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ThesisItem Embargo Groundwater quality assessment using integrated hydrogeochemical processes and multivariate analysis of Mansa and Barnala districts of Punjab(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Sidhu, Jashandeep Singh; Dhanwinder SinghA well-planned study was carried out to assess the spatial variation in the quality of groundwater for drinking as well as irrigation purposes along with the identification of hydrogeochemical processes prevalent in Barnala and Mansa districts of Punjab. A total number of 413 samples were collected using grid-based sampling (3×3 km2) from Barnala (167) and Mansa (246) districts of Punjab. The drinking water quality indicators that were above the acceptable limits for Barnala district were TDS, TH, Na+, K+, Mg2+, HCO3-, NO3-, SO42-, F-, B, As and Se. Barnala was the most affected block, while Sehna was the least affected block of Barnala district with respect to drinking water quality. However, all the drinking water indicators were above the acceptable limits in Mansa district except Zn, Fe, Cu, Ni and Cd. Bhikhi was the least affected with Budhlada and Jhunir being the worst affected blocks of Mansa district. Most of the groundwater of both the districts has high salinity with medium to low sodium hazard as per the USSL classification based on EC and SAR respectively. The combined classification based on EC and RSC described that maximum percentage of samples of Barnala (57.49%) and Mansa (51.63%) districts fall under marginal class for irrigation purpose. However, most of the samples occupy the categories of ‗permissible to doubtful‘ and ‗unsuitable‘ as per Wilcox diagram with C3-S1 (good) and C4-S4 (very bad quality) categories according to USSL diagram of Barnala and Mansa districts respectively. Cations and anions were in the order of Na+ > Mg2+ > Ca2+ > K+ and HCO3- > SO42- > Cl- > F- respectively in both the districts. Na-HCO3 and Na-Cl were the dominant groundwater types of Barnala and Mansa districts respectively based on the Piper diagrams. Silicate weathering, evaporation and direct ion exchange were the major hydrogeochemical processes occurring in the study area as per Gibbs and scatter diagrams. Based on water quality index (WQI), most of the groundwater of Barnala district is categorized as good (80.24%) while in case of Mansa, highest percentage of samples fall under unsuitable class (40.65%) with the largest contribution from Budhlada (51.2%) and Sardoolgarh (58.9%) blocks for drinking purpose. Heavy metal pollution index (HPI) indicated excellent water quality (HPI<25) with no heavy metal hazard in both the districts. Overall, the study revealed that groundwater of Barnala district is much better than that of Mansa district with respect to both drinking and irrigation purposes. Thus, it is recommended that the groundwater of Mansa district needs to be treated before its use.ThesisItem Open Access Mathematical modeling of osmo assisted freeze drying process for strawberries (Fragaria vesca)(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2021) Sidhu, Jashandeep Singh; Gupta, . S.K.The study entitled “Mathematical modeling of osmo assisted freeze drying process for strawberries (Fragaria vesca)” was undertaken to characterize the effect of process parameters; osmotic solution concentration (40-80 °Brix), solution to fruit ratio (4-8 STFR) and freeze drying temperature (-20 to -40°C) on drying kinetics and quality attributes. The treatments with -20°C freeze drying temperature required more time for drying as compared to -30 & -40°C (2to 4 hours) to reduce the moisture content from 87.2% wb to 4.2±0.1 % wb. The input parameters for osmo-freeze drying process for strawberry halves were optimized by „Multiple Response Optimization‟ technique with optimum operating conditions recorded as freeze drying time temperature: -40°C, osmotic solution concentration: 79.43° Brix and solution to fruit ratio (STFR): 6.61. Corresponding to these values, the value of responses was rehydration ratio: 7.150, shrinkage ratio: 0.627, colour change: 6.661, bulk density: 502.19 kg/m3, % vitamin-c retained: 71.846%, texture (hardness): 8.1871Kg-f, and overall acceptability: 83.431%. The best fit of experimental data for osmotic dehydration was observed in Penetration model followed by GEM model. The overall performance of the mathematical model developed in VISUAL BASIC-6.0 for prediction of freeze drying time for osmo-freeze drying was satisfactory (0.122-7.285 % error) and can be used for predicting the freeze drying time for osmo-freeze drying of strawberries. The osmo-freeze and freeze dried products packed in three types of packaging materials viz. high density polyethylene, laminate aluminium pouches & glass jars were kept under refrigerated and ambient storage conditions. Overall, it was concluded that osmo-freeze drying of strawberry halves at optimized conditions of 79.43°B osmotic solution, 6.61 solution to fruit ratio (STFR) and 40°C freeze drying temperature gave better quality product as compared to freeze drying and can be stored for 5 and 3 months in refrigerated and ambient conditions respectively.ThesisItem Restricted Optimization of greenhouse drying process for white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Sidhu, Jashandeep Singh; Amarjit SinghThe present study entitled “Studies on optimization of greenhouse drying process for white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporous)” was carried out in the Department of Processing and Food Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University. Mushrooms were pretreated with citric acid and samples without treatment were kept as control. The treated and untreated mushroom samples were dried in greenhouse and open sun during the month of October, 2015.On the basis of microclimate parameters, a mathematical thermal model “BITGREEN” for greenhouse was developed to optimize the drying conditions. The developed model was working satisfactorily to predict the microclimate inside the greenhouse. The drying parameters studied were moisture content, moisture ratio, drying rate, drying air temperatures, solar intensity and relative humidity. The quality parameters included rehydration ratio, shrinkage ratio, colour, texture (hardness), bulk density, protein content and overall acceptability. Moisture content of dehydrated mushrooms reduced from 88-90 (% wb) to 6.5 (% wb) for greenhouse drying (28-46°C) in 48 hours and 8.2 (% wb) for open sun drying (25-32°C) in 72 hours. The Lewis model showed best adequacy of fit for drying of mushrooms. The dried mushrooms were packed in two packaging materials viz. LDPE and PP and stored under refrigerated and ambient conditions for three months. The quality attributes of stored product like colour, texture, rehydration ratio, shrinkage ratio, water gain and overall acceptability were evaluated at 15 days interval. The greenhouse dried mushrooms packed in polypropylene (PP) and stored under refrigerated conditions were found to be highly acceptable upto 75 days of storage. Benefit-Cost ratio of 1.36:1 for subsidized greenhouse revealed that it is profitable to dry mushrooms in greenhouse.
