Doctor of Agriculture Hiroyuki Watanabe and his student studying the use of LEDs for growing plants at Future SciTech Lab. Sticking out of shelves are pipes for water cooling system.
Hiroki Arai
– Tamagawa University’s Latest Research on LED use for food production (Machida-shi, Tokyo) –
While light emitting diodes (LEDs) are drawing attention as a light source for cultivating food inside sunless factories. Tamagawa University in Machida-shi, Tokyo is making an unprecedented accomplishment in this field. The university has already developed equipment for food factories, carried out testing of cultivation methods and established a unique and integrated sunless food production and sales model.
A clean room was installed in “Future SciTech Lab” which was built on the campus of Tamagawa University. Inside the lab, there is hydroponic culture system on shelves with five racks each. The upper ceilings of the racks are covered with hundreds of dazzling red, blue and pink LED lamps.
In the lab, Doctor of Agriculture Hiroyuki Watanabe, College of Agriculture, Tamagawa University, and his students are engaged in the research on cultivation of approximately 20 different agricultural products such as leaf vegetables, fruits and potatoes. By changing lighting conditions, making use of the homogeneous light output produced by LEDs, they analyze how plants react to lights. Their goal is not only to grow food efficiently but also to explore a broad range of possibilities, such as producing medicinal plants rich in anticarcinogenic substances. Though LEDs are known to have several advantages, including lower power consumption, over other lighting sources. However, they also have a downside: they tend to degrade with heat. To solve this problem, the team devised a new heat management system in which the LED bulbs are welded directly to aluminum boards with running water on the other side to cool the chips. This successfully lowered the cost. Watanabe initially got the idea of using LEDs for growing vegetables 22 years ago when he learnt 
about a NASA project to cultivate plants in space using LED lights. After decades of study, “the cost of the LED lighting unit is now one digit smaller than before,” according to him. “Its profitability is now proven and we are near the goal of establishing a feasible system to help farmers,” he added with confident.
“SciTech Farm” is built in the campus under a business-academia collaborative project between Nishimatsu Construction and Tamagawa University. The farm that uses LEDs has been producing and delivering leaf lettuce since 2013 to demonstrate economical efficiency of the project. The entire process excluding seeding and harvesting is done mechanically and the plant is already JGAP (Japan Good Agricultural Practice) certified. Its cooling system uses wind and the farm can offer fruits and vegetables with better flavor and texture using controlled LED lights. The resulting lettuce, for example, can contain as much as 2.6 times polyphenol and other antioxidative substances in comparison to regular outdoor-grown lettuce. As a result, the vegetable factory is already enjoying strong sales. It currently produces 600 heads of lettuce a day but this will be increased to 3,500 by the end of 2014. It also has a plan to start producing other items. “I hope to make it into the world standard technology,” concluded Watanabe, explaining his ultimate goal.
SciTech Farm to demonstrate feasibility of indoor farming based on the research of Tamagawa University. The entire cultivating process is done mechanically.
Futuristic appearance of Future SciTech Lab building.
SciTech Farm to demonstrate feasibility of indoor farming based on the research of Tamagawa University. The entire cultivating process is done mechanically.
Ceilings of hydroponic culture system are entirely covered by LED lamps.
(July 6, 2014)