The Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers
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Soil and Water Conservation - Industry and Institutional trends
No full text“The earth, the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our forefathers but on loan from our children. So, we have to hand over to them at least as it was handed over to us” – Mahatma Gandhi
Does Popping and Puffing Improves the Nutritional Profile of Starchy Grains and Makes It Healthier?
No full textDesign and Development of Hydrothermal Liquefaction Reactor for Processing Wet Lignocellulosic Biomass
No full textWet biomass disposal poses significant environmental challenges, as it is often discarded untreated, contributing to pollution. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) offers a sustainable solution by directly processing wet biomass into energy-rich biocrude, eliminating the need for energy-intensive drying. This study focuses on the design and development of a five-liter HTL reactor specifically for wet lignocellulosic biomass. The reactor was designed to operate with higher moisture content (60%–80%) at temperatures of 200ºC–350ºC, and pressures up to 20 MPa. The reactor has a stainless-steel structure with an integrated stirring, heating, and cooling systems. Performance trials with sugarcane bagasse at optimal operating conditions at 275ºC, 15 MPa, 40 minutes retention time, and 25% solids loading, demonstrated a maximum biocrude yield of 28%. The process also generated hydrochar (2.3%) and an aqueous phase (54%). The produced biocrude shows potential for direct use as marine fuel or further upgrading for transportation fuels. Hydrochar offers applications in solid fuel, soil amendment, and adsorption, while the aqueous phase presents opportunities for nutrient recovery. This study establishes the feasibility of HTL as an efficient, scalable approach for converting wet biomass into valuable biofuels
Effect of pod size on physical properties of cocoa pods (Theobroma cacao L.) with reference to farm level mechanization of cocoa processing
Get PDFPhysical properties of cocoa pods are essential to develop gadgets to mechanize farm level processing. The various physical properties of cocoa pods, viz.,size, mass, sphericity, aspect ratio, volume, bulk density, true density, porosity, surface area, radius of curvature, friction coefficient, angle of repose, rolling angle and rolling friction were determined. The average length and breadth of the cocoa pods were 147.50±13.9 and 74.19±13.0 mm, respectively. Based on the length, the pods were categorized as small, medium and large size,as less than 120 mm, 120 to 140 mm and above 140 mm. Thickness of husk at the ridge and furrow varied as 4 to 21 mm and 3 to 17 mm and increased with increase in pod length. Average mass of the pod and bean in the pod were 327.45±67.6 g and 84.22±14.9 g, respectively. The sphericity and aspect ratio ranged 0.54 to 0.68 and 0.4 to 0.57. The true volume, bulk density and true density for cocoa pods ranged 308.92 to 590.52 cm3, 398.10 to 339.03 kg.m-3and 589.10 to 661.04 kg.m-3, respectively. The surface area and radius of curvature along major axis ranged from 243.15 to 356.31 cm2 and 72.83 to143.48 mm, respectively
Process optimization of paddy drying in cross-flow aerated drying cum storage bin
Get PDFA cross-flow aerated drying cum storage bin was developed and the drying conditions for paddy was optimised. The drying cum storage bin consisted of a cylindrical outer drum with two inner basins having perorated walls made of galvanised iron to hold paddy, and a central perforated vertical duct. A blower (1.5 kW) connected at the base supplies air to the heating chamber (with 1 kW heater coil) and moves vertically through the central duct. The hot air passes horizontally through the grain bulk taking the moisture and moves towards the perforated walls of the bin and exit through the space between the drum and the basins. Drying experiments were conducted with bed thickness of 15 cm to study the drying characteristics of paddy and evaluate the performance of the dryer. Paddy was dried from 18 to 12% (wb) moisture content with the independent parameters selected being drying air temperature (35, 40 and 45 °C) and airflow rate (15, 21 and 27 m3/h). The drying time varied 1.5 to 4.75 hours over the entire experimental conditions. The analysis of drying rates for both top and bottom bins showed minimum variation indicating uniform drying throughout the depth of the bin. The estimated optimum conditions of drying were 45°C temperature and 27 m3/h airflow rate. The predicted values of responses at optimised conditions were 1.51 hours of drying time, 6.05x10-7 m2/s of effective moisture diffusivity, 0.078 W/m2K of heat transfer coefficient, and 8.23x105 kJ/kg of specific energy consumption. Further, exergy analysis indicated that exergy loss increased with increase in drying air temperature and airflow rate