A greenhouse for urban agriculture, connected to classroom 3.07 and an office at the Terrassa School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering (ESEIAAT), absorbs CO2 from these spaces and transforms it into oxygen through photosynthesis. The clean air is recirculated back into the classroom if the conditions are suitable. This is how theAir quality & Green Infrastructure Living Lab (Airgilab) works, it is the first living lab to regenerate building air using agricultural crops. It was created by the Construction Research and Innovation Group (GRIC) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC).
This innovative scientific infrastructure was developed within the framework of the MOVE4EDU and BINAFET projects, involving the UPC’s GRIC research group and the SOSTENIPRA group of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
Classroom 3.07 in the TR5 building at the UPC's School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa. T is not just any classroom. Designed to accommodate 80 students, this space benefits from the high-quality air provided by Airgilab. This innovative infrastructure is considered the first living lab that integrates urban agriculture into a building to improve indoor air quality. It provides excellent environmental comfort while reducing ventilation system costs. Adopting such a system could lead to energy savings in buildings and financial benefits from greenhouse management, making the implementation of these ventilation systems more feasible.
Decarbonising buildings with photosynthesis
Airgilab uses the photosynthesis of horticultural crops to capture carbon dioxide. The classroom and office at the ESEIAAT are connected to a ventilation system that extracts CO 2 emitted in these spaces. This CO 2 is transported to a high-tech greenhouse built on the roof of the TR5 building, where horticultural plants (such as tomato plants, lettuces and beans) absorb it and convert it into oxygen through photosynthesis. The air is then evaluated to determine if it can be safely reintroduced into the building’s interior spaces.
The innovative Airgilab integrates residual flows generated in buildings into agricultural processes to contribute to decarbonisation and ecological transition strategies. It is considered the first smart living lab that integrates a greenhouse into a building’s ventilation system. This is achieved through predictive control and machine learning designed by the GRIC research team.
ESEIAAT professor and GRIC researcher Marcel Macarulla, who is one of the main promoters of the laboratory, explains: “We have built a living lab that integrates a greenhouse into a ventilation system. The aim is to utilise the building’s energy flows and CO 2 to improve crop productivity. We also want to explore how the greenhouse could reduce the building’s ventilation demand by preheating the air or cleaning the polluted air, among other aspects.”
GRIC researcher Santiago Gassó, another key promoter of the project, adds: “This facility will allow our research group to validate the control models we develop and to study the synergies between buildings and greenhouses.”
This laboratory is also one of the first high-tech greenhouses integrated into a building’s ventilation and air-conditioning systems. It aims to serve as a demonstration space for both the scientific community and the general public. In the educational sphere, the laboratory will bridge research and teaching, enabling students to observe how a ventilation system works and test different monitoring and control systems. Additionally, the data generated will be collected in a database available to the UPC community to use artificial intelligence tools.
Airgilab emerged from two joint projects involving the UPC’s GRIC and the UAB’s SOSTENIPRA: MOVE4EDU and BINAFET. The former studies the symbiosis between greenhouses and buildings to utilise residual flows from buildings and enhance crop productivity. The latter focuses on technical improvements to greenhouses, such as LED lighting, photovoltaic glass and artificial intelligence tools to optimise system performance.
These projects have received 600,000 euros in funding from the Spanish State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Next Generation programme and the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Airgilab is part of the UPC’s Agrotech Specific Research Centre, which integrates the University’s research in the agri-food sector. It is also part of the X_AgriTech network for knowledge transfer to the industry.
Press Room: https://www.upc.edu/ca/sala-de-premsa/noticies/airgilab-living-lab-regenera-aire-edificis-cultius-horticoles