Source: SOLGRO, INC. submitted to NRP
COVID-19 RAPID RESPONSE: LOW-COST LIGHT SPECTRA OPTIMIZATION TO INCREASE THE PROFITS OF GREENHOUSE GROWERS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1023830
Grant No.
2020-33610-32458
Cumulative Award Amt.
$100,000.00
Proposal No.
2020-06022
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2020
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2021
Grant Year
2020
Program Code
[8.12]- Small and Mid-Size Farms
Recipient Organization
SOLGRO, INC.
1120 SOUTH FWY STE 208
FORT WORTH,TX 761045155
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The greenhouse coverings currently available in the marketplace provides a controlled environment to grow the higher quality food; however, it does not manipulate the spectrum of incoming sunlight to optimize the light environment inside the greenhouse, which is one of the most important considerations for plant growth. SolGro will incorporate light converting agents in LDPE plastic to produce the light converting greenhouse film, which not only provides a controlled growing environment but also optimizes the light spectra in the greenhouse. The optimized light spectra will increase the crop yield and hence increase profit for greenhouse growers. This cost-effective method of light spectra optimization is particularly important for small and rural growers, who cannot offer to pay the high upfront cost of supplement lighting, such as LED. In this project, SolGro will utilize the nanophosphors to convert the part of the incoming solar spectrum that is not used by plants to the light spectrum that is more useful for the growth and development of plants. The nanophosphors will be engineered and incorporated in the poly greenhouse film to efficiently perform the light conversion throughout the life of the film. The effectiveness of light converting greenhouse film will be tested by studying the growth and development of lettuce and tomatoes plants in the greenhouse built using the light converting greenhouse film. An LDPE greenhouse film from the marketplace will be used as a control to quantify the effect of light converting greenhouse film.The main goal of this project is to prove the effectiveness of light converting greenhouse film in increasing the crop yield. Upon successful completion of this project, a greenhouse film will be available to the growers, which not only provides a controlled environment but also optimizes the light condition resulting in increasing crop yield. This will helps greenhouse growers to become more sustainable by increasing the profit without requiring to pay a high upfront cost for currently available light spectra optimization techniques such as LEDs. In terms of societal benefit, the increase in crop production will make food accessible to more people.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
40%
Developmental
40%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
40214992020100%
Knowledge Area
402 - Engineering Systems and Equipment;

Subject Of Investigation
1499 - Vegetables, general/other;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
1. To achieve highly stable nanophosphor to use as a light converting agent in greenhouse films.2. To determine the concentration of nanophosphors in the greenhouse film that gives the highest light emission and light transmission.3. To determine the effectiveness of light converting greenhouse film in increasing the yield of lettuce and tomato plants.
Project Methods
1. The light converting phosphors will be synthesized and coated to have high stability under continuous exposure to environmental conditions. The stability of the phosphors will be tested using an accelerated weathering test. The aim is to achieve phosphors that are stable for the life of the greenhouse film which is 3-4 yrs for LDPE film.2. The light converting greenhouse films with different concentrations of red-emitting and blue-emitting phosphors will be fabricated to achieve film with optimum light emission and light transmission. The concentration which results in the highest light emission while maintaining light transmission higher than 87% will be used as the optimum concentration. One optimum concentration is determined, greenhouse film with different ratios of red and blue-emitting nanophosphors will be fabricated.3. The study will be performed on lettuce and tomatoes plants to test the effectiveness of light converting greenhouse film in promoting plant growth using the LDPE greenhouse film from the marketplace as a control. The yield improvement using light converting greenhouse film will be quantified to determine the possible increase in profits of greenhouse growers.

Progress 09/01/20 to 10/02/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The work during this period was focused on validating the effectiveness of light converting greenhouse film in increasing the yield of lettuce under control studies. The target audience for this period is the small greenhouse growers and farmers who are open to doing pilot studies and early-stage investors. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported 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? We have achieved highly stable nanophosphor SolGro aims to bring light converting greenhouse films to the market to help farmers optimize the greenhouses' light environment to increase their productivity without needing any additional energy source. This is particularly important for small and rural greenhouse growers who do not have the upfront capital to invest in expensive supplemental lighting. SolGro will achieve this by using its nanotechnology-based plastic additive. The nanophosphors additive will be embedded into the poly greenhouse film to convert the unused part of the sunlight into red and blue light to increase crop production. During this phase I, our goal is to determine the effectiveness of light-converting poly-greenhouse film in improving crop yield. To accomplish the goal set at the beginning of this project we have completed the following tests. 1. We have completed 3500 hours of accelerated weathering test of nanophosphor during this period. Our results show that red-emittingnanophosphors retain up to 60% emissionafter 3500 hours of Xenon exposure which is equivalent to 3.5 years of exposure to natural sunlight. Similarly, the blue-emitting particles retain up to 13% emission after 3500 hr of the accelerated test using Xenon. 2. During this phase I, we have fabricated prototype light converting greenhouse films with different concentrations of red nanophosphors. All the red-emitting films show light transmission higher than 88%.The light-converting films with different ratios of red and blue were fabricated. The films have characteristics of red and blue emission while maintaining light transmission above 88%. 3. The red-emitting films were utilized to study the effectiveness of light converting film on the yield improvement of lettuce under controlled conditions. Our study showed yield improvement of up to 23% using red-emitting light converting greenhouse film compares to the control poly greenhouse film from the marketplace.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/20 to 04/30/21

    Outputs
    Target Audience:The work during this period is focused on developing a prototype light converting greenhouse filmto determine its effectiveness in increasing the profit margin for greenhouse growers. The target audiences for this period are the greenhouse growers and farmerswho are opentodoing the pilot studies, investors, and thought leaders. Changes/Problems:In the proposal, we had proposed to test films with 90% red and 10% blue, 80% red and 20% blue, 70% red, and 10% blue. However, we could not fabricate the film with 90% red and 10% blue at the small prototype scale due to a very small quantity (a few milligrams) of blue masterbatch required for the run, which is smaller than the size of a single masterbatchpellet. Moreover, this will create the non-uniform distribution of blue particles in the film. So we decided to test films with 0.25% red only, 70% red and 30% blue, 80% red and 20% blue, 0.08% blue only film to study the effectiveness of light-converting film on crop yield. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are reaching out to the farmers and greenhouse growers about our light-converting greenhouse film and its advantages. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The goals for the next period to achieve the objectives set at the beginning of the projectare: 1. Set up tests todetermine the effectiveness of light converting greenhouse films in increasing the yield of lettuce and tomatoes. 2. Analyze the benefitsof light converting greenhouse films to the greenhouse growers. 3. We will work on optimizing the coating parameter to further improve the stability of nanophosphors.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? SolGroaims to bring light converting greenhouse films to the markettohelp farmersoptimizethe greenhouses' light environment to increase their productivity without needing any additional energy source. This is particularly important for small and rural greenhouse growers who do not have the upfront capital to invest in expensive supplemental lighting. SolGro will achieve this by using its nanotechnology-based plastic additive. The nanophosphorsadditive will be embedded into the poly greenhouse film to convert the unused part of the sunlightinto red and blue light to increase crop production. During this phase I, our goal is to determine the effectiveness of light converting poly-greenhouse film in improving crop yield. To accomplish the goal set at the beginning of this project. 1. We have completed 3500 hours of accelerated weatheringtest of nanophosphor during this period. Our results show that, on average, over several samples, nanophosphors retain about 50% of their emission after 3500 hours of Xenon exposure. Each testing facility equatesthese exposed hours in testing chambers to different lengths in natural outdoor exposure. We are considering 1000 hours in testing chambers equivalent to 1 year in natural outdoor exposure. We are working on tomodified the coating parameters to improve the stability of nanophosphors further. 2. During this period, we have fabricated prototype light converting greenhouse films with differentconcentrationsofred nanophosphors. The concentrations used were 0.05 wt%, 0.08wt%, 0.12wt% and 0.25 wt%. These prototype films were characterized by measuringlight transmission and light emission. The light transmission of 0.05 wt%, 0.08wt%, and 0.12wt% wereall higher than 89%, while the light transmission of 0.25wt% is86.70%. The light emission was measured foreach sample. We kept the red concentration at0.25wt% and estimated the concentration for blue particles to fabricated films with 70% red and 30% blue, and 80% red and 20% blue. The film with90% red and 10% blue emission was not feasible to fabricate at a small prototype scaledue to the very small quantity of blue masterbatch requirements. 3. We have started the test to determine the effectivenessof light-converting greenhouse film on lettuce yield.

    Publications