SW—Soil and Water: Development of a Membrane Disinfection System for Closed Hydroponics in a Greenhouse

✍ Scribed by Toshio Ohtani; Akiko Kaneko; Naoya Fukuda; Shoji Hagiwara; Sadanori Sase

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 131 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8634
• DOI: 10.1006/jaer.2000.0589

✦ Synopsis

A new disinfection membrane system for commercial hydroponics was designed which is capable of minimizing the discharged nutrient solution during the membrane cleaning procedure. Based on a preliminary experiment using Pseudomonas solanasearum as the reference microorganism, a micro"ltration (MF) membrane with 0)3 m pores was selected to provide complete removal of microorganisms from the nutrient solution which was recycled. The system had a 57)6 m/day "ltration capacity and operated in a medium-scale greenhouse for an endurance test. Continuous "ltration with automatic reverse #ow which aimed at membrane cleaning was applied for more than 2 months. Under 0)2% of the total amount of permeate was discharged outside the greenhouse after the membrane cleaning procedure. In order to establish a completely closed hydroponic system in the near future, further investigations on the possibilities of this membrane disinfection system are needed.