Work

Improving the efficiency of CO2 utilization in vertical farming via CFD modelling with consideration of leaf microstructure

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: : Vertical farming (VF), as a promising solution to mitigating the multifaceted challenges posed by global population growth and urbanization, needs supplementing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), an essential substrate for photosynthesis, to promote plant growth. Optimizing the CO 2 supply to reduce operational costs relies on accurate modelling of CO 2 distribution and intake within VF chambers. For such an objective, this research constructed an innovative computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model that can explicitly incorporate the effects of leaf microstructure on CO 2 absorption to simulate CO 2 interactions between plants and environment more accurately. After validation, the model was employed to investigate CO 2 distribution, photosynthetic rate, and total CO 2 consumption, using wheat as a studied crop due to data availability. Compared to previous models that ignored CO 2 diffusion within leaves, the new model shows a decrease in the daily CO 2 uptake by 8.1%, and consequently the consumption of pure CO 2 is reduced by 8.5%. Such findings reveal that incorporating the leaf microstructure is important to improve the accuracy in modelling CO 2 supplementation and avoid the overestimation of CO 2 utilization efficiency.

Source: Green Energy and Resources

DOI: 10.1016/j.gerr.2026.100200