Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ghasem Abedi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biosystem Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran Author-Name: Shamsollah Abdollahpour Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biosystem Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran Author-Name: Mohammad Reza Bakhtiari Author-Workplace-Name: Agricultural Engineering Research Department, Hamedan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Hamedan, Iran Title: The physical and mechanical properties of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers as related to the automatic separation from clods and stones Abstract: In the current research, some of the mechanical and physical properties of two industrial varieties of potato tubers that have a prominent role in the mechanised separation process from clods and stones were investigated. These properties include the physical dimension, mass, volume, sphericity, surface area, density, projected areas and Young's modulus. In addition, the static coefficient of friction and rolling resistance for tubers on five surface materials were determined. The tuber's size positively affected the physical and mechanical properties of the tubers. The frictional properties of the tubers were affected by the tuber size, the surface type, and the interaction between them. The results showed that most of the apparent properties for the Sante variety were greater than those of the Marfona variety. The static coefficient of friction for the tubers on a wood surface was the maximum and was the minimum value on a galvanized sheet, but for the tuber's rolling resistance, the results were inversed. The results proposed that the automatic separation of the potato tubers from the impurities using the properties of the crop is possible. Keywords: mechanical damage, separation process, postharvest, frictional properties Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 77-84 Volume: 65 Issue: 3 Year: 2019 DOI: 10.17221/24/2018-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/24/2018-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201903-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:65:y:2019:i:3:id:24-2018-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alexei Siberev Author-Name: Alexandr Aksenov Author-Workplace-Name: Federal Scientific Agronomic and Engineering Center VIM, Moscow, Russia Author-Name: Alexei Dorokhov Author-Workplace-Name: Federal Scientific Agronomic and Engineering Center VIM, Moscow, Russia Author-Name: Andrei Ponomarev Author-Workplace-Name: Federal Scientific Agronomic and Engineering Center VIM, Moscow, Russia Title: Comparative study of the force action of harvester work tools on potato tubers Abstract: The quality of the separation of root crops, onions and potatoes is known to primarily depend on the cultivation conditions. As a rule, these cultures are cultivated in mechanically light soils in order to improve the quality of separation, as well as to reduce the traction resistance of the harvester when extracting the root crops from the soil. When harvesting the root crops, it is very important to maintain the soil in a loose (light) state to improve the quality of the separation. Due to the fact that in digging up the root crops, there is a joint flow of strong soil lumps to the separating working bodies, which are difficult to separate on the slit working bodies of the harvester, which increases damage to the root crops when interacting with the soil lumps, the commercial quality of the products is subsequently deteriorated. The existing potato harvesters damage the commercial products as a result of the interaction of the potato tubers with each other, with the working bodies and with the soil lumps. However, the greatest percentage of damage to potato tubers occurs as a result of their interaction with the working bodies of the harvester. Field studies were conducted to determine the places of the greatest impact of the individual working bodies of the potato harvesters and to carry out subsequent actions for the elimination of these negative impacts in the design of the harvesters. This article presents a methodology for conducting field studies on the assessment of the impact of the working bodies on the scale of damage to potato tubers when harvesting. The results of the comparative studies of the impact of the working bodies of modern potato harvesters, which damage the potato tubers as a result of the interaction with them are presented. We have determined that the greatest scale of impact on the potato tubers during the mechanised harvesting is observed as the transition from the main elevator to the secondary separation devices takes place, irrespective of the design and technological scheme of the harvester, and reaches its minimum value from 6.5 N for the Bolko harvester to 21 N for the AVR-Spirit-6200 harvester. Keywords: harvesting, force action, potato, work tools, harvester Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 85-90 Volume: 65 Issue: 3 Year: 2019 DOI: 10.17221/96/2018-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/96/2018-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201903-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:65:y:2019:i:3:id:96-2018-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Yuli Setyo Indartono Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia Author-Workplace-Name: Research Center on New and Renewable Energy, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia Author-Name: Heriawan Heriawan Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia Author-Name: Ika Amalia Kartika Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agroindustrial Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Institut Pertanian Bogor University, Bogor, Indonesia Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Bioenergy and Chemurgy Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia Title: Innovative and flexible single screw press for the oil extraction of Calophyllum seeds Abstract: The oil extraction of Calophyllum seeds using a conventional single screw press leads to an inferior yield and is perceived to be less efficient as well as difficult to operate. An innovative and flexible single screw press was, therefore, designed and investigated in this study to solve these problems. Moreover, the effects of the seeds' moisture content, pressing temperature and seeds' feed rate on the oil yield and quality were identified to determine the optimal oil extraction performance from the Calophyllum seeds. The study found that the seeds' moisture content, pressing temperature and seeds' feed rate generally affected the oil yield. The yield indeed improved as the pressing temperature and the seeds' feed rate increased respectively from 45 to 75°C and 1.5 to 5 kg.h-1. The oil yield also ameliorated as the seeds' moisture content rose from 1.7 to 12.8%, but it was optimal when the seeds' moisture content was 5.5%. The best oil yield of 80.6% was, thus, obtained with the seeds' moisture content of 5.5%, a pressing temperature of 75°C and the seeds' feed rate of 5 kg per h. Although the quality of the crude oil was poor with a high viscosity (3 94 mm2.s-1) and high acid value (3 48 mg KOH/g), its density, saponification and iodine values were acceptable. After the oil refining process by degumming and neutralisation, its quality improved and met the Indonesian Biofuel Standards, except for its viscosity. Keywords: Biofuel, Calophyllum, mechanical extraction, degumming, neutralisation Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 91-97 Volume: 65 Issue: 3 Year: 2019 DOI: 10.17221/85/2018-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/85/2018-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201903-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:65:y:2019:i:3:id:85-2018-RAE Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Petr Trávníček Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Luboš Kotek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Production Systems and Virtual Reality, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Vlastimil Nejtek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Tomáš Koutný Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Petr Junga Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Tomáš Vítěz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Title: Flare stacks on agricultural biogas plants - safety and operational requirements Abstract: The flare stack is a piece of equipment, which is used as a safety element at a biogas plant. In the case of a cogeneration unit or gas boiler failure, the biogas is redirected to the flare stack where it is burned. When the flare stack fails, the biogas releases to the atmosphere and an explosive mixture can form. The paper is focused on the description of the causes, which can cause the failure of the equipment. For this purpose, the individual components are described and, subsequently, the possibilities of their failure are discussed. In the next part of the work, the following scenario is considered: failure of the cogeneration unit and flare stack, the subsequent leakage of the biogas to the atmosphere. The calculation for determining the consequences of the biogas leakage is carried out. The size of the gaseous cloud and the explosion pressure in the case of a vapour cloud explosion are determined. The calculations were carried out by the software ALOHA (version 5.4.7). Keywords: gas cloud, accidents, modelling software, agriculture Journal: Research in Agricultural Engineering Pages: 98-104 Volume: 65 Issue: 3 Year: 2019 DOI: 10.17221/1/2019-RAE File-URL: http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/1/2019-RAE.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/rae-201903-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:65:y:2019:i:3:id:1-2019-RAE