Key technological levers of indoor LED-farming – pilot scale study, extrapolation to commercial scale, and space vantage point
| dc.contributor.author | Hessel, Volker | |
| dc.contributor.author | Jost, Ricarda | |
| dc.contributor.author | Escribà i Gelonch, Marc | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ann, Mary | |
| dc.contributor.author | Osorio-Tejada, Jose | |
| dc.contributor.author | Rosenthal, Ed | |
| dc.contributor.author | Lewsey, Mathew G. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Johnson, Kim L. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-06-09T11:26:56Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-06-09T11:26:56Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2026 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Indoor/vertical farming evidently is much more energy dependent than is field- or conventional glasshouse farming. Industrially produced LED lighting replaces “free” sunlight, which intrinsically increases environmental footprint. Water/fertiliser irrigation replaces natural rain delivery of water and presence of soil nutrients. The need for HVAC (heating/cooling, ventilation, and air conditioning) causes extra efforts to overrule natural weather impacts. Summed up, literature reports about a gap of a factor of 10–1000 in energy and carbon footprint when using HVAC/LED-assisted farming as compared to field farming. This study follows a number of studies that have demonstrated how to equalise the latter effects, by levering the commercial benefits of indoor/vertical farming through advanced technological solutions. It goes beyond these studies when accessing the data robustness of actual crops grown in a bespoke high-tech research facility at pilot scale, levering data on automation, professional LED lighting at scale, and chiller / heater / HVAC operation at scale. In a cradle-factory-gate life cycle assessment focussing on the global warming potential (GWP), mechanicals is determined as key lever, with a higher impact than LED. The study shows, step by step, via advanced technological levers, how the initial high GWP footprint can be reduced to a level viable for commercial field farming. One key lever is the use of fast-growing tomato cultivars that produce large biomass weight on short area footprint (and short fruit ripening time). Other key levers are improvement in mechanicals, setting LED lights at best distance, fertiliser efficiency, and best tomato fruit quality. By LCA computation, this potential has been scaled up to a production scale of 3 tonnes tomatoes per year, respectively growing 1800 tomato plants in a 72 m2 LED-illuminated growth space in a 110 m2 compartment of the high-tech research facility. From there, another large scale-up step is undergone towards 3400 million tonnes of annual fruit/crop production, by virtue of accessing planning insight of the current largest indoor farm constructed globally, at the Melbourne Tullamarine Airport Precinct (10,000 m2 farm area in 150,000 m² land development). | |
| dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2026.05.003 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0263-8762 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/470453 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier | |
| dc.relation.isformatof | Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2026.05.003 | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 2026, vol. 230, p. 816-837 | |
| dc.rights | cc-by (c) Volker Hessel et al., 2026 | |
| dc.rights | Attribution 4.0 International | * |
| dc.rights.accessRights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | * |
| dc.title | Key technological levers of indoor LED-farming – pilot scale study, extrapolation to commercial scale, and space vantage point | |
| dc.type | info:eu-repo/semantics/article | |
| dc.type.version | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |