fit. The rigid insulation was sandwiched between OSB boards and enclosed with 2x4 lumber. The door hinges and handles were screwed into the door and the door was installed on the doorframe. Finally, we have installed a bug screen door liner inside the doorframe to help prevent unwanted pests coming into the facility when coming into and out of the facility. So far, we have tested indoor and outdoor temperature fluctuations of the cob facility with digital, infrared, and mercury thermometers to collect preliminary data. We have collected this preliminary temperature data for summer heat waves and normal expected summer temperatures for this area (i.e. Yucaipa, CA). Temperatures have been monitored and collected in the morning (~8am), multiple times throughout the day (~11am-5pm), and evening (~5-10pm). Digital and mercury thermometers currently monitor indoor and outdoor facility air temperatures and indoor and outdoor cob wall temperatures are taken at multiple points with infrared thermometers. We are in the process of replacing these thermometers with our temperature and humidity sensors. However, from our preliminary data during heat waves when outside air temperatures surpassed 38°C, indoor cob facility air temperatures only reached up to 32.2°C while using the geothermal ventilation active cooling system. During the hottest times of day (2-5pm) during these heat waves, the outside cob wall temperatures reached up to 52°C while indoor cob walls only reach up to 31.6°C. This is likely because the cob walls absorb heat during the day and release some of that heat back to the surrounding environment at night and also some of that heat is transferred into the inner facility. Though our preliminary results show that the cob facility is very good at regulating temperatures from day to night, we realized we needed additional passive and active cooling systems in place to maintain optimal mealworm growth temperatures between 26-28°C when there are multiple weeks of constant high daytime temperatures reaching above 35°C. Two additional cooling systems were added to the facility and are described in the "Changes/Problem" section of this report. Once we complete the active cooling system we anticipate that we can maintain cooler optimal mealworm growth temperatures. Since completing the cob facility, we have started growing mealworm in this facility and started building new racks to accommodate new mealworm growth bins that we have purchased. These racks and growth bin configuration in the cob facility will allow us to produce at least three times as many mealworms than we could in our first prototype metal facility. We have substantially increased mealworm production since we moved our mealworms into the cob facility in July 2021. Additionally, even without our active cooling and heating systems yet in place, we have witnessed better mealworm survival in this facility during summer heat waves. Last summer, we grew mealworms in our first metal shed prototype facility where we used insulation and other active and passive cooling systems. However, during a heat wave we saw massive die off of our mealworms due to thermal stress because we could not maintain indoor temperatures below 33°C. However, since we have moved our mealworms into the cob facility we have not seen any amount of mealworm die off from thermal stress, again even without our active cooling systems in place.

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