Supporting sustainable global food security through a novel decentralised offshore floating greenhouse
Muhammad Luqman, Farhat Mahmood, Tareq Al‐Ansari
Abstract
The continuous increase in the global population and food consumption trends demand a substantial increase in food production to ensure future food security. However, conventional agricultural practices, besides their limitations in yield, negatively affect the environment, climate, energy, and water resources. In addition, global demographic trends indicate a continuous increase in population density close to coastal areas. As a solution to ensure future food security in the given context, this study aims to present a decentralised floating controlled environment agricultural system for vegetable production, which is self-sufficient in terms of energy and water, flexible in terms of geographical preferences, and can produce food all year-round in an environmentally benign manner. The proposed system is composed of a floating greenhouse, in which the electrical energy requirements are fulfilled through integrated solar photovoltaic panels. The needed cooling and humidity adjustments inside the greenhouse and water needs are fulfilled through two heat exchangers installed at different depths in the sea, where the low-temperature seawater is used as a heat sink. A comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of the system illustrates that the system successfully maintains the optimum temperature (20–30 °C) and relative humidity (60–90 %) inside the greenhouse and fulfils the water demands throughout the year in a decentralised manner. As such, this system presents an opportunity to produce food closer to the coastal communities and all year-round, resulting in significantly reduced food transportation and storage, essentially increasing health and environmental benefits. This approach of sustainable food production can be applied to ensure/support global food security.