Modeling
S. Sharifi; N. Hafezi; M. H. Aghkhani
Abstract
IntroductionEfficient use of energy in paddy production can lower greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard agricultural ecosystems, and promote the growth of sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, intelligent agriculture has come to the aid of farmers and policy-makers by harnessing cutting-edge technologies, ...
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IntroductionEfficient use of energy in paddy production can lower greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard agricultural ecosystems, and promote the growth of sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, intelligent agriculture has come to the aid of farmers and policy-makers by harnessing cutting-edge technologies, which will lead to sustainable welfare and the comfort of human society in the present and the future. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze energy consumption and production, as well as model and optimize the yield of two paddy cultivars using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Genetic Algorithms (GA).Materials and MethodsExtensive research data was collected by thoroughly examining documentary and library resources, as well as conducting face-to-face questionnaires with 120 paddy farmers and farm owners in Rezvanshahr city, located in the province of Guilan, Iran, during the 2019-2020 production year. The farms consisted of 80 high-grading and 40 high-yielding paddies. The independent variables were machinery, diesel and gasoline fuels, electricity, seed, compost and straw, biocides, fertilizers, and labor. The dependent variable was paddy yield per hectare [of the farm area]. In the first step, energy consumption and production were calculated by multiplying the variables by their corresponding coefficients. In the second step, all the variables that maximize paddy yield were entered into MATLAB software. An artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm with a novel and straightforward elitism structure was utilized to enhance the fitness function of the genetic algorithm (GA). The Sphere, Repmat, and Unifrnd functions were employed to determine the objective function, define the position of the bee colony, and quantify the position of the bee colony, respectively. In each generation, 900 new solutions were created, and the algorithm iterated 200 times. For the genetic algorithm, the population was defined as a double vector with a size of 100.Results and DiscussionThe findings revealed that the Hashemi (high-grading) paddy cultivar had an average energy consumption and production of 55.973 and 30.742 GJ·ha-1, respectively. The Jamshidi (high-yielding) paddy cultivar had an average energy consumption of 54.796 GJ·ha-1 and double the energy production of the Hashemi at 62.522 GJ·ha-1. In both cultivars, agricultural machinery consumed the highest amount of energy, while straw consumed the lowest amount. The average energy consumption of tractors in the Hashemi and Jamshidi cultivars was 25.111 and 25.865 GJ·ha-1, respectively, accounting for 44.862% and 47.202% of the total average consumed energy. This undoubtedly demonstrates the significant effect of this input and reflects the operators' skill and experiential knowledge. The evaluation indexes, including R², RMSE, MAPE, and EF, as well as statistical comparisons such as mean, STD, and distribution, consistently demonstrated that the ABC algorithm provided the essential conditions for the fitness function. The results of the bee-genetic algorithm optimization revealed that the majority of the consumed resources could be effectively managed on the farm to closely match optimal conditions. Through this optimization, energy consumption in the Hashemi and Jamshidi cultivars was reduced by 53.96% and 39.41%, respectively.ConclusionGiven its impressive performance and potential for minimizing energy consumption, the ABC-GA algorithm offers an opportunity for policymakers in energy resource management and rice industry managers to develop innovative strategies for significantly reducing energy usage in rice production. This approach could lead to more sustainable and efficient practices in the agricultural sector.
N. Hafezi; M. J. Sheikhdavoodi; S. M. Sajadiye; M. E. Khorasani
Abstract
Introduction
Potato (Solanumtuberosum L.) is one of the unique and most potential crops having high productivity, supplementing major food requirement in the world. Drying is generally carried out for two main reasons, one to reduce the water activity which eventually increases the shelf life of food ...
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Introduction
Potato (Solanumtuberosum L.) is one of the unique and most potential crops having high productivity, supplementing major food requirement in the world. Drying is generally carried out for two main reasons, one to reduce the water activity which eventually increases the shelf life of food and second to reduce the weight and bulk of food for cheaper transport and storage. The quality evaluation of the dried product was carried out on the basis of response variables such as rehydration ratio, shrinkage percentage, color and the overall acceptability. Drying is the most energy intensive process in food industry. Therefore, new drying techniques and dryers must be designed and studied to minimize the energy cost in drying process. Considering the fact that the highest energy consumption in agriculture is associated with drying operations, different drying methods can be evaluated to determine and compare the energy requirements for drying a particular product. Thermal drying operations are found in almost all industrial sectors and are known, according to various estimates, to consume 10-25% of the national industrial energy in the developed world. Infrared radiation drying has the unique characteristics of energy transfer mechanism. Kantrong et al. (2012) were studied the drying characteristics and quality of shiitake mushroom undergoing microwave-vacuum combined with infrared drying. Motevali et al. (2011) were evaluated energy consumption for drying of mushroom slices using various drying methods including hot air, microwave, vacuum, infrared, microwave-vacuum and hot air-infrared. The objectives of this research were to experimental study of drying kinetics considering quality characteristics including the rehydration and color distribution of potato slices in a vacuum- infrared dryer and also assessment of specific energy consumption and thermal utilization efficiency of potato slices during drying process.
Materials and Methods
A laboratory scale vacuum-infrared dryer, developed at the Agricultural Machinery and Mechanization Engineering Laboratory of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz has been used. The dryer consists of a stainless steel drying chamber; a laboratory type piston vacuum pump, which was used to maintain vacuum in the drying chamber; an infrared lamp with power of 250 W which was used to supply thermal radiation to a drying product; and a control system for the infrared radiator.
Sample Preparation
Fresh potatoes were purchased from a local market in Hamadan province. Potatoes were peeled, washed, and cut into sliced with thickness of 1, 2 and 3 mm by a manual slicer. Drying experiments of potato slices were performed in a vacuum chamber with absolute pressure levels of 20, 80, 140 and 760 mmHg; and radiation intensity of infrared lamp was 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 W cm-2. The mass change of the sample during drying was detected continuously using an electronic weight scale (Lutron, GM- 1500P, Taiwan) with the accuracy of ±0.05 g.
Evaluation of rehydration capacity of dried potato slices
The rehydration tests measured the gain in weight of dehydrated samples (~5 g), dehydrated samples were rehydrated in 200 cc of distilled water at 100°C for 3 minutes.
Evaluation of color
The color of potatoes was measured on five slices selected randomly, and was described by three coordinates in the RGB color space using computer vision.
Evaluation of specific energy consumption
Energy consumption of dying process came from the electrical energy consumed by the operation of the vacuum pump and the infrared lamp. Specific energy consumption was defined as the energy required for removing a unit mass of water in drying the potato slice.
Evaluation of thermal utilization efficiency
Thermal utilization efficiency is defined as the latent heat of vaporization of moisture of sample to the amount of energy required to evaporate moisture from free water. The latent heat of vaporization of water at the evaporating temperature of 100°C was taken as 2257 kJkg-1.
Results and Discussion
The results of the evaluation of rehydration capacity of potato slices during drying process are shown in Table 1. Statistical analysis (ANOVA, post-hoc Duncan) showed that thickness at probability level of 1% had statistically significant influence on rehydration capacity values of dried potato slices. Moisture of dried slice of potato compared to its fresh was obtained nearly 80% in boiling water (at temperature 100°C) for 3 min. The most color changes of slice after drying was related to green color. According to Table 2 and statistical analysis results showed that factor of thickness was not statistically significant on specific energy. The effect of absolute pressure (p<0.05) and radiation intensity (p<0.01) parameters also interaction of absolute pressure and radiation intensity (p<0.05) had statistically significant influence on specific energy of dried potato slices. According to Table 3 and statistical analysis the factor of absolute pressure had statistically significant at probability level of 5% on thermal utilization efficiency. Also the effect of interaction of absolute pressure and radiation intensity had statistically significant at probability level of 5% on thermal utilization efficiency of dried potato slices. The drying efficiency of potato slices varied between 2.13% to 31.01%.
Conclusions
Dried potato slices at a thickness of 1 mm put in boiling water for three minutes; showed the most amount of water absorption ratio that it was able to absorb the value of 86% more than the initial moisture. The lowest rate of color change before and after the drying process is related to the thickness of the thinnest sliced potatoes. Comparison of energy consumption showed that the radiation intensity of 0.4 W cm-2, absolute pressure level of 80 mmHg and slice thickness of 1 mm had shorter drying time in experimental conditions.
