Mitsubishi Chemical Releases Container-type Vegetable Plant

Jan 13, 2010 10:48 Kouji Kariatsumari, Nikkei Electronics

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp developed the "container vegetable plant," a 40-foot container equipped with facilities of a vegetable plant.

It measures 12.2 (L) x 2.4 (W) x 2.9m (H). The company will deliver the first plant to Qatar in April 2010.

The container vegetable plant is a heat-insulating container featuring (1) air-conditioning facilities to keep the inside temperature constant, (2) water treatment facilities for water circulation, filtration and recycling, (3) fluorescent and LED lighting equipment for photosynthesis, etc. About 50 leaf vegetables such as lettuce can be harvested per day, Mitsubishi Chemical said.

Furthermore, it is possible to equip the container with a solar panel and a lithium-ion battery and use them together with electricity from the grid. The company expects that the plant will be powered only by solar energy in the future and used in off-grid regions.

When used in regions where electricity prices are low, fluorescent lighting equipment will be mainly used. But, when the plant is powered mainly by solar power, LED lighting equipment will be used because it consumes less power than fluorescent lighting equipment.

The pricing of the vegetable plant with and without the solar panel and the lithium-ion battery starts from ¥60,000,000-70,000,000 (approx US$659,051-768,893) and ¥50,000,000, respectively.

The solar panel and the lithium-ion battery were developed with Sanyo Electric Co Ltd. CCS Inc helped develop the LED lighting equipment. Know-how for growing plants is provided by Fairy Angel Inc. And the temperature-controlled container was developed with
Nippon Fruehauf Co Ltd.

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