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.
H. R. Gazor; A. Moumeni
Abstract
Introduction High energy consumption and non-uniformity drying in conventional batch type dryer are the common problems in paddy dying industry. Non-uniformity drying causes to kernel breaking chance in the milling process. Using new dryers with better performance can solve the drying problem and energy ...
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Introduction High energy consumption and non-uniformity drying in conventional batch type dryer are the common problems in paddy dying industry. Non-uniformity drying causes to kernel breaking chance in the milling process. Using new dryers with better performance can solve the drying problem and energy saving. In this research, the operation of a re-circulating batch dryer was compared with a fixed bed batch dryer (conventional dryer) for paddy drying. Materials and Methods This research was done in a paddy milling factory in Ferydonkenar and deputy of Rice Research Institute of Iran, in Amol, Mazandaran province. Both re-circulating dryer and conventional batch type dryer were made by Khazar Electric Company in Amol- Iran and they had 5 tonnes capacity. In the re-circulating dryer, ambient air was warmed in the furnace and blown to drying zone inside of grain bin. Natural Gas (NG) was used for air warming in dryers. Warm air absorbed paddy moisture and pushed away from the dryer. Drying temperature ranges for re-circulating dryer and conventional dryer was 48-50 °C and 38-52°C, respectively. The paddy variety was one of the Iranian rice varieties as Tarom and initial moisture content of grains was 21% (w.b), it was decreased using drying to 8-9% (w.b) for milling process. Paddy moisture content was measured each 60-120 min by SUNCUE TD-6 portable moisture tester-Taiwan. Energy consumption calculated by fuel and electrical energy summation in each experiment. Natural Gas and electrical power consumption were measured by Gas and electric counters respectively. Drying time, paddy moisture change trend and energy consumption were investigated for paddy drying in each dryers. Also, milling ratio, breaking percent, whitening degree, and elongation rate after cooking were studied after the milling process for rice dried using national standard methods and deputy of Rice Research Institute facilities in Amol. Experimental samples were 150 g and husker (SATAKE THU35B), a whitener (SATAKE TMU05) and KETT C-100 were used for husking, whitening and whiteness degree, respectively. All Experiments were done with three replication and data analyzed using T- student method in 5% probability. Results and Discussion Results showed that re-circulating dryer caused to reduce 54.12 percent in drying time and energy saving in paddy drying in compare with conventional paddy dryers. The trend of moisture content changes was longer and over-drying occurred in lower layers in conventional batch type dryer compared to re-circulating dryer. Paddy drying was 20 hours more in batch type than the re-circulating dryer. It caused wasting time and energy consumption. Specific energy consumption for water evaporating in the re-circulating batch dryer was 3.9 MJ/kg water and it was 76.25 percent less than fixed bed batch dryer. After the drying process in both dryers, paddy moisture content was in range 8-9 percent (% w.b). Using re-circulating dryer did not have a significant effect on milling yield but it had a significant effect on broken rice. Broken rice decreased by 5 percent after the milling process when paddy dried by re-circulating. Uniformity of layers drying and normal heat stress in rice kernels in re-circulating dryer reduced broken rice in the milling process. Whiteness degree of rice dried using fixed bed dryer was 2.4 percent more than the re-circulating batch dryer. Also, rice dried had more elongation rate about 6.2 percent after cooking when paddy dried by conventional dryer. Conclusion Results of this paper showed that using of re-circulating dryer would decrease time and modify energy consumption in paddy drying. The costs of installation for the re-circulating batch dryer was about 5.3 times more than fixed bed batch dryer. It seems too expensive at first but considering energy and time-saving in the drying process and suitable effect on decreasing grain breakage in paddy milling, using of the re-circulating batch dryer is recommendable in rice milling factories.
A. Eyvani; M. Safari; A. Hedayatipour
Abstract
The main method of rice planting in Iran is transplanting. Due to poor mechanization of rice production, this method is laborious and costly. The other method is direct seeding in wet lands which is performed in the one third of rice cultivation area of the world. The most important problem in this method ...
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The main method of rice planting in Iran is transplanting. Due to poor mechanization of rice production, this method is laborious and costly. The other method is direct seeding in wet lands which is performed in the one third of rice cultivation area of the world. The most important problem in this method is high labor requirement of weed control. In order to compare the different rice planting methods (direct drilling, transplanting, and seed broadcasting) a manually operated rice direct seeder (drum seeder) was designed and fabricated. The research was conducted using a randomized complete block design with three treatments and three replications. Required draft force, field efficiency, effective field capacity, yield, and yield components were measured and the treatments were compared economically. Results showed that there were significant differences among the treatments from the view point of rice yield at the confidence level of 95% i.e. the transplanting method had the maximum yield. A higher rice yield was obtained from the direct seeder compared to the manual broadcasting method but, the difference between these two methods for crop yield was not significant even at the confidence level of the 95%. The coefficient of variation of seed distribution with direct seeding was more than 20%. The labor and time requirements per hectare reduced to 7 and 20 times, respectively when comparing the newly designed direct seeder with the transplanting method. The direct seeding method had the highest benefit to cost ratio in spite of its lower yield. Therefore, this method could be recommended in the rice growing regions.
