GREENAVOID · GREENHOUSE SOLUTION TO AVOID FILM COVER U.V. AND SULPHUR DEGRADATION

Greenhouse cultivation under plastic has allowed converting apparently unproductive lands in modern agriculture exploitations. Different types of plastic materials such as Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), Poly Carbonate (PC) and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) are commonly used for cladding of greenhouse structures. However, most of plastic polymer films are prone to photo-degradation when exposed to UV radiation (290–400 nm) or even visible radiation (400–700 nm). In hot regions in combination with agrochemicals, degradation is a bigger problem. Durability is one of the aspects that most interest and worry to end users. Manufacturing of plastics resistant to treatments done in greenhouses are the battlefield of the companies in this industry and phytosanitary products such as sulphur and chlorine have become their greater enemy. Among these products burning sulphur is especially aggressive and the current method of application has a big impact in plastic degradation.GREENAVOID project aims to develop an innovative integrated solution combining a new polyethylene greenhouse plastic resistant to UV degradation in the presence of burning Sulphur with an improved Sulphur vaporizer designed to minimize the amount of product reaching the cover. Thanks to our integrated solution we aim to obtain a film with 3 years guaranteed durability in the presence of burning sulphur and a radiation of 145-150 KlAngleys/year, the average radiation Greenhouses suffer in South Europe. Moreover, it will be resistant to sulphur concentration in plastic of ≥3500ppm, chlorine concentration of ≥250ppm, with High NIR (near Infrared) and UV blocking, minimum PAR transmittance 85% and 35-40% haze.The impact of GreenaVoid solution will be bigger in the EU considering, not only the total revenue of the SMEs, but also the savings for the end user (grower), savings in energy for PE production, and displaced imports from China.""