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4. Our Main Agribusiness Products (Systems)
4-1 Plant Factories
(1) Container Plant Factory
With the transportable plant factory units, it is possible
to immediately cultivate plants anywhere that water
and electricity connections are available. Since the site
can’t be selected, the units can be used for various applications,
such as on a marine vessel, at the north or south
pole, or in the back yard of a restaurant. Development
concepts and economic feasibility are being evaluated.
— Photo. 1
(2) Complete Control (Artificial Lighting) Plant
Factory and Supplementary Lighting Plant
Factory
Facilities for producing greens such as lettuce and
spinach as well as other types of vegetables such as tomatoes.
Plants are cultivated in a controlled environment,
and speed of growth and production efficiency are
extremely high.
In complete control plant factory there is little influence
from the natural environment. While this makes it
possible to schedule production year round, it also has
the defect of fairly high operating expenses, especially
for electric utilities.
In the supplementary lighting plant factory, there is
some influence from the natural environment, bringing
down the initial cost as well as the operating expenses,
so they can be made on a larger scale.
In addition, we are building systems for improving
productivity by promoting the development of such
equipment as a conveyance spacing device that automatically
controls the intervals between the plants, for
complete control (artificial lighting) plant factory and
supplementary lighting plant factory.
Photo. 1 Equipment for experiments with container cultivation
Equipment for mixing axil
(inside container)
24 ESPEC TECHNOLOGY REPORT No.2