Recipient Organization
CYCLOPTICS TECHNOLOGIES, LLAC
P. O. BOX 2014
GAMBIER,OH 43022
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Greenhouse farming is an absolute necessity to revive and create local agriculture businesses in northern "climatically challenged" regions with short growing seasons. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has made significant strides in greenhouse farming technology. State of the art CEA farming utilizes direct control of lighting, temperature and carbon dioxide in a hydroponics environment.Providing adequate amounts of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) has been shown to increase greenhouse production capacity to a level capable of supporting large market demand. The challenge for northern markets is to implement such supplemental lighting systems at a cost that makes CEA greenhouse farming competitive with large out of state farm and ship sources. For this SBIR effort, Cycloptics proposes to combine energy efficient lamps with Cycloptics' patented optimized reflectors to create a luminaire that will produce significant lighting energy and cost savings. With Cycloptics' technology, light from such lamps can be precisely controlled to create a highly uniform distribution over large arbitrary target patterns. It is the combination of target efficiency and lamp energy efficiency that yields the energy and cost savings for the proposed luminaire. Initial estimates indicate the new luminaire technology could achieve energy efficiency gains of 25 to 40% relative to existing growth chamber lighting. With the proposed lighting technology, year-round greenhouse agriculture could become economically more viable even for rural northern climate zones. If cost and energy efficiency gains can be demonstrated, the benefits align with Specific USDA goals. These include enhancing the international competitiveness and sustainability of rural farm economies by reducing costs of locally grown greenhouse produce to or below the cost of imported produce; support increased economic opportunities and improved quality of life in rural America from jobs created and associated with the greenhouse vegetable production industry; and enhancing the protection and safety of the agriculture and food supply by increasing local production of food that is easily traceable and better regulated by government entities.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
The primary goal of Phase I will be to quantify the benefits of Cycloptics advanced HID (High Intensity Discharge) reflector designs over existing fluorescent fixtures in the growth chamber application. To achieve this goal, a prototype luminaire using a Cycloptics reflector will be designed, fabricated and tested. The benefits of the new reflector will be measured in terms of raw lighting energy efficiency and in terms of bottom line cost efficiency for lettuce growth. By the end of Phase I, an optimized luminaire reflector design will have been established for field trials in Phase II. To achieve success in Phase I, the following technical objectives will need to be accomplished. 1. Establish a baseline growth chamber model. This objective results in a calibrated computer model of an existing chamber that is based on real world lighting data. Questions that will be answered include: a) What are the model parameters needed to describe the existing chamber b) What is the overall energy efficiency of the existing chamber c) What portion of the energy efficiency is related to PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) 2. Design HID luminaire for the growth chamber. This objective produces an HID based luminaire capable of replacing the fluorescent fixtures. The new luminaire will incorporate the Cycloptics highly efficient reflector design with the HID light source resulting in increased energy efficiency with equal or better lighting uniformity performance. Questions that will be answered include: a) What is the optimum number and distribution of Cycloptics luminaires b) How sensitive is the design to minor geometrical errors c) What is the potential energy savings with the new luminaire 3. Build and demonstrate the HID luminaire prototype. This objective employs a multi-segment fabrication and assembly process to produce the deep well reflector envisioned for the growth chamber application. Questions that will be answered include: a) How closely does the finished product geometrically match the design b) Are design modifications required to compensate for the fabrication method c) What is the estimated volume cost to manufacture the new luminaire 4. Determine the impact of the new luminaire on lettuce production. The optical test results for the prototype luminaire will be entered into the baseline growth chamber model. The effects of a fully populated growth chamber will then be calculated in terms of uniformity, energy efficiency and volume cost. The impact on the cost of lettuce growth will be estimated. Questions that will be answered include: a) Is the prototype luminaire a compelling replacement for existing fixtures b) What are the potential benefits of a second design iteration c) How can the reflector design be scaled to large area greenhouses
Project Methods
Task 1. Establish baseline growth chamber model. To model the existing fluorescent luminaires in the chamber two commercial programs Photopia and Agi32 will be used. Photopia accepts standard IES (Illumination Engineering Society) files for the lamp and AGi32 is capable of modeling light reflections, both specular and diffuse from various surface types for given illumination source position and radiation characteristics. Together with a 3-D CAD drawing of the reflector and lamp,the radiation characteristics for the entire fixture can be calculated. The chamber lighting model will then be compared with and calibrated against the actual measured intensity data for the chamber. A thermal modeling effort will be carried out for the existing chamber. Luminaire manufacturer data will be collected to estimate the thermal energy produced both from the lamp and from electrical losses in the ballast. Chamber manufacturer data will be consulted to estimate the thermal load on the chamber. Task 2. Design HID luminaire. Due to chamber size considerations,a 400 Watt (or smaller) metal halide source will be used. Lamp selection will be based on PAR efficiency, heat generation, size, circuitry complexity and efficiency and cost. The lamp IES file will be entered into Cycloptics elumitech reflector design software. Reflector designs will then be generated that result in a uniform square intensity distribution at various axial distances from the reflector aperture. Reflector reflectivity will be assumed to be 95% and design efficiency will require at least 90% of all light rays from the source to only bounce once before leaving the reflector, ensuring minimum light loss to reflection surface absorption. Photopia and AGi32 will be used to determine the minimum number of HID luminaires required. Task 3. Fabricate, assemble and test luminaire prototype. Fabrication of the reflector will use established hydroforming techniques. Coating of the reflector will use established vacuum deposition techniques. The reflector material and thickness will be chosen such that heat resistance and dissipation requirements are met. A coordinate measurement test will be performed by the manufacturer to determine actual geometry of the finished part. This information is used by Photopia as an "actual" reflector, and the simulated optical performance compared to original design. Once the light source is attached to the reflector, independent optical testing will be performed by ITL(Boulder,CO.). ITL will perform planar and semi-spherical light intensity mappings at various distances using linear and goniometer translation stages. Spectral data will be collected to determine optical wavelength content and uniformity for each map. Task 4. Determine luminaire effect on lettuce production. The luminaire test results will be used in the plant growth model SUCROS to model impact on lettuce growth. This model includes effects of carbon dioxide, temperature and direct and indirect lighting. Energy and cost calculations will be carried out over the range of USDA climate zones.