About

In a greenhouse, the temperature of the plants themselves (and not necessarily of the greenhouse air) is a most important factor for their growth. Even in mild winter climates, a greenhouse must have a heating system to control the internal air temperature. Existing commercial greenhouse microclimate control systems, regulate the temperature of the greenhouse air (and not of the plants themselves). Our company's innovative heating system, heats directly the greenhouse plants by emitting harmless low-temperature long-wavelength radiation and achieves energy savings of up to 65% compared to existing commercial air heating systems. Patent applications have been filed with WIPO (PST/GR021/000073, 24/11/2021) and EPO (22000254.7-1105, 22/11/2022).

Solution & Product

The main component of our heating system is the "heated curtains" or "heated screens" invented and designed. When the temperature of the plants drops below a desired value, the heated curtains are drawn (extended-spread) with an electromechanical system completely covering the plants and deliver the required energy to the plants with long-wave radiation. When the plants do not need heating then the heated curtains are withdrawn (collected) and form small packages under the greenhouse trusses. The curtains, when spread out, are heated to a suitable temperature in order to fully cover the losses of the plants in the varied air temperatures outside the greenhouse and the plants reach and maintain the desired temperature. The heated curtains are made of polymer materials transparent to solar radiation and are heated through ducts (channels) passing hot air or through electrical ducts with electricity draining.

Innovation & Scalability

Our system is new (there is no such system in the market) and innovative (patent pending). The innovations concern the following: 1. Direct heating of the greenhouse plants and not of the greenhouse air. 2. Development of special AI software to control the operation of the heating system with non-contact sensors for detecting the temperature, vigour and health of the plants. 3. Energy saving compared to conventional commercially available greenhouse air heating systems, up to 65%. 4. Significantly lower purchase and installation costs than existing conventional commercially available greenhouse air heating systems. 5. Prospects for space applications for controlling the temperature of plant growth and food production in space (outside the earth, e.g. on the moon) because it does not use air as a means of heating plants. Our system can be installed in a very small greenhouse (a few dozen square meters) or a very large greenhouse (hundreds of thousand square meters).

Traction & achievements

The patent application to WIPO has been disclosed on June 1st, 2023. In the text of the patent application calculations show the large potential of our technology for energy saving rated at 65% vs. conventional greenhouse air heating systems when the air temperature outside the greenhouse is at -10 oC. In addition, small scale lab experiments have proven the basic operation principles of our technology where the heating screens were made of commercially available heating textiles. Real scale experiments are to follow and fully prove our technology operation advantages.

Team & Why Us

Steps foreseen for the company's growth strategy are as follows: 1. Develop the final product (i.e., develop the new heating system along with the Artificial Intelligence system for optimal crop growth), and introduce it to the market and for that, a strategical partnership with heating textile manufacturer or plastic sheets manufacturer would be desired. Strategical partnership with a greenhouse photovoltaic manufacturer would also be possible. 2. Develop a network of commercial collaboration with greenhouse manufacturers and manufacturers of relevant equipment for selling our technology.

Funding Needs

For full proving our system operation we need to develop the system, that is the new heating system with the heating screens along with the Artificial Intelligence system for optimal crop growth. As a first option we intend to develop the heated screens using heating textiles with electricity provided by photovoltaics integrated in a real scale greenhouse. For that purpose, we estimate we need about 110000 Euro seed money for a period of one year.