Food Production in Ergonomically Designed Unit with Low Energy Consuming Thick Film Hot Plate

Abstract

The Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh is a cold desert where the temperature drops as low as -45°C, which makes the cultivation of fresh food almost impossible. The region is strategically very important as it borders two countries China and Pakistan. The unavailability of fresh food causes nutritional deficiency in the deployed troops and locals, affecting their performance. Cultivation of fresh food is very difficult due to the average low temperature and mountainous soil of the region. Transportation of fresh food to such forward locations causes decaying of nutrition besides the difficulty of reaching such snow-bound mountainous locations. Nutritious micro-greens grown in media under controlled conditions look perfect solutions for meeting nutritional requirements. The present study focuses on year-round cultivation of nutritious micro-green (2-3 times more nutritious than mature counterparts) with low energy consuming thick-film hot plate for necessary temperature maintenance in properly designed portable structures to reduce dependency on packaged food which are the causes of many diseases. The study involves the development of a thick film energy-efficient micro-climate maintenance technology-based system for the maintenance of temperature along with phase-wise development of suitable cultivation structure and standardization of the number of such plates and sizing of the portable unit.These hotplates produce heat based on the principle of Joule heating or resistive heating and the power of a hotplate is equal to I2R. The hotplates are capable of raising the surface temperature to 90°C –100°C at the expense of only 8W power consumption and maintenance of average temperature in the range of 18°C to 20°C at -25°C to -40°C outside ambient temperature. The region receives the highest solar irradiance along with annual average of 7-8 hours of sunshine duration and hence a solar-based technology can fulfill the energy supply of 8W with ease.The study revealed that a suitable temperature can be maintained for growing variety of nutritious micro-green in a triple layer-based multitier structure integrated with low energy consuming (~8 W), small (50.8 mm (x) 50.8 mm), efficient, and lightweight thick film technology.Thick-film hot plate integrated standardized unit is capable of producing an average of 1000grams/trial/unit in a short period of 8-12 days during the winter period of 6-8 months for the targeted supply of 8-10grams/person/day with total energy consumption of approximately 20-25Kw/trial at ~3350 m to ~5400 m Altitude.