MATEC Web of Conferences 256, 02012 (2019) https://doi.org/10.

1051/matecconf/201925602012
ICMME 2018

Hydroponic System with Automated Hydrolysis Using

Renewable Energy Self-Sustainable
Felipe Jaimes, Brayan Collazos, Emerson Arce, Mario Chauca
FIEE-UNAC Universidad Nacional del Callao, Juan Pablo II 306, Bellavista 07011 Callao, Perú

Abstract. Implement a system in which the variables of temperature, humidity, luminosity, CO2 and PH
developing it in a crop hydroponic that guarantees the survival of the plant. In addition to monitoring and
controlling pests that could affect the plant. Through an automated system with renewable energy.
Obtaining energy with solar and wind panels. Also accumulate rainwater for watering the plants. Thus
achieving a self-sustainable system, with better quality products and cultivate all kinds of food on any day
of the year.

1 Introduction • plants with pests: due to the fact that in a storm the
curtains were broken by not closing them properly or by
The crops under greenhouses have allowed over the leaving the greenhouse open doors without access
years to have good quality products, extending the control. (Automation, control and monitoring of
cultivation cycle, allowing production in places of greenhouses, 2015) [3]
difficult conditions, obtaining not only quality, but also The idea of an automated hydroponic greenhouse
quantity. In addition, crops without soil, hydroponics offers many Benefits; how to develop a auspicious
(work in water) or Aerophobia should be taken into environment for the development of any crop that adapts
account, although they have time for research and to the nutrition system through the root and not only save
implementation are little known methods of agricultural time in the management of the crop, also space, since the
production and is a center of attraction for many people land becomes more expensive every day and the land for
who want to cultivate their crops. Fresh vegetables, planting is limited, worn and contaminated, that's when
without worrying about excess fertilization, pesticides, hydroponics is offered as an important alternative to
weather, and land problems, etc., bring many advantages, generate more
such as: [1]. Production in less space and without the danger of
•Saving water contamination and we must not forget that water and
• Automated handling energy are saved, there will be less loss in the use of
• Saving work fertilizers, reducing costs and increasing profits. [4]
• Savings in the use of substrates Obtaining an optimal water saving through the
• Greater production in less space electrolysis process we will achieve this based on the
• Less loss in the use of fertilizers. Only the necessary water tanks that we will get as a result of rains, in turn
ones are used. with a solar panel that will act with a microcontroller
• Greater profits with less investment. that will activate the electro valves to be able to perform
The automation of greenhouses is already very this operation these electro valves are activated by
popular in different countries, since a high percentage of feeding them with an electric potential generating a
the crops are lost due to the carelessness of the personnel magnetic field and thus act on the plunger they have to
who have to watch the plantings 24 hours a day [2]. act in a way that prevents or does not pass the fluid. [5]
These are some examples of common oversights: In addition, you can also see the nutrients, as we are
• Dehydrated plant: for not watering in time and in in a floating root hydroponics system we will initially
shape. add the nutrient solution (more mineral water) and then
• Drowned plant: due to excessive irrigation. we will only add water until we find a change in the
• Plants with little growth: for not having an volume of the solution or in turn in the PH, CE. [6]
automatic nutrition system. As well as this is an open hydroponic system since
• Asphyxiated plants: due to excess temperature due through peripheral pumps we will circulate the water, we
to the fact that they do not open the curtains at noon. have 4 containers which are under the list of nutrient A,
• Plants burned: for not closing the curtains or nutrient B, pH Down, pH UP. [7]
turning on the heaters in frosts. Nutrients A and B are added depending on the
amount of water to circulate, with the proportion of 5ml

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 256, 02012 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201925602012
ICMME 2018

of concentrated solution greater than A and 2ml of

concentrated solution lower B (this will be explained
below in the procedure).
Since the European and non-European countries have
adopted a series of market support mechanisms ranging
from simple bonuses per electric unit produced by
renewable energy plants to more complex mechanisms
that force electric generators to obtain an increasing
percentage of supplies from renewable energy [8].

1.1 Hybrid solar technology

Combine solar energy with other energy. Depending
on the energy with which it is combined, it is a Fig. 2. Wind map in Peru. [11]
hybridization: renewable (biomass, wind energy) or non-
renewable (fossil fuel). 1.2 Conditions to keep in a Greenhouse
Many hybrid systems are autonomous and operate
outside the network, not connected to an electricity An essential feature of the greenhouse is based on the
distribution system. For times when neither the wind nor climate of the area to generate the design without
the solar system is producing, most hybrid systems forgetting the orientation of this looking that is malleable,
provide power through batteries and / or an engine economical and that supports the crop with all the
generator powered by conventional fuels, such as diesel. necessary equipment to satisfy the physiological needs.
If the batteries are depleted, the motor generator can [13]
supply power and recharge the batteries. [9] The use of As:
solar panels considering Irradiation values according to Water: element whose function is to control the
geographical location as shown in Table 1 and wind in temperature of the plant and mobilize the nutrients that
this project is no stranger. For this we show Fig1-2. implies.
• Irrigation system (localized, nebulization and spray)
Table 1. Irradiation values according to geographical location.
[12] • Automation of the irrigation system [14]
Nutrition:
• Fertilization or fertigation [15]
Relative humidity: essential factor for temperature
control, to maintain it is used:
• Irrigation by nebulization.
• Wet walls. [16]
Temperature: factor that affects the efficient
development of the plant to control it from the climate
we can use:
• Thermo-hygrometers: it allows you to know the
temperature inside the greenhouse.
• Extractors, heaters, fans.
• Plastic shading meshes (coverage)
• Antiafidos mesh, zenithal windows [17]
Ventilation: It is the renewal of the air inside the
greenhouse in order to provide CO2 necessary for the
development of the crop and lower the internal
temperature.
• Place vents with three possibilities to do so:
1. In the upper part of the greenhouse (roof vents)
2. On the sides (side vents)
3. On the top of the fronts or later (front vents). The
vents should be protected against antiafidos meshes to
prevent the passage of insects and birds [18]

Fig. 1. Irradiation reading map for the use of solar panels in 2 Process
Peru. [10]

2.1 Definition of the problem

Analysing the form of growth of the crop, according to
its time of maturation and also the infestation to them by

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MATEC Web of Conferences 256, 02012 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201925602012
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pests, samples are taken by a digital camera and in following adjustment formula to obtain the conductivity
MATLAB communication to later process some value:
information and obtain a diagnosis either for the EC(mS)=(average*32.194)-1476.746 (1)
suggestion of insecticides , irrigation, fertilizers, size of What allows dosing control as shown in Fig.8.
cultivated products, etc.

2.2 Operation
• A database is saved taking the final product and in
good condition (in this case lettuce) we shown in Fig3-4.

Fig. 8. Dosing control.

Fig. 3. Lettuce in good condition. Fig. 4. Lettuce in terrible Through this subsystem, the pH levels are read. The
conditions.
pH module is read from an analog port, therefore, a
Using the MATLAB tool for this purpose we have to
value between 0V and 5V is obtained, 50 data is read
process the images taking RGB patterns, shown in Fig 5.
and an average of these is obtained, applying the
following formula to obtain the pH value:
pH=average*17.5/1024 (2)
Thanks to the "Analog pH Meter Pro" kit [21] that
includes an industrial sensor with precision of ±
0.1pH at 25 ° C and that the manufacturer also specifies
that it can remain submerged in the fluid in this case
water for long periods, together with a transmitter that
delivers the scaled signal of 05VDC for a pH range of 0
to 14 [22]. The transmitter also has a gain adjustment
Fig. 5. Planes R, G, B.
potentiometer for calibration in alkaline or acid solutions.
• Samples are taken, good and bad parts of each
During the development stage, monitoring by relative
portion are identified, as shown in Figure 6.
humidity is important because very low temperatures
decrease the metabolism and the development of the
plant, which would delay the harvest, very high
temperatures with low relative humidity increase the
evapotranspiration rates and can cause dehydration [23],
for this we use DHT22 sensor allows you to monitor
temperature and relative humidity accurately and easily.
Fig. 6. Signaling of analyzed parts.
The output is digital type. [24], as shown in Fig. 9-10,
according with formula:
∗
%

(3)

Fig. 9. Monitoring of Temperature and Relative Humidity

within the Greenhouse.

Fig. 7. Electric conductivity control.

As shown in Figure 7, thanks to the module
"MinieC" [19], the module delivers a digital signal of 12
bits through the I2C bus [20] to our controller in this
case Arduino which will facilitate communication
avoiding the use of many pins with the sensor EC-451.
As in the PH we will perform a reading of 50 data and
we will obtain an average of these and apply the

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MATEC Web of Conferences 256, 02012 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201925602012
ICMME 2018

ag=a(:,:,2);
ab=a(:,:,3);
%despliegue
image(a)
figure(1),subplot(2,3,2),image(a),title('original')
figure(1),subplot(2,3,4),imshow(ar),title('plano rojo')
figure(1),subplot(2,3,5),imshow(ag*2),title('plano verde')
figure(1),subplot(2,3,6),imshow(ab),title('plano azul')
ag_recorte=ag(:, 100:120)*2;
ag_recorte2=ag(:, 150:170)*2;
figure(2),subplot(1,2,1),imshow(ag_recorte)
figure(2),subplot(1,2,2),imshow(ag_recorte2)
pl=ag(:,111)*2;
Fig. 10. Variation of Temperature and Humidity values. [25]
pl2=ag(:,230)*2;
grid on
figure(3),subplot(1,2,1),plot(pl)
figure(3),subplot(1,2,2),plot(pl2)
ag(:,111)=0;
ag(:,167)=0;
figure(4),imshow(ag)
Fig. 11. CO2 monitoring. indexmin=find(min(pl)==pl);
As shown in Figure 11, The concentration of the ymin1=pl(indexmin)
normal CO2 in the atmosphere is 0.03% should be indexmin=find(min(pl2)==pl2);
increased to limits of 0.1% - 0.2% thanks to this we will ymin2=pl2(indexmin)
reduce the time of the harvest with the help of the [m,n]=size(ymin2);
MQ135 sensor. [26] Through the formulas disp('la lechuga 1:')
if (ymin1<90)
(4) disp('la lechuga no esta apta:')
, disp('se sugiere reducir humedad ')
113,7105 (5) else disp('la condicion de cuidado es excelente')
Allowing design the electronic diagram of the system end
and block diagram as shown in Fig.12-13. disp('la lechuga 2(a comparar siempre):')
if (ymin2<90)
disp('la lechuga no esta apta:')
disp('se sugiere reducir humedad ')
else disp('la condicion de cuidado es excelente')
end
grid on;
a=imread('NEW IMAGEN);
ar=a(:,:,1);
ag=a(:,:,2);
ab=a(:,:,3);
%despliegue
image(a)
Fig. 12. General electronic diagram of the System. figure(1),subplot(2,3,2),image(a),title('original')
figure(1),subplot(2,3,4),imshow(ar),title('plano rojo')
figure(1),subplot(2,3,5),imshow(ag*2),title('plano verde')
3 Programmed Logic figure(1),subplot(2,3,6),imshow(ab),title('plano azul')

4 Results
The naked eye comparisons of the lettuce table are very
noticeable, in the axis of the variation of the colour, its
minimum of 28 in the lettuce of bad state; compared to
the 224 that has the lettuce in good condition as shown
in Fig.14 and Table 2.
Fig. 13. Block diagram.
%llamado de imagen
a=imread('lechugam.jpg');
%extraccion de planos
ar=a(:,:,1);

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call Solar-Hybrid energy which was described at the

beginning of said document.

Fig. 17. Solar-Wind Hybrid Energy System. [27]

Fig. 14. Graph obtained in Matlab of the lettuce in good As shown in table 4-5, to have an optimal crop
condition. development, you should monitor and take action on the
parameters. For which we make a table for the different
Table 2. Values obtained in the graph (Lettuce in good
cases that may arise:
condition).
Table 4. Parameters of crop development control.
ACTIONS TO BE
DESCRIPTION VALUE
CARRIED OUT
T ° increases H.R<80% Activate the fan
Y ° decreases H.R>95% Activate the spotlights
CO2 decreases CO2<0,2% Activate the fan
The maximum value data is 255 in them because in Activate the fan
CO2 increases CO2>0,2
opposite direction
the analysis of the green plane is the maximum value,
from there is the starting point until it is degraded until it Table 5. Values for actuation of the actuators.
reaches zero which is black and that is the value that
gives us a more infected lettuce as shown in Fig.15 and DESCRIPTION VALUE
ACTIONS TO BE
CARRIED OUT
Table 3. Add 5 cm3 of Nutrient A and
Minimum EC < 1.6 mS/cm
5 cm3 of Nutrient B
Turn on Alert LED. It is
necessary to add water. User
> 2.5 mS/cm
intervention required. Dosage
can not be done.
EC Maximum < 5,8 Add 5 cm3 of liquid pH Up
Minimum pH > 6,5 Add 5 cm3 of liquid pH Down
Turn on Alert LED. User
intervention required.
Maximum pH Low
Pumping or dosing can not be
done
Turn on Alert LED. User
Water level Low intervention required. PH
dosing can not be done .
Turn on Alert LED. User
Fig. 15. Graph obtained in Matlab of the lettuce in bad PH level UP Low intervention required. PH
condition. dosing can not be done
Turn on Alert LED. User
Table 3. Values obtained in the graph (Lettuce in poor PH level Down Low intervention required.
Nutrients can not be dosed
condition).
Turn on Alert LED. User
Nutrient Level A Low intervention required.
Nutrients can not be dosed
place thermal insulators to the
Level of Nutrient B 15°C<T<25°C
water reservoir

5 Conclusions
These data are taken and analysed by the same When we do the decomposition of the color plane we
program which gives us a friendlier interface to must focus on what problem the lettuce will attack since
understand the data, at automation level these data it will depend on the plague to obtain characteristic
activate actuators. parameters.
Irrigation is registered by standard parameters of
lettuce, so these are regulated by automation and filtered
by hydrolysis.
When the values were out of range, the control will
Fig. 16. Information shown by analysis. act under the established parameters, first stabilizing the
As shown in Figure 16 and 17, For the project to be conductivity and then the pH.
self-sustainable we use renewable energy and we With the fulfillment of these parameters we avoid
combine different types of renewable energy to what we diseases to the plants in this case lettuces which at an
incorrect pH value do not grow as they should be,

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MATEC Web of Conferences 256, 02012 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201925602012
ICMME 2018

likewise they would develop toxicity as fungi and die 11. Atlas Eolico del Peru, Ministry of Energy and Mines
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to control the pH, conductivity and temperature levels of
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Salvador, Tec. Josué Alberto Pérez Zavala Tec.
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Romero Vásquez, July 2016.
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