Ce-Line Customized irigation water

Customized irrigation water

What happens to greenhouse crops when they receive exactly the right nutrients at exactly the right doses at exactly the right time? At the Wageningen University & Research (WUR) test site in Bleiswijk [around 14 kilometres north of Rotterdam], the answers to this question are currently being collected.

Wilco Dijkstra, Founder ‘Our technology can process a high number of parameters in real time’

These are the first practical trials with the CE-line technology: a measuring system that measures the quality and composition of the irrigation water in real time and can immediately adjust it to the desired composition. Start-up CE-Line, a Water Alliance member, recently received the prestigious GreenTech Innovation Concept Award for its innovative concept.

Horticulture

“We had been developing water measuring systems for some time. Our technology is unique in that our system can process a high number of parameters in real time”, says Wilco Dijkstra, founder of CE-Line. The start-up is based in Heerenveen, a municipality just under thirty kilometres from the WaterCampus Leeuwarden. CE-Line was established in 2018 to make the ingenious measuring system suitable for greenhouse horticulture. There is a great need for a measuring system like CE-Line, particularly in greenhouse horticulture, explains Dijkstra. “Growers currently send a sample to the laboratory once a fortnight. They have to develop an effective nutritional strategy based on those results— it’s an impossible task. Our system provides online measurement of individual nutrients with associated individual nutrient dosages. The result is controllable and immediately adjustable irrigation water, which is a huge leap forward.”

Circular system

Five per cent more yield, improved crop and fruit quality, reduced water and fertilizer use, and remote water and nutrient management. These are the benefits of a system that is also completely circular, according to Dijkstra: “We can reuse almost one hundred per cent of the water. The extremely precise composition and dosage avoids the creation of unusable wastewater.” The practical trials at the Bleiswijk test site are very promising. CE-Line is currently working with growers to gain the necessary practical experience: “We want to develop the optimal watering strategy together.”

Global food crisis

Dijkstra is already looking beyond the borders: “Dutch greenhouse horticulture is world-leading—we have higher yields than anywhere else. China, Canada, the Middle East, Spain and France operate at higher capacity, but their yield per square meter is much lower. CE-Line could serve as a flywheel in the process by drastically increasing yield. That’s no luxury in a world where the food problem is growing and demands a focus on high quality.”

Wilco Dijkstra, Founder

‘Our technology can process a high number of parameters in real time’

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

According to Dijkstra, artificial intelligence will become an important driver in greenhouse horticulture in the coming decade: “We are getting more and more access to big data. Using that data, computers can make qualitatively better predictions than growers. I see a future in which greenhouse production lines are fully based on AI, with a grower turning the dials in the cockpit. CE-Line can be a link within that system.”

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