Journal of Agricultural Machinery

Abstract Introduction: Today, all kinds of vehicle engines work with fossil fuels. The limited fossil fuel resources and the negative effects of their consumption on the environment have led researchers to focus on clean, renewable and sustainable energy systems. In all of the fuels being considered as an alternativefor gasoline, methanol is one of the more promising ones and it has experienced major research and development. Methanol can be obtained from many sources, both fossil and renewable; these include coal, natural gas, food industry and municipal waste, wood and agricultural waste. In this study, the effect of using methanol–unleaded gasoline blends on engine performance characteristics has been experimentally investigated. The main objective of the study was to determine engine performance parameters using unleaded gasoline and methanol-unleaded gasoline blends at various engine speeds and loads, and finally achieving an optimal blend of unleaded gasoline and methanol.
Materials and Methods: The experimental apparatus consists of an engine test bed with a hydraulic dynamometer which is coupled with a four cylinder, four-stroke, spark ignition engine that is equipped with the carbureted fuel system. The engine has a cylinder bore of 81.5 mm, a stroke of 82.5 mm, and a compression ratio of 7.5:1 with maximum power output of 41.8 kW. The engine speed was monitored continuously by a tachometer, and the engine torque was measured with a hydraulic dynamometer. Fuel consumption was measured by using a calibrated burette (50cc) and a stopwatch with an accuracy of 0.01s. In all tests, the cooling water temperature was kept at 82±3˚C. The test room temperature was kept at 29±3˚C during performing the tests. The experiments were performed with three replications. The factors in the experiments were four methanol- unleaded gasoline blends (M0, M10, M20 and M30) and six engine speeds (2000, 2500. 3000, 3500, 4000 and 4500 rpm). Methanol with a purity of 99.9% was used in the blends. All experiments were performed at 50% open throttle. Engine performance characteristics for fuel blends were compared with unleaded gasoline.
Results and Discussion: The experimental results showed that adding methanol to unleaded gasoline increased brake torque and brake power in the M10 and decreased in the M30 compared to merely usingpure gasoline. Engine behavior when using M20 blend was similar to that of using pure gasoline (M0). The brake power and torque at engine speeds 2500, 3000, 3500 and 4000 rpm for M10 were increased by 5.42%, 7.76%, 14.89% and 16.78% compared to when these parameter relate to pure gasoline (M0), respectively, whereas the brake power and brake torque for M30 blend at engine speeds 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000 and 4500 rpm compared to when using pure gasoline was decreased by 6.91%, 8.1%, 6.23%, 5.29%, 4.59% and 14.27%, respectively.
The experimental results showed that brake specific fuel consumption for M30 blend was increased at all engine speeds. The increase in specific fuel consumption values for this blend from 2000 - 4500 rpm were 17.78%, 16.38%, 13.06%, 10.99%, 14% and 19.11%, respectively. Also, the specific fuel consumption for the M20 was similar to the specific fuel consumption of pure gasoline. Comparing the brake specific fuel consumption of M10 to M0 fuel at 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000 and 4500 rpm this parameter was decreased by 1.9%, 6.03%, 8.91%, 13.85% and 5.55%, respectively.
As the methanol content in the fuel blends increases, brake thermal efficiency also increases at all engine speeds and in all used fuels blends. The thermal efficiency at 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000 and 4500 rpm using M10 was increased by 3.73%, 8.12%, 12.43%, 15.57%, 22.34% and 12.01%, respectively in comparison to pure gasoline. These values for M20 were 4.14%, 7.82%, 10.12%, 13.37%, 18.94% and 13%, and for M30 were 2.69%, 3.89%, 6.35%, 8.01%, 5.12% and 0.78%.
Conclusions: From the results of the study, the following conclusions can be deduced:
1- Using methanol as a fuel additive to unleaded gasoline causes an improvement in engine performance.
2- The largest increment in engine torque and brake power compared with M0 showed about 16.78% with M10 at 4000 rpm.
3- Minimum brake specific fuel consumption was obtained at 4000rpm with M10 fuel.
4- Thermal efficiency increased compared to the pure gasoline usage at all engine speeds and in all used fuel blends. The largest increment in brake thermal efficiency compared with M0 showed 22.34% with M20 at 4000 rpm.
5- The 10 vol. % methanol in fuel blend gave the best results for all measured parameters at all engine speeds.

Abstract Introduction: Nowadays the number of motor vehicles in large and small cities is growing. Increasing the number of motor vehicles leads to serious increase of the amount of environmental pollution and daily fuel consumption. Motor vehicle emissions that are known as the most air polluting emissions cause 50-90 percent of air pollution. With large increasd in the number of motor vehicles and their emissions todays, many researchers have investigated engine optimization in order to reduce emissions of motor vehicles. But due to the lack of affordable changes in the physical structure of the engine, it is not possible to create major changes in the amount of engine exhaust. Hence, in order to improve engine performance and reduce emissions, a lot of research has been carried out on changes in the fuel and engine inlet air. So, in this study a new method has been proposed and tested in order to detect changes in the charactristics of emissions. So, the effects of enriched nitrous oxide gas on the exhaust emissions of a spark-injection engine were investigated. In this way, a certain amount of Nitrous Oxide (N2O) gas was mixed with the engine inlet air (with concentration of 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 percent) and it was injected to the engine. Then its effect was studied on emission parameters at various engine rotational speeds. Then, by using genetic algorithm, the optimal values of N2O concentration and engine rotational speed were determined to reach the minimum emission parameters.
Materials and Methods: To measure the engine emission parameters including CO, CO2, HC and NOx, the expriments were conducted after preparing a system to inject inlet air with different percentages of N2O into an Otto engine (model: M13NI). In this study, the randomized complete block design was used to investigate the effect of N2O concentration (five levels) and engine rotational speed (three levels) on exhauste emission parameters. Each expriment was replicated 9 times. For statistical analysis, Duncan’s multiple range test and multivariate analysis of variance were performed by using SPSS Software. Also, each factor was modeled by polynomial equations and the obtained models were optimized in three dimensions by genetic algorithm method in MATLAB Software. After optimization ofeach emission parameter in the same time by multi-objective optimization regression, separately, and determination of the best value of N2O concentration in the inlet air andthe engine rotational speed, the optimizations were compared in order to obtain the minimum value of emission parameters.
Results and discussion: The experimental results indicated that by increasing N2O concentration in the inlet air of motor vehicle engine, the amounts of CO and HC were significantly decreased and the amounts of CO2 and NOx were significantly increased. Also, the results of this study showed that increasing the engine rotational speed at the same time with increasing the N2O concentration caused a significant decrease in the amounts of CO, CO2, HC and NOx. The optimal amount of N2O concentration and engine rotational speed by genetic algorithm method were obtained to be14.545 % and 3184 rpm, respectively.
Conclusions: The main conclusions obtained from this research are listed below:
- The amount of N2O concentration in the engine fuelis the decisive factor for decreasing emissions.
- By increasing N2O concentration in the inlet air of motor vehicle engine, the amounts of CO and HC were significantly decreased and the amounts of CO2 and NOx were significantly increased.
- By increasing the engine rotational speed and N2O concentration, the amounts of CO, CO2, HC and NOx were decreased.
- The optimal amount of N2O concentration and engine rotational speed were obtained to be 14.545 % and 3184 rpm, respectivelyby using the genetic algorithm method. For these values, based on regression models, concentration of CO and CO2, were obtained to be 0.056% and 12.5%, respectively.
- The concentration of N2O and the optimum rotational speed of engine for CO gas were obtained to be 10.562% and 3749 rpm.
- The concentration of N2O and the optimum rotational speed of the engine for CO2 gas were found to be 0% and 2847 rpm, respectively.
- The concentration of N2O and optimum rotational speed of engine for HC werefound to be 12.71% and 3750 rpm, respectively.
- The concentration of N2O and optimum rotational speed of engine for NOx werefound to be 0% and 4300 rpm, respectively.

Abstract Introduction: Golestan province is one of Northern provinces in Iran. The area under cultivation of agricultural products in this province is 724.697 hectares, of which about 694.618 hectares are used for farm products (AJMDC, 2011). Cotton as one of oilseed is a potential feedstock for biodiesel production (Ahmad et al., 2011). In the study of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for cotton production in Alborz province, results showed that the total energy input was 31.237 MJ ha-1. Energy efficiency and energy productivity were 1.85 and 0.11, respectively, and greenhouse gas emissions of cotton production in Alborz province were 1195.25 kg CO2eq ha-1 (Pishgar-Komleh et al., 2012). Another study on energy analysis, greenhouse gas emissions and economic analysis of agricultural production was performed in Northern Iran (AghaAlikhani et al., 2013; Royan et al., 2012; Pishgar-Komleh et al., 2011; Mohammadi et al., 2010; Taheri-Garavand et al., 2010). The aims of this study were to determine the energy flow, greenhouse gas emissions and economic analysis of cotton production in the Golestan province and also to determine the effect of energy inputs on cotton yield.
Materials and methods: This research was conducted during 2011-2012 in three areas including Gorgan, Aq’qala and Gonbad in the Golestan province. The primary data were collected from the rice producers through a field survey with the help of a structured questionnaire. The number of subjects were studied by the Cochran formula (Snedecor and Cochran, 1980). Accordingly, 43 cotton producers were determined. In this study, eight energy inputs including seed, labor, machinery, diesel fuel, chemical fertilizers, chemicals, water for irrigation and farmyard manure for cotton production system were considered as independent variables. The outputs of the system including lint and seed were considered as dependent variable. Energy indices including energy efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy and net energy were calculated. In this study, the effect of energy inputs on yield was estimated using the Cobb-Douglas function. In order to determine the sensitivity of energy inputs in the production of cotton in the Golestan province, the marginal physical productivity method was applied. Greenhouse gas emissions, inputs of agricultural machinery, fuel, chemical fertilizers, chemicals and farmyard manure in cotton production in the Golestan province were calculated by the coefficients of each of these inputs. For economic evaluation of cotton production in the Golestan province, the variable costs, fixed and total production per unit area were considered. Economic indices of total production value, gross income, net income, economic productivity and benefit to cost ratio were estimated. Data analysis was performed using JMP8 software.
Results and Discussion: Cotton yield in the Golestan province was about 2650 kg ha-1. Average cotton yield in the Alborz province was reported to be 3430 kg ha-1 (Pishgar-Komleh et al., 2012). In this study, diesel fuel had the highest energy consumer among other inputs like the other studies that have been done on energy crop production in Iran. Labor energy input with energy consumption of 2413 MJ ha-1, is known to be the fourth high-energy input in cotton production in the Golestan province. However, in many studies in Iran, this input was accounted to be less than one percent of the energy consumption in the production of agricultural products (Saeedi et al., 2013; Khoshnevisan et al., 2013; Mobtaker et al., 2012; Mobtaker et al., 2010). Chemical energy input with 1036 MJ ha-1, was allocated as 3.6% of energy consumption in the cotton production in the region. Seed energy input was the lowest energy among the other inputs in cotton production in the Golestan province. The results revealed that the total energy inputs for cotton production in the Golestan province was 28.898 MJ ha-1. The average energy efficiency for cotton production in the Golestan province was obtained to be 1.58. Energy productivity for cotton production in the Golestan province was calculated to be 0.092. From the results of Cobb-Douglas function to determine the relationship between energy input and yield of cotton in Golestan province, the effects of human labor, diesel fuel, water for irrigation, chemical fertilizers and farmyard manure inputs on the yield were positive, and the effects of agriculture machinery and chemicals inputs on cotton yield were negative. Greenhouse gas emission from diesel fuel input hadthe highest value of 646.23 kg CO2eq ha-1 with a 45.2 percent share. Farmyard manure with 23.5 percent of greenhouse emissions was identified as the second largest input in greenhouse gas emissions in cotton production. Variable costs, fixed and total cotton production in the Golestan province were calculated to be 3042429, 851880 and 3894309 Toman ha-1, respectively. Benefit to cost ratio for the cotton production in the Golestan province was calculated as 1.16.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the energy efficiency for cotton production in the Golestan province was less than the energy efficiency for cotton production in the Alborz province, Hatay province of Turkey, and canola, soybean and sunflower production in the Golestan province. Also, the energy efficiency of cotton production was less than that of cotton production in Antalya Turkey and canola in the Mazandaran province. The highest share of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions belonged to diesel fuel with the share of 45.6 and 45.2 percent, respectively. However, this input accounted for 2.7 percent of variable costs.

Abstract Bioethanol production from agricultural residues is one of the promising methods. Pretreatment is the most important step in this type of bioethanol production. In this study, the saccharification percentage of sugarcane bagasse was investigated after two types of pretreatments including ozone steaming and microwave. Microwave pretreatment was studied with two factors of microwave radiation (170, 450, and 850 w) and microwave duration (2, 6, and 10 min). The ozonolysis (ozone steaming) pretreatment was surveyed with two factors of moisture content of bagasse (30, 40, and 50%) and ozonolysis time (1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 hr). After hydrolysis, the Saccharification percentage of sugarcane bagasse increased to 57.2% and 67.06% with microwave and ozonolysis pretreatments, respectively; compare to 20.85% in non-ozonated bagasse. It can be concluded that the ozonolysis is the most effective pretreatment regarding to saccharification percentage of sugarcane bagasse.

Abstract Nowadays compost fertilizers are suitable alternative to chemical fertilizers, due to the threats for human health and agriculture products. The most important problems for applying the compost fertilizer in the farm are: transportation (high volume), high moisture content, spreading problem, impurity such as dust and storage. To solve the problems mentioned, pressing process such as converting the compost to pellets and granules are suggested. In this research the effects of some granulation parameters on the percent of useful granules in a laboratory scale rotating drum was evaluated. The percentage of useful granules decreased by increasing the granulation time and increased by increasing the percentage of drum filling. The optimal conditions for granules production was achieved at drum rotational speed of 40.38 rpm, granulation time of 15 min, drum filling of 10% and molasse percentage of 40.97. According to these conditions, the response for useful granule was estimated as 81.6% with R2 of 0.924.

Abstract As one of the most important conditions in sustainable agriculture, optimization of energy consumption in agriculture is necessary in order to reduce the production cost and saving non renewable resources as well as reduction of air pollutants. In this regard, this study was conducted in Saman region, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province. A linear programming based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used for optimization of energy consumption in peach production in order to increase the technical efficiency. By performing a linear regression analysis, some inputs including animal fertilizer, pesticide, human labor and machinery had no significant influence on product yield, while some other inputs including fuel, electricity, water and chemical fertilizer showed a significant effect on the product yield. Therefore, the latter inputs and the product yield were considered as the inputs and output, respectively. Selecting the BCC model (efficiency to variable scale model of input nature) and using DEA Solver software, efficient and inefficient farmers were determined. The efficient farmers had the technical efficiency of unit (one) and the inefficient farmers had this value within 0.47-0.94. Also, the technical efficiency of inefficient farmers was computed as 0.74. This means that using 74% of the inputs and keeping the current yield, the inefficient farmers can approach to the efficiency limit. Total technical efficiency of all farmers was found to be 0.82. Based on the results, the maximum value of inefficiency belonged to electricity energy with 65.32%.

Abstract Fast pyrolysis is an attractive technology for biomass conversion, from which bio-oil is the preferred product with a great potential for use in industry and transport. Corn wastes (cob and stover) and eucalyptus wood are widely being produced throughout the world. In this study, fast pyrolysis of these two materials were examined under the temperature of 500 °C; career gas flow rate of 660 l h-1; particle size of 1-2 mm; 80 and 110 g h-1 of feed rate. The experiments were carried out in a continuous fluidized bed reactor. Pyrolysis vapor was condensed in 3 cooling traps (15, 0 and -40 °C) plus an electrostatic one. Eucalyptus wood was pyrolyised to 12.4, 61.4, and 26.2 percent of bio-char, bio-oil and gas, respectively while these figures were as 20.15, 49.9, and 29.95 for corn wastes. In all experiments, the bio-oil obtained from electrostatic trap was a dark brown and highly viscose liquid.

Abstract The use of Bio-ethanol as an alternative diesel engine fuel is rapidly increasing. Bio-ethanol is mixed with diesel fuel at different ratios and used in CI and SI engines. Since vibrations have direct effects on users and engine components, for this reason analysis of vibration resulting from combustion in CI engines is very important. In this study, evaluation of vibration was performed for both diesel and ethanol blends. Commercial diesel fuel (D100), E2 (2% ethanol and 98% diesel fuel), E5, E10, E15 and E20 were used in a two-wheel MITSUBISHI tractor. The engine was tested in 1200, 1600, 2000 and 2400 rpm for all fuel blends, and also the effect of load was investigated for D100 and E10. Results showed that vibration is significantly affected by fuel blend. It was observed that E10 had the lowest vibration while E20 had the highest value. It was also observed that vibration increased as engine speed increased for all fuel blends. It was found that both axial and lateral vibrations affected significantly by load. The lateral vibrations decreased continuously with load rise , but the axial vibrations increased initially but started to follow a reverse trend.

Abstract This study carried out to evaluate the effect of different tillage systems on rapeseed yield (hayola 401) planted in corn residues. This experiment was done in Moghan region with clay soils during 2009-2012. Different seedbed preparation methods include MT: moldboard + disk tillage (conventional tillage was included), SCT: Stem Crusher + chisel + disk tandem harrow, STT: Stem Crusher + double-disc, CT: chisel + disk tillage and DD: two heavy disks. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The results showed that soil bulk density in the 0-10 cm layer was not significant in different tillage treatments, but it was significantly higher than the conventional tillage in 10-20 cm depth. However, penetration resistance in 10-30 cm under DD was significantly higher than other treatments, but it was not significant in 0-10 cm layer among all tillage treatments. Thus, Comparison of the soil bulk density, penetration resistance, and plant establishment showed that the reduced tillage in canola seedbed preparation was effective. Besides, the surveys indicated that there was a significant different between MWD after primary and secondary tillage. The mean diameter weighted under SCT and DD, were 1.19 and 1.24 cm, respectively had the best status. The highest value and the worst status of this parameter observed for MT which was 1.92 cm. The highest rate of grain yield obtained by application of treatment SCT, and it was 2563.8 kg ha-1, The SCT treatment can be recommended as an effective canola bed preparation due to its significant saving in time and cost after corn harvesting.

Abstract Rice is a main food for Iranian people and has an important role in providing food security. Regarding the population growth, increase of rice production and reduction of losses have special importance in prevention of rice import. Rice losses in the harvest stage are the highest through the whole production period of this crop and hence the reduction of these losses is necessary. Provision of this purpose depends on on-time harvesting and separation of grains from chaff with the least grain losses, and choosing a suitable harvesting method. The choice of harvesting method depends on various factors in each region; thus, different harvest methods in each region must be compared while conducted in the same conditions. In order to recommend the beast harvest method in Shivan-Chardavol region, three harvesting methods (manually, rice-specific combine harvester and conventional cereals combine harvester) were considered as three experimental treatments and four different parts of this region considered as experimental blocks. The experimental design was randomized complete block design. This study was carried out on Anbarboo variety and the measured factors were: effective farm capacity, percent of total losses, percent of harvesting losses, number of workers and harvesting cost. The results of this study indicated that the total difference of factors was significant at the 1% error level among all treatments. The effective farm capacity in harvesting by cereals combine harvester was more than other treatments. The lowest percent of loss was observed for harvesting by rice-specific combine harvester (2.32%) and the highest percent of loss was obtained for cereals combine harvester (3.816%). The manual harvesting method had the highest harvesting cost and the lowest cost was found to be associated with the rice specific combine harvester. Therefore, from the results of this study, the use of this combine harvester is recommended for rice harvesting in this region.

Abstract During the past two decades, the use of bioplastics as an alternative to regular plastics has received much attention in many different industries. The mechanical and degradable properties of bioplastic are important for their utilization. In this research cellulose of wheat straw and glycerol were mixed by different weight ratios and then reinforced by using date palm fibers. To prepare the bioplastic plates, the materials were poured in molds and pressed by means of a hydraulic press and simultaneously heating of the molds. The experiments were performed based on a 3×3 factorial design with three levels: 50%, 60% and 70% of wheat cellulose and three types of reinforcement methods, namely: no-reinforcement, network reinforcement and parallel string reinforcement. The effect of the two factors on tensile strength, tensile strain, bending strength, modulus of elasticity and modulus of bending were investigated. The results indicated that the two factors and their interactions had significant effects on the mentioned properties of bioplastics (at α=0.05 level) . The comparison of the means of the tests showed that the network reinforcement type with 50% cellulose had the highest tensile and bending strengths with 1992.02 and 28.71 MPa, respectively. The maximum modulus of elasticity and modulus bending were 40.4 and 2.3 MPa, respectively for parallel string arrangement and 70% of cellulose. The degradability tests of bioplastic using a fistulated sheep indicated that with increasing the percentage of cellulose, the degradability rate deceased. The maximum degradability rate, after 48 h holding in the sheep rumen, was 74% that belonged to bioplastics with 50% cellulose. The degradability data were well fitted to a mathematical model (R2=0.97).

Abstract In this research energy efficiency for dry wheat production in three levels including 0.1 up to2, 2.1 up to 5 and over 5.1 hectares for the farming year 2008-2009 in Silakhor plain located in Borujerd and Dorud divisions of Lorestan province was studied using data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. The results showed that the input energy for seed, fertilizer and pesticides had the highest levels of energy consumption and the share of that in each studied level were 63.63, 56 and 54.07 percent respectively. The results of data envelopment analysis showed that the average of energy efficiency levels were 82, 78 and 68 percent, respectively. First level, that consumes more input energy than other two studied levels, had highest energy efficiency, because in this level output yield were more than other levels. Technical efficiency of inefficiency units in CRS model in three levels is 79%, 77% and 66% respectively. This issue indicates that 21, 23 and 34 of total energy input could be saved with upgrade efficiency in these units. All wrong using and also all share of total saved energy in three levels related to grain, fertilizer and pesticides and then fuel consumption.