METHODS FOR PROVIDING OPTIMAL LIGHT-CO2 COMBINATIONS FOR PLANT PRODUCTION

• US 20070124003A1
• Filed: 01/29/2007
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cornell Research Foundation Incorporated (Cornell University)
• Original Assignee: Cornell Research Foundation Incorporated (Cornell University)
• Inventors: Ferentinos, Konstantinos, Albright, Louis, Seginer, Ido, de Villiers, David, Ho, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,502,655 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/36
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 7/02 Treatment of plants with carbon dioxide
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/18 Greenhouses for treating plants with carbon dioxide or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/042 in which a parameter or coefficient is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric

Abstract

Method for optimizing plant production in a cost effective manner, System (100) includes a processor (102) in communication with resource controllers (110, 112) for controlling resources (106, 108) such as, for example, lighting and carbon dioxide. Each resource has a cost that varies temporally or with other factors. The processor implements an algorithm that receives a desired plant production rate and other input, such as operating conditions of the system and environment, and determines amounts of each resource to expend consistent with plant production goals and resource costs.

Claims

1. A method for controlling resources for growing a plant, the method comprising:

receiving a desired plant production rate, said desired plant production rate related to a first resource and a second resource;

receiving a first cost associated with the first resource, wherein the first cost varies in accordance with a resource cost time period;

receiving a second cost associated with the second resource; and

determining based on the resource time period an amount of the first resource to expend during the time period and an amount of the second resource to expend during the time period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first resource comprises electricity for a lighting system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second resource comprises carbon dioxide (CO2).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource cost time period is selected from the group consisting of a peak period and a non-peak period.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising re-determining the amount of the first resource to expend and the amount of the second resource to expend upon a change to a differing resource cost time period.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically re-determining the amount of the first resource to expend and the amount of the second resource to expend at a plurality of time intervals.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising calculating a proportional plant growth achieved.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising re-determining at the time intervals the amount of the first resource to expend and the amount of the second resource to expend based at least in part on the calculated proportional growth achieved.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first resource is used to supplement a naturally available resource.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the naturally available resource varies in accordance with a natural resource time period and further wherein the amount of the first resource to expend and the amount of the second resource to expend is determined by the natural resource time period in addition to the resource cost time period.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the natural resource is solar radiation and the natural resource time period is selected from the group consisting of daytime and nighttime.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second resource comprises CO₂ and is used to supplement CO₂ decay losses.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises predicting for an upcoming time interval at least one of the environmental conditions selected from the group consisting of air temperature outside of a greenhouse containing the plant, solar insolation, and ventilation rate from a greenhouse encompassing the plant.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of adjusting the amounts of the first resource and the second resource to amounts determined.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the amounts of the first resource and the second resource determined to be expended substantially achieve the desired plant production rate at or near a minimum cost of resources.