The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration has recently awarded a new small business contract to UbiQD, Inc. of New Mexico for the optimization and scaling up of extruded UbiGro greenhouse films for increasing crop yield in both space and terrestrial applications. The recently signed NASA contract makes use of matching funds contributed by private investors. The business has also received a significant patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its greenhouse technology.
“enabling the development of a whole new class of products for the industry of controlled environment agriculture”
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According to Matt Bergren, Chief Product Officer at UbiQD, “Our UbiGro Inner product, which instals under the roof, has proven to be popular with growers and has greatly improved productivity. Now, our team is excited to roll out a full-cover product, called UbiGro Cover. “The advancements we’re making with extruded films are opening the door to a completely new class of products for the industry of controlled environment agriculture,”
The new quantum dot (QD) polymer system used by UbiGro Cover has improved fluorescence sunlight durability by multiple orders of magnitude. In the past, twin-screw compounding and blown film extrusion required extremely high temperatures, which proved difficult for nanomaterials to endure. Over thousands of hours of accelerated aging, these QD films maintain high light-conversion efficiency exceeding 90%. Trials on plants are currently being conducted, and the results should be at least as good as those obtained with UbiGro Inner. The research builds on prior NASA funding and could be useful for other applications, such as solar.

Source: Prnewswire