Duration
9h Th, 27h Pr
Number of credits
| Master in environmental bioengineering (120 ECTS) | 6 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Controlled environment agriculture is a new agronomic paradigm that aims at a crop production fully independant from outdoor conditions. If space eploration has been the fist technical field to be work on thes life support systems for long stay and continue to do so, recent technological developments bring this agriculture to economical viability in numerous local context on earth. Furthermore, this technology may offer some environmental virtues as water savings, pesticide free agriculture, very high yields or easy integration in urban environment for short food supply chain. Las but not least, in the context of the energetic transition, indoor agriculture will subsitute to heated greenhouses that currently rely heavly on fossil fuels.
The course covers the following aspects:
- State of the art of artificial light plant factories and challenges
- Ways to improve artificial light plants factories
- Design and control of artificial light plants factories
- Design of the growing modules
- Efficiency, productivity and profitability
- Integration with renewable energies
- The contribution of led lighting to plant factories
- Cultivation systems adapted to plant factories and the control of the nutrient solution
- The contribution of phenotyping to the development of intelligent plant factories
The course aims to train students in the technologies of this industrial sector and to make them explore its development through immersion in the laboratory's research on this subject.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
The course aims to train the student in the design engineering of complex systems in his field of expertise
The course train students to the design of technological solutions that aims to define equipments, systems and infrastructure for indoor food and medecine production that respect the environment
The student must succeed to conduct a project whose specifications are complex and interlinked without any predefined methodology on the basis of partial information
The student aims to achieve engineering objectives in the strategic context of the project and applies multidisciplinary knowledges and skills (systems dynamics, mechanics, control engineering, building physics and special techniques, irrigation, plant physiology, environmental metrology, image analysis, enregy systems...) in a digital environment.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Physics
Mathematics
Biology
Chemistry
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Research and project-based learning
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face to face and distance learning
Project
Recommended or required readings
Kozai Toyoki, Smart Plant Factory the Next Generation Indoor Vertical Farms, 2018, ISBN 978-981-13-1065-2
Kozai Toyoki, Niu Genhua, Takagaki Michiko, 2015, Plant Factory - An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production, ISBN : 0-12-801775-9
Kozai Toyoki, Fujiwara Kazuhiro, Runkle Erik S., 2016, LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture, ISBN 978-981-10-1848-0
Assessment methods and criteria
Any session :
- In-person
oral exam
- Remote
oral exam
- If evaluation in "hybrid"
preferred remote
Additional information:
Written report and oral examination
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
The project requires a face-to face or distance participation and is not subject to an assessment in second session
Contacts
f.lebeau@uliege.be