Always in the Green Zone
WOLF, Mainburg, provides its specialist customers with expert contacts who support customers throughout the entire project phase. Tom Melching, Business Unit Manager Agriculture at WOLF, explains the special challenges of a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and the solutions offered.
For many customers, you are the point of contact for agriculture.What sets you apart?
Tom Melching: As Business Unit Manager Agriculture at WOLF, I serve as the key international contact for partners and clients active in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) — including vertical farming, greenhouses, and indoor growing systems. My role bridges the gap between high-performance HVAC and climate technology and the specific needs of indoor farming environments.
At WOLF we have a deep understanding of both agricultural processes and technical climate solutions. We engage early in the project phase — listening to the customer’s goals, identifying technical challenges, and providing customized proposals for energy-efficient, scalable, and crop-specific climate control.
From precise humidity and CO₂ control to optimal airflow and energy recovery, we guide customers in creating the right climate for growth — not only for plants, but also for operational performance.
In close collaboration with growers, facility designers, and integrators, we ensure that WOLF’s systems align with the biological needs of the crops and the economic goals of the investor. This includes supporting feasibility assessments, concept design, and integration with automation and sustainability strategies.
There are various requirements of indoor farming – e.g. tulips grow different from insects or plants used for medical drugs. Which challenges do you face?
Tom Melching: In fact, plant crops and insects/animals not only have fundamentally different needs, but these needs also change as they develop. There are five main topics that we examine with our customers at the start of a project: The first is the optimal microclimate, i.e. the temperature and humidity requirements of the crops until harvest. Technically, this simply means heating, cooling and dehumidifying. The second topic is the efficient use of energy, because energy efficiency is a key issue when it comes to economic efficiency.
For most customers, hygiene standards play an important role as the third topic, because pests – whether insects or pathogens – must not infest the crops. Condensation must also be avoided to effectively combat mould growth and corrosion. For strongly growth-oriented companies, the scalability of ventilation technology also plays an important role and, finally, its flexibility – after all, cultivation methods can change, or crops may need to be adapted to changing demand.
New developments regarding legislation and state-of-the-art technologyWhat opportunities are there for the future in Agriculture?
Tom Melching:
In view of climate change and an ever-growing global population, coupled with unequal access to dwindling arable land and freshwater supplies, we see vertical farming and insect farming as key technologies. Not only are they independent of the local climate, but they also require significantly less water and land than conventional agriculture. Indoor farming, which is now technically mature, can be established in the middle of urban areas as well as in hot and dry climates, which greatly reduces transport distances and costs.
It should also not be underestimated that optimised growing conditions, achieved for example through increased CO2 levels or ripening gases such as ethylene, can significantly increase the number of harvests per year. The growing demand for Phyto medication also requires medicinal plants to be cultivated under precise and controlled conditions.
Why is it more sensible to use air handling technology instead of traditional air coolers?
Tom Melching: Conventional air coolers blow cooled/dehumidified air into a room at high pressure, creating very different air speeds, draughts and cold air pockets, especially if there are many fixtures in the room. As a result, the temperature and humidity cannot be considered homogeneous or evenly distributed. However, this is precisely what is required for a good and consistent harvest.
Intelligent air conditioning, on the other hand, not only works according to demand and is therefore much more precise and draught-free but is also significantly more energy-efficient thanks to around 80% heat recovery. Ripening gases introduced evenly throughout the entire crop can also develop their full effect. Simply cooling the air instead of its conditioning, actually is only the second-best solution.
Is there a special WOLF way to find solutions for indoor farming?
Tom Melching: Our greatest strength is the personal and cooperative relationship we have built with our customers and their planners, often over decades. At the same time, WOLF has been on the market for over 60 years with ventilation and air conditioning solutions ‘Made in Germany’. We have been active in the agriculture sector around the world since more than 50 years and therefore know the requirements very well.
Of course, we have not stood still in the development of our solutions. Thanks to intelligent control systems, we monitor and control every desired cultivation and decomposition process with state-of-the-art technology and the highest hygiene standards. Our service and spare parts service are also available around the clock.
Which solutions do you offer regarding humidity?
Tom Melching: WOLF currently offers three solutions in accordance, with VDI 6022 and other hygienic and agricultural standards, which can of course be varied in detail and scaled as required:
For cost-conscious customers, we offer a compact supply air unit for dehumidification that uses only free cooling. If, on the other hand, the customer attaches great importance to heat recovery with simultaneous dehumidification, a recirculation unit is used.
The third variant, which can switch between fresh air supply and recirculation mode and combines the advantages of the first two solutions in one concept, offers the highest efficiency. Our innovative development department is currently working on further efficient solutions.
What they all have in common is that they offer a very high level of corrosion protection. WOLF ventilation units can also be seamlessly integrated into an external building management system for centralised control and monitoring.
Do you also focus on your customers' carbon footprint when planning their ventilation technology?
Tom Melching: Wir gehen immer individuell auf die Kundenwünsche ein. Die drei Säulen der Energieeffizienz in der Lüftungstechnik sind der Wärmerückgewinn, der Einsatz hocheffizienter Komponenten, die Antriebsenergie verbrauchen, und eine intelligent arbeitende und exakt am Bedarf orientierte Regelung der Lüftungstechnik. In enger Absprache mit unseren Kunden verkleinern wie den CO2-Footprint in dem Maße, wie er/sie es wünscht und nutzen dafür viele kleine und große Stellschrauben: Diese reichen von State-of-the-Art EC-Ventilatortechnologie über Wärmetauscher und spezielle Dichtungssysteme bis hin zu innovativen Hydraulikschemen.
.
Are there any industry-specific special requests for which WOLF offers a solution?
Tom Melching: In the past we always offered white air handling units. As Green is the classic colour in agriculture, gardening and horticulture, again and again we were asked to paint the units in green. Today we can provide our units in all kinds of RAL colours. There is probably no shade of green that we have not yet delivered.
More information about WOLF solutions in agriculture: https://www.wolf.eu/en-de/professional/knowledge-management/air-handling/ecosystem/agriculture