Nano Labs Introduces Automated Technology to Improve Crop Yields

Nano Labs Corp. today announced yet another high-tech advance relating to greenhouse (GH) farming and agriculture, this being automated technology to control the dynamics of GH CO₂ for improved crop yields, reduced energy consumption, and decreased environmental hazards.

Designed to replace conventional manual control systems, the new technology holds promise to increase efficiencies in GH CO₂ use by 20%, improve crop yields by up to 25%, and reduce energy consumption by up to 20%, the Company reported.

"Benefits of the new automated technology depend on the type and size of the greenhouse crops, but our analysis shows significant improvements across the board for increased control efficiencies, crop yields, and energy savings for greenhouse farming and agriculture encompassing many billions of dollars of revenue in North America alone," said Dr. Victor Castano, CEO of Innovation at Nano Labs.

Dr. Castano explained that carbon dioxide plays a vital role in greenhouse operations – and in cycles of all plant life on Earth - in that it is necessary to photosynthesis, which basically is a chemical process that uses energy from light to convert CO₂ and water into plant sugars. He said conventional manual CO₂ enrichment in intensive greenhouse production is a routine procedure that nonetheless involves problematic elements, which Nano Labs' innovations are designed to address.

"Since CO₂ is normally obtained from the burning of carbon-based fuels such as natural gas, propane, and kerosene - or directly from tanks of pure CO₂ - greenhouse technologists face a dilemma because each CO₂ source has disadvantages. The burning of natural gas, propane or kerosene produces not only CO₂, but heat that may have a localized effect on temperature and the incidence of plant disease. This is in addition to problems associated with the release of CO₂ into the outside atmosphere. Accordingly, we have developed a technology for understanding on a case-by-case basis how CO₂ behaves in greenhouses and then, how it can be controlled for better results," Dr. Castano stated.

From a technical standpoint, Dr. Castano explains Nano Labs' automation employs external CO₂, solar radiation, exterior temperature, wind speed, and humidity as input variables, creating a unique methodology for optimizing greenhouse operations and production in practically any climate condition with the aim of increasing plant yields, decreasing energy consumption, and reducing CO₂ emissions into the outside air. An important feature of the technology is that it can be adapted to specific types of plants and geographical locations.

The international target markets for the Company's technology include big greenhouse growers, manufactures of greenhouses, and farms that use CO₂. The advantages include computer control of the CO₂ in the greenhouses (instead of an empirical, manual control, which is the normally used), more efficient use of CO₂ (up to 20%), less energy consumption depending on size, type of crop, etc., (where preliminary tests indicated savings up to 20 and 30 %), and more efficiency of the crop yield (depending on the plant, preliminary tests indicate up to 25%).

The Company is currently in discussions with a leading agriculture co-op to begin pilot facility testing in Q1 2013. The Company intends to continue to report to industry on the findings and parties interested in learning more are invited to contact Mr. Stephan Licari, Director Global Business Opportunities.