Food-Energy Interactive Tradeoff Analysis of Sustainable Urban Plant Factory Production Systems

Li-Chun Huang, Yu-Hui Chen, Ya-Hui Chen, Chi-Fang Wang and Ming-Che Hu
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Li-Chun Huang: Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Yu-Hui Chen: Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Ya-Hui Chen: Department of Business Administration, Hsuan Chuang University, No. 48, Hsuan Chuang Road, Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan
Chi-Fang Wang: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Ming-Che Hu: Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: This research aims to analyze the food–energy interactive nexus of sustainable urban plant factory systems. Plant factory systems grow agricultural products within artificially controlled growing environment and multi-layer vertical growing systems. The system controls the supply of light, temperature, humidity, nutrition, water, and carbon dioxide for growing plants. Plant factories are able to produce consistent and high-quality agricultural products within less production space for urban areas. The production systems use less labor, pesticide, water, and nutrition. However, food production of plant factories has many challenges including higher energy demand, energy costs, and installation costs of artificially controlled technologies. In the research, stochastic optimization model and linear complementarity models are formulated to conduct optimal and equilibrium food–energy analysis of plant factory production. A case study of plant factories in the Taiwanese market is presented.

Keywords: food–energy tradeoff; plant factory; stochastic programming; market equilibrium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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