Grant: Alliance Grants

To strengthen Canada's food security and safety, to gain independence from international logistics, and to cut the carbon emissions of greenhouse farming, a modernization of greenhouse technologies is necessary. The aim of our project PLANET is to introduce plasma chemical electrification in greenhouse farming for local pesticide and nitrogen nutrient production to increase produce yield at net zero CO2 emission. The electrification of chemical processing by non-thermal physical plasma is a transformative approach to make greenhouse farming far more resilient and sustainable. Plasma will not only provide antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal agents against pathogen contamination which today limits growth and yield of greenhouse production. Plasma's reactive species furthermore will serve as fertilizer substitute in greenhouse hydroponic systems to in future replace today's centralized carbon intensive chemical nitrogen fertilizer production. The technology we propose in PLANET simply and only requires water, surrounding air, and renewable electricity. In PLANET, we combine the expertise of engineering physicists, chemical, electrical, and civil engineers, agronomists and agricultural economists and social scientists from major Québec Universities and the sustainable agriculture research institute IRDA with that of the broader user community represented by L'Union des Producteurs Agricoles in Quebec and our direct user collaborators: the largest Quebec greenhouse producer Cultures Gen-V, Growcer who developed a containerized modular vertical farm, and Cintech, a Quebec college center for the transfer of technology. For our technology transfer, we are advised by greenhouse users: members of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne and by AquaPoly, Polytechnique Montreal's student technical society on Aquaponics. The solutions our PLANET team proposes will transform greenhouse farming to a low carbon, self-sustaining decentralized technology for small- and large-scale greenhouse producers, remote and indigenous communities, smart and urban farming initiatives.