Singapore Advance VErtical Farming Project
Lead Participant:
VERTICAL FUTURE LIMITED
Abstract
"SAVE Farming ("Singapore Advanced Vertical Farming") is a cross-border collaboration between Vertical Future, a leading vertical farming technology and research company, headquartered in London, and Vertical Farm Systems ("VFS"), a new company that is building an "AgriHub" in Singapore. VFS is a subsidiary of HSL, which has over 1,000 staff and a 28-year-old history, building large-scale projects, including desalination plants (one of which was awarded the best in the world).
The main theme of SAVE Farming is the development and deployment of enhanced water recycling and air-cooling technologies to dramatically improve the energy performance of vertical farms, especially due to recent increases in energy, water, and consumable costs, globally. There is a natural relationship between energy use, heat, and water consumption in all vertical farms. Many claim to be energy and water efficient but this can be easily manipulated by increasing product pricing by 10x-30x higher than wholesale pricing, which is the opposite direction of travel for food sustainability.
The system combines approaches to cooling in glasshouses and sustainable energy generation, but in a novel way, fully automated, dramatically reducing the amount of energy and water required for production. Other vertical farms are typically reliant on HVAC and our combinatorial approach is targeted as being more optimal.
Of central importance to the system is nutrient use and uptake, so the UK team will focus on this aspect during the early system development phase prior to the integration of the new system, after which point parallel trials will continue with the Singapore team.
The new fully integrated system will be tested and integrated in two farms in two completely different climates. The first is Vertical Future's R&D centre in London and the second is in Singapore, located at VFS's "AgriHub", where the two parties have already committed to building a 1,080m2 commercially producing farm, partly through their own capital contributions. This includes staff for years of operation and R&D.
The crops in scope for the Project will be 'full sized' Spinach, Pak Choi, Bayum, Basil, Coriander, and Shiso, representing crop types popular in Singapore. The non-indigenous varieties, such as Basil, are currently imported from Europe and the others, which are lower priced, are imported from surrounding countries such as Vietnam.
Long-term, the collaboration will be used as a launch pad for deploying the improved integrated systems across Singapore (targeting the 30 by 30 goal) and across the wider ASEAN region.
The main theme of SAVE Farming is the development and deployment of enhanced water recycling and air-cooling technologies to dramatically improve the energy performance of vertical farms, especially due to recent increases in energy, water, and consumable costs, globally. There is a natural relationship between energy use, heat, and water consumption in all vertical farms. Many claim to be energy and water efficient but this can be easily manipulated by increasing product pricing by 10x-30x higher than wholesale pricing, which is the opposite direction of travel for food sustainability.
The system combines approaches to cooling in glasshouses and sustainable energy generation, but in a novel way, fully automated, dramatically reducing the amount of energy and water required for production. Other vertical farms are typically reliant on HVAC and our combinatorial approach is targeted as being more optimal.
Of central importance to the system is nutrient use and uptake, so the UK team will focus on this aspect during the early system development phase prior to the integration of the new system, after which point parallel trials will continue with the Singapore team.
The new fully integrated system will be tested and integrated in two farms in two completely different climates. The first is Vertical Future's R&D centre in London and the second is in Singapore, located at VFS's "AgriHub", where the two parties have already committed to building a 1,080m2 commercially producing farm, partly through their own capital contributions. This includes staff for years of operation and R&D.
The crops in scope for the Project will be 'full sized' Spinach, Pak Choi, Bayum, Basil, Coriander, and Shiso, representing crop types popular in Singapore. The non-indigenous varieties, such as Basil, are currently imported from Europe and the others, which are lower priced, are imported from surrounding countries such as Vietnam.
Long-term, the collaboration will be used as a launch pad for deploying the improved integrated systems across Singapore (targeting the 30 by 30 goal) and across the wider ASEAN region.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| VERTICAL FUTURE LIMITED | £684,604 | £ 349,970 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Carlos Flores Ortiz (Project Manager) |