نشریه مهندسی بیوسیستم ایران
سال پنجاهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1398)

In this study, a new design of a narrow blade tillage with lateral tilt angle 10 degrees was used to study the possibility of removing its wing and compare it with the control blade. Three blades (blade with lateral tilt angles of 10 degrees, blade tilt angle of 10 degrees equipped with wing and blade control), plow depth in three levels, 20,15 and 25 cm and two levels of forward speeds 3 and 6 km/hr were the experimental factors. Measured characteristics were draft force, specific draft, soil surface disturbance and fuel consumption. The results showed that the draft force of the blade equipped with angle, with wing and without wing was significantly increased compared to the control blade. Soil surface disturbance in the blade with lateral tilt angle 10 degrees with and without wing decreased compared to the control blade. The effect of the blade type on specific draft was significant. Specific draft in the blade 10 degrees with wing and in depth of 25 cm and the control blade in depth of 15 cm had the highest and lowest value respectively. The effect of the blade type, plow depth and forward speed and also the interaction of these three factors on fuel consumption in probability level %1 were significant. There was no significantly different between amount of fuel consumption in the control blade and the blade equipped with lateral tilt angle. Based on the results of regression analysis, optimum depth and forward speed for narrow blade equipped with lateral tilt angle 10 degrees were proposed 17/02 cm and 3/6km / h, respectively.

This research was conducted to modeling of energy consumption trend and economic- environmental indexes assessment of broiler production in Khorramabad County. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires for a growing period of 2015. According to results, the total average of input and output energies were obtained 163699.27, 26730.64 MJ/1000Birds, respectively The Cobb-Douglas function results showed that the effects all inputs were positive on the yield. The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that an increase of 1 MJ in energy inputs of human labor, equipment, fossil fuel, feed and electricity will lead to an additional increase in yield by 0.388, 0.055, 0.009, 0.016 and 0.006 kg, respectively. The benefit to cost ratio 1.21 was determined. The indexes of global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication for production of 1 ton live weight were estimated to be 5272.7 kg CO2-eq, 62.56 kg SO2-eq and 22.56 kg PO4-eq respectively.

In this study, the supply chain performance of rice farm machinery at retail level in Guilan and Mazandaran provinces was evaluated using SCOR model. Rice machine dealers were evaluated  in five sections using 93 items. Based on the results of single sample T-test, the variables of efficiency, coordination and integration were significantly higher than the mean value. The clustering process of sales agents was based on the average items. Clustering results showed that the performance of sales representatives two main levels: desirable and undesirable. In order to improve the supply chain management situation, the performance of nearly half of the stores should be corrected. In this study DEA was proposed as a method for evaluating the efficiency of the SCOR model, which is one of the innovations of this research. The results of the DEA confirmed the cluster analysis results and the efficiency of about half of the units was calculated equal to one. Based on the results of the study, in order to improve the performance of rice agricultural machinery stores, it’s better to focus on measures that improve quality of service delivery and increase customer reliability.

The hypothesis of the sufficiency of plant water content in extraction process was studied in theory. Essential oil extraction device was manufactured using a non-distillable gas instead of water vapor and evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of experiments on the manufactured device resulted in the optimum extraction mode using the air cycle and showed that the highest efficiency was obtained at lower speeds and higher air temperatures. Also the results showed that the extracted essential oil by new method in all states is less than the essential oil obtained with steam distillation. The results of analysis of samples using GC/MS showed that the percentages of the compounds in the samples obtained from the gas cycle and water distillation methods were different. For example, the percentage of limonene in the essential oil of Clevenger was 12.24 and in the gas cycle method was 0.22.

In this study, the effect of using heat exchanger on increasing the performance of the collector and solar dryer was investigated. Moreover, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to simulate the heat transfer and distribution of thermal counters in the cabinet solar dryer equipped with heat exchanger with two outlets and porous plate. The results showed that using heat exchanger with half air mass flow rate for the first and second outlets (0.009 kg/s) increases the efficiency of the dryer up to 10.2% related to the dryer without heat exchanger. Excessive air flow rate inside the heat exchanger decreases the performance of the solar cabinet dryer. The results of the comparison between the CFD and experimental data shows that CFD method with 6.9% of relative error has a good correlation with the experimental data. Using heat exchanger has no adverse effect on the color quality of dried tomato samples.

Among all kinds of renewable energies, the solar energy has the greatest application compared to the other types. However, the biggest shortage of solar collectors is their low effectiveness at night or in the cloudy weather. The latent heat storage of phase change materials (PCMs) can be utilized as a solution for the above-mentioned problem. However most PCMs have low thermal conductivities. In this research aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and copper (Cu) nanoparticles were used to enhance the thermal properties of Paraffin wax as a PCM. The morphology of the nanocomposites was studied by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. The experiments were performed in a factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design with three main factors including weight percentage (three levels), type (two levels), and size of the nanoparticles (three levels) and pure Paraffin wax used as a control sample. Thermal conductivity of nanocomposites was measured at a temperature range for each sample and in the solid phase. The highest and lowest values of thermal conductivity coefficients compared to control sample have increased 442% and 122%, respectively. Analysis of variance results showed that the size, type and concentration of nanoparticles affected thermal conductivity of nanocomposites significantly (p<0.01). In different size of nanoparticles, thermal conductivity coefficient of nanocomposites has increased with increasing of the nanoparticle concentration. Also, the highest thermal conductivity coefficient of nanocomposites was obtained at the smallest size of the nanoparticles. The highest thermal conductivity coefficients of nanocomposites were achieved by addition of Cu nanoparticles at the weight percentage of 6% and sizes of 30 and 70 nm to Paraffin wax.

Drying reduces microbial activity, increases storage time, and facilitates packaging, transportation and storage of crops by reducing weight and volume of materials. Quality indices and thermodynamic parameters are as important cases in drying food and agricultural crops. The aim of this research is investigating the effects of air recycling and heat pump on quality indices (color changes, water rehydration and pH) and thermodynamic parameters (thermal efficiency, temperature, specific power consumption, drying coefficient and convection efficiency) of kiwifruit drying. In this research, three levels of recycling (0, 50% and 100%), three drying temperatures (45, 55 and 65ºC) and two levels with and without using a heat pump were used. Results showed that by increasing recycling from 0 to 50% color changes and pH increased and from 50% to 100% both them reduced. The maximum rehydration was related to 100% recycling with heat pump. The highest temperature and specific power consumption were 73.37 and 83.57 Mj.kg-1, respectively at 45 ºC, 0% recycling and heat pump off. The lowest rate of these two parameters were 14.15 and 27.01 Mj.kg-1at 65 ºC, recycling 100% and heat pump on. Also, results showed that drying coefficient, heat efficiency and convective had an increasing trend by using heat pump and increasing air temperature and recycling.

The possibility of replacing sugar with grape and black mulberry syrups in the production of Kombucha and its effect on pH, acidity, polyphenols, flavonoids, antioxidant activity, glucose and organoleptic properties was investigated during 15 days fermentation. The results showed that the pH of all samples decreased significantly during fermentation. The amounts of the acidity, antioxidant activity, total phenolic and flavonoid compounds of all samples increased during fermentation period, and the highest levels of them were observed in Kombucha samples containing mulberry syrup, mixed syrup, grape syrup and control, respectively. The glucose content decreased during the fermentation process and the highest reduction of glucose was observed in samples including natural syrups. Sensory analysis revealed that although Kombucha beverages made from syrups were slightly darker with sour taste than bright control sample, but based on panelists, Kombucha containing mulberry syrup was competitive with the control sample.  The findings of this study indicate the potential of replacing 50% sugar with mulberry syrup to improve the functional Kombucha with less glucose and more amounts of antioxidants and organic acids.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of Ziziphora L. clinopodiodes essential oil (ZEO) using whey protein isolate (WPI) and pectin microencapsulated on the physicochemical properties of Doogh. At the first step, the microcapsule concentration effect (0-0.03%) and storage time (1-21 days) on the properties of Doogh was evaluated, using the response surface methodology. pH increased and acidity decreased by increasing storage time but the effect of microcapsule concentration was not significant. The rate of serum phase separation in samples fortified with pectin microcapsules was lower than WPI. Antioxidant activity of Doogh samples containing pectin microcapsules was lower than WPI. At the second step, the optimized concentration of microcapsules (0.004 and 0.007% for WPI and pectin microcapsules, respectively) were added to Doogh samples and their sensorial and physical characteristics were compared. Sensorial scores of control sample were higher than WPI-ZEO and pectin-ZEO added sample. Particle size distribution and mean diameter of Doogh particles increased after addition of microcapsules but they had no significant effect on Zeta potential values.

Engineering properties of soils besides the chemical and biological properties can be a tool for justifying the behavior of soil. In this study bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, soil penetration resistance and Shear strength were measured. Different levels of depth and puddling intensity and their interactions on the properties in randomized complete design with three replications in a factorial experiment was investigated. Results indicated puddling intensity decreased the soil hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, penetration resistance, shear strength and with increasing depth, bulk density, penetration resistance and shear strength increased. The changes in bulk density were 0.68-1.32. The highest and lowest hydraulic conductivity were reported 0.3 and 8.5 in treatment P0 depth 10 cm and treatment P2 depth 30 cm respectively. It can be said that puddling treatment P1 is more suitable than treatment P2 to keep moisture, reduce physical and mechanical damage, energy required to prepare the paddy fields.

The aim of this study was to investigate chemical and microbial properties of probiotic Quark cheese containing L.acidophilus (LA) and L.casei (LC) during 21 days of storage. Results showed that LC sample had significantly lower pH than that of both LA and control. pH values of all samples decreased significantly upon storage time. Treatable acidity changes in cheese sample was similar to pH change, although acidity differences between samples was more enhanced than pH variation. There was a significant increase in soluble nitrogen of LC sample compared to that of LA and control in Day 21. Increasing storage time from 7 to 21 days, significantly increased the soluble nitrogen content of all cheese samples. Increasing storage time significantly increased lipolysis index of control compared to probiotic chees samples. Coliform counts was negligible in all samples and was below 10 log CFU/g in probiotic cheese samples. Yeast and mold counts of control was significantly higher than that of probiotic samples. Lactobacilli count results indicated that the number of viable bacteria in both probiotic cheese samples was 8.5-8.6 log CFU/g in day 1. Increasing storage time up to 21 days did not significantly (p<0.05) decrease the number of lactobacilli and in both probiotic samples it remained above 8 log CFU/g. Quark cheese provided a good substance for the incorporation of probiotic strains. Storage of quark cheese until 21 days preserved probiotic bacteria and resulted in the desired chemical properties.

In the present study, two methods were used to extract oil from seeds of Sardasht black grape with normal-hexane as solvent (with and without the use of ultrasonic waves). The results indicated that the optimum conditions to extract the oil when applying hexane as solvent without ultrasound were 30 °C, 60 min extraction time, 15:1 (ml/g) solvent to sample ratio, and mesh of 40 for sample size and 45 °C, 20 min extraction time, 10:1 (ml/g) solvent to sample ratio and sample size at mesh 40 when sonication is applied. The productivity rate in this method (solvent without ultrasound) was 17%. Similarly, the optimum state of extract oil by applying hexane solvent with ultrasonic included (temperature 30 °C, extraction time of 15 minutes, the ratio of solvent to the sample 15/1 (ml/g), the seeds sifted with mesh 40). The productivity rate in this method (solvent with ultrasound) was 25%.

Prediction of sugarcane yield is very important for a wide range of applications like, sugarcane production management, preparation of sugarcane refineries and pre-sales and warehouse industrial products. In this study, a model based on time-series processing of vegetation indices, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Green Normalized Differnce Vegetation Index (GNDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) extracted from satellite images, were used to estimate sugarcane yield. Overall 474 Landsat 7 satellite images from January 2001 to December 2017 obtained from USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) were processed. At first the DN (Digital Number) of pixels were converted to TOA (Top of Atmosphere) reflectance and then the distorted pixels due to not clear sky such as cloud, shadow, snow and ice were eliminated. Consequently, the average of the vegetation indices values of study region for every images were computed. Then the weekly time-series of vegetation indices were calculated via interpolation. The accumulated vegetation indices values from 15th to 44 th week of year and average observed yields efficiency were evaluated by regression model. The result showed the NDVI and GNDVI vegetation indices with R2=0.63, RMSE=4.71 ton/ha and R2=0.60, RMSE 4.93 ton/ha, respectively, have good relations with sugarcane stem yield efficiency. The 2017 sugarcane yield of MianAB Sugarcane Agro-Industry Company efficiency was predicted as 86.35 ton/ha using the NDVI model which was 4.16 ton/ha less than observed value.

Identifying and sorting healthy agricultural products from damaged products reduces casualties and losses caused by the spread of disease to unhealthy samples. Due to Iran's insignificant contribution to agricultural exports, the use of non-destructive methods, such as thermography in the sorting and grading of the fruit, is necessary. In this research, active thermography method was used to identify the Red delicious cultivars of apple. In order to study the temperature variations of apples, used a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete design with three independent variables including bruises, heating temperature and cooling time. The results of variance analysis of surface temperature of healthy and bruise apples showed that the levels of bruises, heating temperature and cooling time on the surface temperature of bruises apples had a significant effect at 1% probability. Statistical and texture features were extracted from thermal images and the artificial neural network method was used to classify two healthy classes and bruised. Neural network accuracy with a hidden layer and 15 neurons was obtained 100%. The results indicate that the difference in temperature of the bruised and sound tissue can be considered as a criterion for the classification of apples. Also, Active thermography is an efficient and high-tech method for detecting apple bruises.

ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) are effective adsorbents in removal of various organic and inorganic contaminants. In this study, ZnO NPs were synthesized using curcumin at 160 ° C and pH = 10 and used to degradation methylene blue at different initial concentrations and at different temperatures and pHs. Physical and morphological properties of the synthesized NPs were analyzed using XRD, DLS, SEM, FTIR and BET. Obtained results indicated that by increasing the temperature up to 40 °C, adsorption was initially increased to maximum amount of 320 mg/g and then decreased. Furthermore, maximum amount of adsorption was obtained by increasing in the pH (235 mg/g at pH=10). Results revealed that adsorption kinetics in order to dye remove was well fitted using a pseudo second-order kinetic model. The obtained results were also indicated that the Langmuir equation could be predicted the dye adsorption, better than the Freundlich equation, due to its higher R2 (0.99) and RL (0.564). According to the Langmuir equation, maximum adsorption capacity was 324 mg/g. The obtained values for the thermodynamic parameters were also indicated that the dye adsorption was an endothermic and spontaneous process.

The improving of black tea quality has always been in the goals of the tea industry in Iran. In this study, two tea processing techniques (Orthodox and CTC) were used to make black tea with passing Orthodox tea through CTC roller. The treatments consisted of the Orthodox rolling time (one and two times) and the time of passes CTC (two and four times). The first and second on sieve tea were used as the first and second controls after drying. Chemical quality of made tea from combining methods consisted of theaflavin, thearubigin, theaflavin to thearubigin ratio and aqueous extract were improved (p<0.05). It was no significant in time of passes through CTC. The sensory evaluation indicated the use of combination method improved sensory characteristics in made tea, including appearance, color, taste, aroma and total score, while tea appearance was undesirable (p<0.05). Made tea from first on sieve tea passed CTC has significantly better than other treatments in sensory quality. The value of made tea from combining methods were higher than two controls.

In this research via CT scan, the relationship between physical properties of pears and storage times with bruise due to loading force was investigated. Before dynamic loading force and storing, 45 pears were examined using Scan CT and 27 pears with zero bruise percentage were selected  and dimensions of pears (length, width, thickness) were measured, then properties such as the equivalent diameter, geometric mean diameter, spherical coefficient, surface area and aspect ratio of calculus were calculated, next selected pears were subjected to dynamic loading with three  mass of weights 300, 350 and 400 g and  5, 10 and 15 days storage was used to investigate the effect of impact on pears. Then, after dynamic loading and storing, using the CT scan in each period of storage, the rate of pear bruise was calculated. The results of the experiments showed that there is an inverse relation between geometric diameter, arithmetic diameter, equivalent diameter and surface area with the bruise percentage. Also a direct and unreasonable relationship between the spherical coefficient and aspect ratio and the percentage of bruising was absorbed. Also, according to the results obtained for mass weighing 300 g or less in 5-day storage period, the amount of geometric diameter, arithmetic and equivalent diameter, spherical and aspect ratio on percentage of bruising were not significantly affected and percentage of bruising can be almost zero and with increasing amount mass weighing and storage, the above parameter's will affect the percentage of bruising.

The effect of using microwaves instead of steaming in parboiling step on mechnial properties of two paddy variety such as breakage strength and healthy rice yield were studied. Paddy samples were soaked in hot water at 50, 60 and 70°C for two hours and then exposed to microwave radiation for 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 seconds at the output power of 800 Watts. Sample were divided into two categories, one steamed at atmospheric pressure for 15 minutes and another was not. Finally, all the samples were dried at 35 °C. An increasing trend for breakage strength and healthy rice yield (for both paddy varieties) was observed when microwave exposure duration was increased. This increase was significantly different in treatments with microwave duration greater than 30 s as compared to control. The highest kernel bending strength and healthy rice yield in 90 s microwave treatment and soaking temperature of 70 ° C for Fajr and Lanjan varieties  were 24.7 MPa and 70.7%, and 20.8 MPa and 75.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference between breakage strength and healthy rice yield of steamed samples for 15 minutes and non-steamed microwave treatment for both varieties. According to these results, the impact of microwave on parboiling process was acceptable and can be replaced by steaming.

By increasing population and consequently increasing demand and improving the standard of living, energy use in the poultry industry has risen. The objective of this study was the application of non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze the efficiency of broiler producers, discriminate efficient producers from inefficient ones and to identify wasteful uses of energy in order to optimize the energy inputs for broiler production in Alborz province, Iran. Data were collected from 36 broiler producers by using questionnaire and face-to-face interview method. Technical Efficiency, Net Technical Efficiency, Scale Efficiency, and Target Energy Saving Index using Constant Return to Scale (CRS) and Variable Return to Scale (VRS) model based on six energy inputs including chicken, feed, fuel , electricity, machinery, human labor and 2 energy output included broiler and manure. Based on the CRS model, 8 poultry farms (22.22%) and 28 poultry farms (77.78%) of total 36 broiler producers were efficient and inefficient respectively. Also in the VRS model, 20 units (55.56%) were efficient and 16 units (44.44%) were inefficient. The average of TE, NTE and SE were 0.952, 0.987, and 0.964, respectively. The highest share of energy efficiency improvement of total energy saving was related to diesel fuel with 70.06% and then chicken feed and electricity with 23.50% and 6.64% respectively. Broiler producers had the most inefficiency in fuel consumption and had the least inefficiency in chicken use. The inadequacy of diesel consumption due to the coincidence of the incubation period with the cold period, the lack of proper management of consumption, especially in the heating system of salons and the use of diesel as heating fuel for worker houses. The results of this study indicate that there is good potential for increasing energy efficiency of broiler production in Alborz province by following the recommendations for efficient energy use.

In the present study, the potential of natural ingredients such as extract of pug, carrot pulp, permeate and fish waste were investigated to produce blastospores of two fungi Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae. SDB and PDB culture media were considered as control. In the case of absence of the initial pH for culture media, the highest production of blastospores was recorded in SDB medium and permeate extract for B. bassiana and M. anisopliae respectively, in three days. In the second case, with the same initial pH (5.6) for culture media, the maximum production of blastospores was observed in the extract of fish waste (3 × 107 blastospore /ml medium) and in the carrot pulp extract (6 × 106 blastospore /ml medium) for B. bassiana and M. anisopliae respectively. In the next step, wheat bran and permeate (4% and 8%) extracts were added to selected medium fish waste and carrot pulp. Addition of extract of permeate (8%) had the greatest effect on increasing blastospor production. In the last step, mixed different salts were added and reduced blastospore production in fungus B. bassiana while increased in M. anisopliae compared to the control medium. Finally, two optimum media were introduced for the production of two entomopathogenic fungi.