Establishment of an Aeroponics Farming System

at the Ecological Greenhouse of Kibbutz Ein Shemer

A collaboration sponsored by

MIT Student: Camille Richman Deparment of Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2015 ____________________________________________________________

Project Advisors -

MIT Advisors: Caleb Harper MIT CityFARM Project Manager

Kent Larson Principle Research Scientist, Media Lab Changing Places

International Advisors: Atar Geva Greenhouse Operations and Guide, Artist

Noam Geva Greenhouse Manager, Musician Avital Geva Greenhouse Founder, Artist

Project Description:

Aeroponics is a method of farming that uses an atomized nutrient mist as the growing substrate rather than soil or water. The technology has huge advantages in water consumption reduction and low space requirements, making it a great candidate for urban farming. The MIT CityFARM team is researching the farming method by prototyping an aeroponics façade system in the Media Lab. While the team is concentrating on urban needs, aeroponics growing technologies could have just as huge an impact on food production in water-scarce regions, such as Israel, since aeroponics utilize 98% less water than conventional farming. By connecting CityFARM and the Ecological Greenhouse of Kibbutz Ein Shemer in Israel for collaboration on improving the technology, teams from both sectors that can benefit from aeroponics can contribute to increasing the speed at which aeroponics advances and gains support.

The Greenhouse functions based on a platform of combining social action, education, and research in marine agriculture, renewable

energy, and agricultural technologies. At the Greenhouse, students from Jewish and Arab backgrounds learn about the agricultural sciences from educational staff, and they go on to contribute to projects either self-devised or initiated by the Greenhouse. With its knowledgeable staff and high traffic of students, the Greenhouse is an ideal incubator for experimenting with and improving aeroponics technologies while spreading the support base for farming with aeroponics in Israel.

Project Report

The Ecological Greenhouse at Kibbutz Ein Shemer is a classroom, playground, and art installation all in one. A staff of knowledgeable educational guides leads student groups in exploring real-world problems and brainstorming relevant solutions and experiments. Students then implement hands-on projects in topics such as algae, renewable energy, mechanical systems, farming, aquaponics, herbal extracts, recycling, and biomimicry. These local middle and high school students from all backgrounds regularly come to the Greenhouse as a class to work on their projects. Additionally, many high school students choose to do their community service at the Greenhouse, helping the educational staff with experiments and maintenance or starting projects. Another big influx to the Greenhouse is tours. For example, many Taglit-Birthright groups visit as part of their tours of Israel. They are exposed to a side of Israel they might not have expected, participating in discussions led by an Arab woman about being an Arab in Israel and then touring the Greenhouse, which brings together Jewish and Arab Israelis over a common interest in sustainability and education. The Greenhouse is home to so many diverse programs and projects that prove anything can be done at the Greenhouse.

From left to right: Spirulina experiments in the laboratory, wind and water powered mechanical systems, and the recycling project led by MIT student Keith Tanner in summer 2013.

From Left to Right: Students’ experiments on lettuce growing conditions, algae experiments in the background and pool ecosystem in the foreground, and an aquaponic setup.

When I first arrived, I had to figure out how to integrate myself and best take advantage of the five weeks I had with the amazing resources the Greenhouse provided. I knew an aeroponics project would tie in perfectly with the aims of the Greenhouse, after all there were already so many great related hydroponic, aquaponic, and farming projects. But my main goal was to get students just as excited about aeroponics and pioneering experiments in this new direction as I was. I wanted to start by building a low pressure aeroponic system and wow-ing students into believing in aeroponics.

A neglected corner of the Greenhouse was designated as aeroponics territory, and I got to work setting up, cleaning, and building with huge amounts of help and support from the Greenhouse staff. We had a first aeroponic system planted with lettuce and running by the second week. It was pretty soggy and very leaky, so we started working on the next versions with new designs and better materials, simultaneously working on a smaller-scale demonstration tank. We wanted to make aeroponics less of a mystery for students. Because so many tours and classes were visiting the aeroponics experiments, we set up a section purely for presentation. Instead of lifting the lids on the big aeroponic systems, we wanted students to be able to peer into a window and see the piping systems and suspended plant roots for themselves.

Daniel and Opal, doing their national service at the Greenhouse, work on the demonstration.

Posing with the first complete aeroponics system planted with lettuce.

Right: Students peek inside the demo system to better understand aeroponics.

Left: Giving a presentation about aeroponics to local middle school students.

The complete demonstration section.

Once we had two really nice, leak-proof systems running, we started an experiment comparing energy use versus plant growth. Since a big part of the question of aeroponics technology’s feasibility is energy cost, we wanted to see how plant growth might correlate with energy usage. On one system, the pump is on a timing cycle of fifteen minutes on, fifteen minutes off, while the second system’s pump runs nonstop. Students are also taking nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate measurements on the water in both systems to examine fluctuations as plants mature. The experiment is ongoing, and I am still receiving data from students via email!

Daniel helps a student working on aeroponic system version 2.0.

The second and third versions of the aeroponic systems.

Data logs and nutrient measurement kits.

From Left to Right: Itamar taking measurements; Omer, Edo, and Tomer recording data.

I expected that the main challenge of this project would be connecting with students and having to interact mostly in English, but that turned out to be the easiest and most fun part! The main challenge I experienced was more due to time sensitivity. I wanted students to see a full cycle of aeroponically grown lettuce, and I wanted to see them see it! With only five weeks, I was constantly nervous about the plants’ health. There were many ups and downs with both external conditions and system failure which affected the plants. A big repair we had to make was install filters in line with the pumps in all the systems because the mist heads were continuously clogging. The water was so hard that the fertilizer was calcifying and preventing mist from reaching the plant roots. Getting students involved in their own projects was the most exciting part of the project. I presented to several of the regular school group classes, explaining what CityFARM does, what I do in the laboratory, and showing pictures of the farm. Students who chose to do their projects about aeroponics developed ideas for variations on the systems I had already built or for experiments to conduct on similar small-scale systems they would build. By the third and fourth weeks, classes from three schools had students working on aeroponics-related ideas, and building their own systems. The students came up with great ideas! There are students interested in the vertical farming aspect of aeroponics who are building a system turned ninety degrees to make an aeroponic wall. It stands on top of an aquaponic system, retrieving its water from the pool of fish which fertilizes hydroponically grown plants. Another group of students is exploring the efficiency of aeroponics at different stages of plant growth. Their hypothesis is that there might be an optimal time to transplant crops into aeroponics systems based on different nutrient and water uptake rates in the plant life cycle. They are building three small systems in which to compare seeds, seedlings, and mature plants. A common question during my presentations was about the roots being kept out of light, and I would encourage students to imagine how when plants are grown in soil, the roots are not exposed to sunlight, and why this might be. Two students decided to answer the question experimentally and are comparing aeroponic growth with roots either exposed to sunlight or kept in the dark. After seeing the red and blue LED light-flooded environment of CityFARM in pictures, two other students wanted to test purple light versus white light in a small-scale aeroponics system. The students came up with ideas ranging from integration with other systems, comparison with other methods of farming, and improving on aesthetics. The aeroponics section of the Greenhouse is really transforming.

Left: Students beginning construction on their systems for testing plant maturity vs suitability for aeroponics.

Right: A student begins construction on her combo aeroponic/aquaponic farming system.

Students working on their aeroponic system construction. Left, the vertical team. Right, a student working on the roots in light/dark experiment.

I entered the construction phase with these groups but sadly, I am missing the end of their building and experimentation processes. I left them with a poster on caring for aeroponics systems and encouraged them to Skype or email me with questions. The collaboration will continue! I will be sharing updates on research at CityFARM through video and Facebook posts, and we will be sharing data so as to tangentially improve our aeroponic farming systems accordingly. Since I left, students have sent me weekly updates on the nutrient uptake experiment on the two large systems initially constructed. Several high school students have been measuring nutrient levels and emailing pictures of the plants and their recorded data. Soon, they will be finishing up the plant growth versus energy input experiment on these systems as well! I have sent a

video of one of my fellow researchers, Elaine, explaining her experiment concerning seed germination for CityFARM, and I plan to continue documenting in a way that is fun for students at the Greenhouse to see. I hope that I or other people from my group at MIT, Caleb or fellow researchers, will pay a visit to the Greenhouse in the future to continue the collaboration in person.

Electrical Conductivity and pH measurements data log, caring for an aeroponic system poster.

Reflecting on this January at the Greenhouse and my previous work in Israel at Keter, the most important part about succeeding in an international environment is to find your niche, live it, and understand the roles other people in the workplace occupy. This means talking to people! The most amazing part of this second experience in Israel has been the opportunity to make more friends, learn more about Israeli culture, learn more Hebrew, and most importantly again, talk to people. The most important skill to thrive in an international environment is to engage with people, which at Keter I did, but at the Greenhouse I did on steroids because the work depended on it. I loved having a job where I could simultaneously be working and developing relationships with the students and staff. Personally and professionally, this has been an amazing experience at the Greenhouse because I have learned that what makes me happy in a work environment has to include people and collaboration and lots of smiles. I found something that I would be

interested in continuing, and it is one of the first times that has happened in my life. This has been a truly important experience in defining my future path because I have a reference for work that has really made me feel awesome. I learned a lot more about Israel this second time, being in a totally different environment than my first stay. Being interested in agriculture, I had been very intrigued by the concept of the kibbutz, and living and working at Kibbutz Ein Shemer was a perfect window into this different culture. As soon as I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, Atar was there with his son to welcome me, and I never stopped feeling welcome. Atar welcomed me into his family, which welcomed me into the extended family, which welcomed me into the kibbutz. Let’s just say I felt welcome! And I feel so thankful for that. I learned about another side of Israeli culture that I had not been as exposed to this summer in Karmiel, and it was an entirely different trip with just as many first realizations and insights as the first time I was in Israel. I will never forget how I felt at an event that the Greenhouse held, where a Canadian musician named Samuel Bonnet came to hold a workshop for kids in building their own instruments from recycled materials and then holding a concert to play together. The Greenhouse was the perfect setting for the event. The workshop was crowded with excited kids and parents. People from all backgrounds came, and so many languages were being spoken. Not everyone could understand each other, but it did not matter whatsoever because we were all doing the same thing. The event perfectly paralleled the Greenhouse’s mission in that people of all backgrounds can come together to solve problems we are all facing and to make something beautiful!

Above: “Algae and I will change the world.” A parody of Arik Einstein’s song “You and I.”

Avital works on an installation in the National Library at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Right: Atar hunting for recyclable materials for the workshop on building musical instruments.

Nice lettuce growth, artificial rain on the pond in the background.

Aeroponic roots!!! Great root development on the demonstration system.

Avital experimented on the first aeroponic system, planting lettuce without removing soil from the plugs, and we got great root results!

Daniel doing a test run on the spray system.

Opal installing pump filters. Creating spray w/o mist heads. Hot day – shading the lettuce.

Left: Wheat grown aeroponically from seeds in a mini-system.

THANK YOU!

תודה!