A Gentle Rant About CO2 and ‘Circular’ Greenwashing

Examining CO2 reminded me of some common misconceptions about circularity. These misconceptions are more common than I had expected, and lead to unhelpful greenwashing. They apply to all material flows, but CO2 is a good example. Continue reading A Gentle Rant About CO2 and ‘Circular’ Greenwashing

Hello 2023!

It’s been even longer, hasn’t it? I’m still here though. Perhaps I haven’t been blogging as much because as a researcher, the writer’s bandwidth I would have used here has been taken up by projects at work. Still, this evening I felt an itch to write a bit about what’s happened over the past year, and some plans for 2023 and beyond. Continue reading Hello 2023!

Water Usage in Zero-Emission Greenhouses

Achieving zero emissions in greenhouses is a big challenge. I’m not just talking about CO2 emissions. Greenhouses emit fertiliser and pesticides into the environment as well (see this article for more background on that). Water is only 2-3% of a Continue reading Water Usage in Zero-Emission Greenhouses

Energy Efficiency at GreenTech

Energy efficiency is a big theme in greenhouse horticulture. I’ve called it the elephant in the room for vertical farming, but greenhouses have the advantage that most of their energy is free: solar energy. Still, a lot is being done on making the most of that solar energy and minimising fossil fuel consumption. A lot of that is in line with the circular economy as well. This is a summary of what four speakers at the energy session at GreenTech brought up. Continue reading Energy Efficiency at GreenTech

Climate Control Using a Genetic Algorithm (Part 2)

Over 6 months ago I started my MSc thesis – and now the project’s finished. This is a cursory but technical article where I share some of the results with you. A quick recap: There are many ways of controlling Continue reading Climate Control Using a Genetic Algorithm (Part 2)

Biobased Materials: Where Should They Come From, Where Should They Go?

Indoor agriculture is touted as sustainable, but it requires a lot of materials – plastics, rockwool, and packaging, for example. How can these be made more circular? Continue reading Biobased Materials: Where Should They Come From, Where Should They Go?

Circularity, Livestock, and Nutrients

What should the broad vision be to achieve circularity? Circularity is a big theme on this blog. I usually talk about indoor agriculture, but the same concepts apply to our whole food system. At the NVTL’s conference, Martin van Ittersum gave a presentation on a compelling vision to achieve this. Continue reading Circularity, Livestock, and Nutrients

The Untapped Energy in Water Vapour

Last week, Heeren XVII, the biosystems engineers’ society at Wageningen University, organised an evening featuring three companies in the greenhouse horticulture industry. The first of these was Ammerlaan Construction (known as Maurice Kassenbouw in The Netherlands and Belgium), presented by Continue reading The Untapped Energy in Water Vapour

Circular Horticulture, Part 2: Pitches

Last week I attended Wageningen Research’s Greenhouse Horticulture business unit’s event on research into circular horticulture for 2025. After the main presentation on the group’s vision and ideas (which you can read about here), there were six short presentations. Three Continue reading Circular Horticulture, Part 2: Pitches