OPTIMAL AGRICULTURE

HYDROPONICS GROWING MEDIA

MAT602 – Materials Selection in Design
19 November 2022

Group 5
Niccolò Forte – 200167334
Sabina Tsang – 200492111
Haoze Li – 200175720
Krittin Phanuvatsuk – 200928090
Tirouven Chinapiel – 200488608
Selin Yilmaz – 200500173
Manthan Patel – 200276854
1 BACKGROUND
Hydroponics is a technique for growing plants without soil. Plants need nutrients to grow; typically,
these nutrients come from the soil, are absorbed by the roots, and transported to different parts of the
plant. However, soil can be replaced by a hydroponic nutrient solution containing all the necessary
nutrients for plant growth. The main objective of hydroponic crops is to remove or alleviate the
constraints to plant growth associated with soil characteristics. The growing media is an essential factor
in the hydroponics environment, which determines the yield formation and quality of the cultivated
crops. Rockwool has been recognised as the ideal growing media for hydroponics as it has outstanding
properties such as high porosity, good water retention, non-toxicity, and sterilely. However, it is non-
biodegrade and has a high cost for disposal and recycling, causing a significant environmental impact.

2 PROJECT BRIEF
This project aims to find a potential hydroponics growing media as a replacement for Rockwool. All the
properties relevant to the aim of this project will be compared with each other and with the current best
solution, Rockwool, to find its best alternative. A suitable medium must have excellent porosity to allow
water and air to reach the plant roots, along with good water retention capacities to keep the medium
moist but not too soaked which could rot the roots. Furthermore, a substantial nutrient availability is
necessary promote strong and healthy growth while remaining sterile to avoid harbouring of pests and
bacteria. Additionally, the growing media must have a minimal environmental impact. The production
cost, disposal, and recycling are also essential to consider, as these are where flaws arise for Rockwool.

3 MATERIAL SELECTION CRITERIA

3.1 Material Properties & Versus Table
To evaluate the material requirements for Table 1. Material properties to achieve the design brief.
a hydroponics growing medium, Ashby’s Hydroponics Growing Medium
method for material selection is applied to
- Allow propagation of plant roots.
achieve the design criteria from the brief,
Function - Provide consistent water, oxygen,
as shown in Table 1.
and nutrient availability to plant roots.
The essential properties for hydroponic - Inert & Sterile
growing media are ranked using the - Retain sufficient water (hydrophilic)
versus table shown in Table 2. Constraints
- Porous for root oxygenation
Consequently, it is found that the most - Biodegradable / Recyclable
important properties are sustainability and
- Minimise cost
water retentions, given their paramount Objectives
- Minimise mass
importance to achieve the design brief.
Free Variables - Material
Cost was also found to be important, as
the high volume of material required for the application can cause the total material cost to be
excessively high if expensive materials are implemented. Lastly, the least important properties were
found to be the material’s sterility, as it was found that most media can be sterilized between growing
cycles without causing any adverse impacts on itself or the plant growth2, and its pH properties, which
were found to be easily manipulated with the addition of nutrients to the hydroponic solution3, as shown
in Figure 4 of Appendix 7.2.
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 Table 2. Versus Table.
Water Ph
Sustainability Porosity Cost Sterility Weighting
Retention Properties
Sustainability 1 1 1 1 1 5
Porosity 0 0 0 1 1 2
Water Retention 0 1 1 1 1 4
Cost 0 1 0 1 1 3
Ph Properties 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sterility 0 0 0 0 1 1

Finally, the properties and their weightings allow to formulate Table 3. Material Index.
a material index to be maximised in terms of the materials’
Material 𝜀 3/5
water absorptivity 𝜀, density 𝜌, and cost per unit mass 𝐶𝑚 . Maximise 𝑀1 =
Index 𝜌𝐶𝑚
3.2 Material Property Charts
Applying the Granta EduPack1 software, a chart comparing relevant material properties can be
produced, in Figure 1, along with the material index to be maximised.
Figure 1. Water absorption versus price times density.1

Above, the material index 𝑀1 can be seen in red. Being maximised, materials below the line have been
obscured as they do not meet the required properties. The vertical and horizontal dashed lines have been
included to limit the selection to materials with a price per unit volume lower than 1,000 £/𝑚3 and
water absorption of greater than 5% wt. Suitable materials are labelled, and their class has been
highlighted in yellow. It is understood that the best results can be expected from foam-like materials,
given their abundant presence in the optimal region of the chart. Vermiculite and end-grain balsa are
also present in the optimal region due to their low density and high porosity and therefore should be
considered as valid material alternatives.
Lastly, to include evaluation of the materials’ environmental impact – which is less quantifiable hence
harder to numerically compare – the chart in Figure 1 has been limited to only include biodegradable
and recyclable materials, available in Figures 2 and 3 of Appendix 7.1. These charts provide insight to
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 one of the main limitations of the design brief. The availability of suitable materials drastically drops
when limiting the search to biodegradable materials, leaving only two versions of End-grain Balsa
(Figure 2), and no materials remain when limiting the search to recyclable materials (Figure 3).
It is therefore understood that the materials provided in Figure 1 are well adaptable to the application of
hydroponics, however further research into similar but sustainable alternatives must be done in order to
successfully address the project brief.

4 MATERIAL SELECTION
Given the material selection criteria from Section 3, five materials have been identified as prime
substitutes for rockwool as hydroponics growing media, exhibiting similar behaviours in relevant
properties while promoting sustainability.
Table 4. Property comparisons for suitable hydroponic growing media.
Cellulose NAR* 4
Peat Moss Coco Coir Clay Pebbles
Sponge *Novel Agricultural Rockwool
- Biodegradable - Biodegradable - Biodegradable – - Sustainable - Non-biodegradable
Sustainabi
- Compostable 20 over thousand years decomposes in - Indefinitely - Reusable
lity - Non-renewable.15 nature.10 reusable 8
- Very Porous: - Porosity 80% 13 - 80% porosity by - 85% volume 6 - Porosity: 95% vol
96.3 – 98.32% vol - Density between volume.11 - Density of 330 - Density of 48.6 kg/m3
Porosity - Density of 45 80 – 140 kg/m3.18 - Density of 80 kg/m3. 6
kg/m3.16 kg/m3. 11
- Absorbs water High water - Up to 50-60% wt. - 30% wt. low water - Water absorption:
Water 1200 – 2100% x absorption, up to water retention.23 retention.6 600%
Retention dry weight.17 1000% its own - Requires more - Retention: 1.9x wt.
weight.14 watering.7
Cost ~ 70 £/kg ~ £2.5 £/kg 15 ~ 2.8 £/kg 5 ~5 £/kg 7 ~0.30 £/kg
- pH 6.2 – 7.7 21 - pH 3.0 – 5.0 14 - pH neutral 12 - pH neutral – rich in - pH 6 – 8
Ph
- Chemically - Chemically - Chemically nutrients - Chemically inert
Properties intert.17 inert.15 intert.12 - Chemically inert 6
- Susceptible to - Sterile, no fungi, - Needs to be - Naturally sterile 7 - Naturally sterile
rot and bacteria bacteria, or sterilized. - Fast drainage - Reusable as ionic
- Reusable – up to chemicals - Reusable 3 times, reduces microbes 7 adsorption and toxicity
6 months by - Reusable after need to be sterilized - Messy – dust is negligible; therefore,
Sterility disinfecting until disinfecting.15 after each use until particles in drains 7 it can be repeatedly
decomposes.19 it starts to - Indefinitely used.
decompose.11 reusable – needs
water rinsing only 8
- Produced from Peat moss is - Fibrous husks of - 100% sustainable - Adhesive agent applied
natural wood decomposed coconuts turned production to thin fibres of raw
fibres and turned organic material into coco coir. - High temperature material mixture
into wood pulp. that are salvaged - Dehydrated and cooking of a water achieved by centrifugal
Processing - Treated with from peat bogs.15 compressed. and soil solution. spinning of mixture.
soap-like - Rehydrated for Then left to dry.8 - See Appendix 7.3 for
materials.22 use with 1/2 to 1/4 further detail.
coco coir / water.12
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 Table 5. Decision matrix.
Cellulose Clay
Rockwool Peat Moss Coco Coir NAR*
Sponge Pebbles
Attribute Weighting Score Result Score Result Score Result Score Result Score Result Score Result

Sustainab 5 1 5 6 30 5 25 9 45 9 45 3 15
ility
Porosity 2 8 16 10 20 7 14 7 14 8 16 9 18
Water 4 7 28 6 24 7 28 5 20 4 16 8 32
Retention
Cost 3 10 30 3 9 6 18 6 18 4 12 9 27
Ph 0 7 0 8 0 5 0 8 0 9 0 8 0
Property
Sterility 1 8 8 3 3 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10
87 82 92 105 98 102
For the above table, pH scores were based on the medium’s accordance with the optimal pH range for
plant growth between 5.5 and 6.5.12 Furthermore, higher water retention scores were assigned for media
with high water retention however they were lowered for excessively high retention as this drowns roots.
The weighting of each property is taken from the versus table and the materials are scored out of 10. In
order to evaluate the results of materials, weighting and score values are multiplied. According to the
decision matrix, the best sustainable material as a hydroponic growing medium is Coco Coir, followed
by NAR and Clay Pebbles.

5 SUMMARY

In the end, the best substitute material turns out to be Coco Coir since, for the properties taken into
consideration, it reached the highest score overall as shown in Table 5. Compared to Rockwool, Coco
Coir is far more sustainable which is an extremely important factor as can be seen in the score given in
Table 2. Even though Coco Coir is the most expensive by weight, its properties in biodegradability and
porosity far outweigh its competitors, along with its abundance of nutrients and sufficient water
retention. As Coco Coir is an organic medium, it is highly biodegradable and can also be reused.
However, the husks of the Coco Coir can compact over time and greatly reduce its porosity, moreover, it
can also start harbouring pests and other bacteria, but this can be avoided with some periodic
maintenance by drying it and/or sterilizing after each plant cycle. In conclusion, Coco Coir is certainly
more expensive and needs more maintenance than Rockwool, but companies should invest in these costs
for a greener future.

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7 APPENDIX
7.1 Biodegradable and Recyclable Material Charts
Figure 2. Filtering Figure 1 to biodegradable materials.1

Figure 3. Filtering Figure 1 to recyclable materials.1

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7.2 Hydroponics Nutrients & pH Properties
The pH of hydroponic solutions can be controlled and altered by the addition of the nutrients above
which are naturally available in the pH ranges as described in Figure 4.
Figure 4. pH availability of nutrients for use in hydroponic.2

7.3 NAR Processing

Adhesive
-Add a proportion of phenol-formaldehyde resin, ammoniacal liquor, filtration water and hydrophilic
agent by weight into the reaction kettle.
- Start stirring to mix slowly while adding the coupling agent.
-The process temperature should be 15°C-25°C, and the stirring time should be 10-20 minutes.

Component
- Raw materials (basalt, limestone, coke, and slag) mixed by weight and heat at 1600°C in the furnace.
- The smelted mixture is then poured into the four-roller centrifugal machine for fibre formation; the
mixture is then changed into long thin fibres under the high-centrifuge forces.
- The high-speed airflow increases the drafting effect of the compound, resulting in finer and longer
fibre diameters.
-The adhesive is sprayed evenly onto the fibre surface through air atomisation and multi-point spraying.
- The fibres are fed into the wool collection system and compressed into different shapes as required.

As fibres are thin, long and evenly netted, they will not impede the extension of the root system of
plants. Additionally, its ionic adsorption is negligible and without toxic ingredient deposition; therefore,
it can be repeatedly used and has minimized its impact on the environment. In conclusion, this new type
of agricultural Rockwool outperforms traditional industrial Rockwool in terms of structure, heavy metal
elements content and product performance.