Design and engineer a domestic use vertical farm unit for growing green vegetables and herbs

• Main Author: Abdurrashid Yahya
• Other Authors: Heng Kok Hui, John Gerard
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72229
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

An indoor domestic vertical farming unit design is proposed in this report. The design is the result of a close examination of the current Vertical Farming practices and identification of the design flaws that could be addressed. The main problem with vertical farming is that it consumes high levels of energy primarily for powering the grow lights. The vertical farming unit proposed in here is a high-yield and low-energy domestic farm that utilizes the light from the sun. Most common soil-less growing techniques use water as the main growing medium. In such systems, the water would normally be pumped up the system where it would the be made to flow or drip down a growing trough or tower respectively. At some point, the water would have to be collected before the process is complete cycle. An energy recovery component was strategically integrated into the cycle to extract useful mechanical energy in this vertical farming unit. The mechanical energy is then used to rotate a vertical growing tower that houses 18 plants. the vertical farming unit designed in this report is engineered to be placed by a window in a domestic environment. The window would only provide light in one direction and hence, it is necessary to rotate the grow tower so that all the plants on the tower would have exposure to sunlight.