How gas helps greenhouses grow delicious fresh veggies
You might use LPG in your home or to fire up the barbeque – to cook some sausages, steaks, and maybe a few chargrilled capsicums and tomatoes. But you might not know that LPG also contributes to making those vegetables grow throughout the year.
Tomatoes won’t thrive outdoors through the cooler months, so producers grow them in huge commercial glasshouses, which are often kept warm using gas. One local business that is making use of LPG is Gourmet Mokai, a vertically integrated produce supplier near Taupō that grows and markets hydroponic tomatoes and capsicums. Its 11.5 hectares of glasshouses are heated using steam from the Mokai geothermal steam field, backed up by an LPG boiler supplied and installed by Rockgas.
“The benefits of clean burning and heat-efficient LPG provided Rockgas with the opportunity to team up with Gourmet Mokai to supply and install a 6MW LPG fired hot water boiler,” says Daniel Fosyth, Rockgas Key Account Manager. “When LPG burns, not only CO2 is produced, but also heat is generated that can supplement the normal heating system. LPG gas boilers are ideal because they burn cleanly, allowing safe flue gas induction into the greenhouse.”
Turning food waste into heat and gas for Turners & Growers
Tonnes of Auckland’s food scraps are now being collected and processed into renewable energy, thanks to a new kerbside waste collection service. The food travels to Ecogas’ Organics Processing Facility in Reporoa to be anaerobically digested by bacteria, which breaks it down into biofertiliser and biogas.
Some of that biogas is being sent directly to Turners & Growers’ enormous greenhouses, where it is used to heat the greenhouses at night so the tomatoes and capsicums can thrive in the warmth. Carbon dioxide, also digestor byproduct, is supplementing the vegetables too, because CO2 in greenhouses can boost growth and production by as much as 20%.
Providing gas solutions for greenhouses across New Zealand
At Rockgas we’re working with produce growers and other commercial enterprises to provide value-for-money gas solutions. To connect to Rockgas LPG visit https://rockgas.co.nz/get-connected/