Vertical Farming

Challenge:
Water scarcity and the resulting lack of availability of agriculturally produced food in Africa.

Aim of the two-year Project:
As part of student projects, students are to collaboratively and self-organized develop various vertical farming concepts using local recycled materials, evaluate them mutually and finally implement them in collaboration with students at universities in Africa.

Implementation in the Respective Semesters:

1. Creating a specification sheet taking into account sustainable construction with recycled materials
2. Developing final concepts taking into account life cycle assessment aspects and creating a final design in the context of education for sustainable development (ESD)
3. Construction of a prototype in a laboratory environment in Stuttgart
4. Construction of the final vertical farming system in Tunisia or Uganda under real conditions, including initial utilization tests (stay: 1 week)

Basic Principle:

Arrangement of plants within a vertically arranged infrastructure.
Both artificial light and sunlight can be used.
Plants are supplied with nutrient solution (water with dissolved nutrients).

Examples of Irrigation Systems:

Hydroponic systems: plant roots directly in nutrient solution, without soil
Aeroponic systems: plant roots are sprayed with nutrient solution
Aquaponic systems: Plant roots directly in water from fish culture

Challenge:

Profitability of the systems due to the high energy requirement
Cultivation of carbohydrate-rich plants

Apply now and become part of the KonKreis team as part of your project work, bachelor's thesis, research paper or master's thesis. There are further opportunities to participate in the KonKreis through HIWI activities, APMBs and practice-oriented exercises.

The focus of this work and courses is on:

1. Steel construction, construction and foundations
2. Plastics, recycling and irrigation
3. Biology, agriculture and climate

Your participation will give you the chance to travel to Africa, where we will set up the first prototype together at the end of the 2-year project

1. Topics for Student Work:

• Vertical Farming System: Concept development and construction of a prototype using local circular materials (project work)
• Methodical development of a vertical farming prototype system made from circular materials, taking into account the CO2 footprint (theoretical/concrete bachelor's, research or master's thesis)
• Further topics possible by arrangement

2. APMB in the Summer Semester 2024 at IFU

3. APMB in the Winter Semester 2024/2025 at IKT

4. Employment as HIWI

Tasks: Organization, research, preparation of specifications, design, prototype construction, CO2 balancing