Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker).

As we provide the news for free, we are relying on revenues from our banners. So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.
Thanks!

Click here for a guide on disabling your adblocker.

Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

US: Illinois Tech scientists develop container farm that runs on food waste

Two Illinois Institute of Technology scientists have invented a fully containerized aquaponics farm that will use local food waste as the energy source instead of electricity, providing grid independence, lower cost than typical indoor farms, and mobility for use in food-poor areas.

Elena Timofeeva, research professor in chemistry, and John Katsoudas, senior research associate in physics, have started a company, AquaGrow Technologies, to design and build the farms.

Each AquaGrow farm will be housed in a 45-foot-long container with a new type of flat aenaerobic biodigester unit, developed in collaboration with Nullam Consulting, that is scaled to the energy needs of the container. The biodigester will convert food waste to methane fuel, which in turn will power the farm operation, so the unit does not need to be connected to the grid.

Timofeeva and Katsoudas are working on the scaled prototype, and they calculate that a full- scale farm unit in a 45-foot-high cube cargo container will annually produce 14,500 pounds of fresh produce, 1,100 pounds of fish, 110 MWh of energy, and 45 tons of high-value fertilizer and will eliminate 155 tons of food waste and 40 tons of CO2, while generating $40,000 to $80,000 in profit.

Read more at phys.org
Publication date: