Climate as a service
For greenhouses and vertical farms
Mission
Muclitech aspires to design and commercialize a multitude of solutions that will contribute to make agriculture in a controlled environment more economically viable, more ecological and more accessible; for the benefit of all citizens of the world! With our intelligent equipment, we are getting closer to artificial intelligence.
Problems to be solved
Avoid disease by controlling humidity
- Too much or too little moisture impacts yield quality and quantity
- Moisture-related diseases can destroy an entire crop, resulting in losses of millions of dollars.
The cost of heating greenhouses
- Canadian greenhouses currently consume 536,000 tonnes of non-renewable resources per year (fuel oil, natural gas and propane).
- 25% of greenhouse heating costs are used solely for humidity management. They therefore consume 134,000 tonnes per year just to manage humidity, at a total cost of $444.5 million.
- And that’s not even mentioning the GHGs produced by all these non-renewable resources!
Water consumption in a greenhouse
- On average, a greenhouse consumes around 10 million liters of water per hectare per year.
- For greenhouses in Canada, annual water consumption reaches 1,000 billion liters, representing an expense of $1.5 billion. Most of this water evaporates and ends up in the greenhouse air.
- By recovering 50% of the water used for plants, we could save $750 million a year and recover 500 billion liters of water!
- On top of that, there’s the risk of water shortages, the need to divert rivers, and the potential rise in water costs. Without a reliable water source, crops in a greenhouse can perish in just a few days.
Testimony
The conception of a vertical farm
Challenges
To design a system capable of replicating all climates for a laboratory dedicated to strawberry cultivation in a closed environment. To generate complex, cold, high humidity and dry climates, and perform climate transitions at a controlled rate.
Solutions
Design and operation of the climate control system:
- Development of our central controller and algorithms that allow better synergy between HVAC equipment
- Deployment of a user-friendly climate planning tool
- Development of a cloud-based dashboard to visualize data in real time and an alarm system (SMS/email) in case of unexpected events
- Select and optimize HVAC equipment to generate complex climates
Results
The climate management system operates with very fine precision and replicates the natural climate of the strawberry. During the 30 days of June 2021, the average deviations from the designated set points were of 0.30°C in temperature and 0.5% in humidity. The climate transitions necessary for strawberry growth are precisely and consistently controlled.
“The climate management done by the first prototype was somewhat difficult at first, but thanks to Muclitech’s adjustments, the climate is now precise and consistent. I am happy to have been able to be part of the breakthrough of an innovative Quebec company like Muclitech through the Km0 project.”
– Liliane Colpron, Première Moisson Founder
