Residential urban farming through 3D printing of adaptable hydroponics system

• Main Author: Seah, Yun Lin
• Other Authors: Yeong Wai Yee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/163589
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The Singapore government has recently announced a “30 by 30” target that aims to produce 30 percent of food locally by 2030. To achieve this goal the Singapore government has taken a three-prong approach in which one of these prongs is residential farming. The Singapore government’s food sustainability goals are hindered by the lack of residential urban farming efforts due to spatial constraints. Singapore is land scarce, with new residential housings decreasing in size. This makes it difficult for Singaporeans to carry out urban farming, more specifically hydroponics, to grow their own crops in their own residential units. This report investigates a new modular hydroponics system that can address the spatial constraints faced. This hydroponics system makes use of 3D printing with the goal of open sourcing the 3D design of the system so that anyone can create their own hydroponics system. The report addresses the advantages of 3D printing for the creation of such a system and the various methods of 3D printing. It investigates the overall concept and goal of the hydroponics system and the design considerations of the various parts of the hydroponics systems. The hydroponics system is evaluated and compared to those existing in the market through a metric. The hydroponics system is designed with the intention to be adaptable, customizable, and modular. This means that the hydroponics system consists of a series of parts that can be assembled by the user in a variety of ways, similar to that of Lego. It can adapt to any spatial constraints ranging from a lack of floor space to irregular available space. Moreover, given that this is a modular system it can be scaled both vertically and horizontally. The designed hydroponics system makes use of the Nutrient Film Technique in which plants are nested in a series of pipes that channel nutrient solution from the water tank to the pipes and back to the water tank. The nutrient solution would then meet the roots of the plants nested in the pipes. Through this project, prototypes of the modules were printed and assembled in a variety of set ups. The overall system was then evaluated using a design criterion to existing systems in the market. Overall, the designed system outperformed existing systems in the market.