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ThesisItem Open Access Studies on parametric standardization of mechanical oil expression of Jatropha seeds(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2008-01) Yaduvanshi, Birjesh Kumar; Bhattacharya, T.K.In order to meet the growing requirements of energy, the government has envisaged a plan to supplement the petroleum fuels to a larger extent by biofuels which chiefly comprises biodiesel and bioethanol. The biodiesel programme emphasizes on production of biodiesel from non-edible oils derived from Jatropha (Jatropha Curcas L.), Karanja (Pongamia Pinnata), Mahua (Madhuca Inidica), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis), etc. Amongst these, jatropha has been identified as a major source for production of biodiesel and an ambitious programme has been launched to cultivate jatropha on wasteland available in India. An average production of 5 tonne per hectare can produce about 2 tonne of biodiesel. The seeds of jatropha contain 35 to 50 percent oil whereas its kernel contains 45 to 60 percent oil. There is no established process for oil expression from jatropha seed and mechanical oil expellers exclusively for jatropha seed are not available. The conventional mechanical oil expellers are generally used to extract oil from jatropha seed and oil recovery is very low. It is expected that expression of oil from jatropha seed is not only governed by physical properties of seed but factors like seed moisture content, hull content in seed–kernel hull mixture as well as configuration of wormset of an oil expeller may also have significant effect on oil expression. Studies were, therefore, conducted to standardize the mechanical oil expression parameters of jatropha seed using a 1 TPD, MERADO make, mechanical oil expeller. No expression of oil from whole jatropha seed was observed at seed moisture content of 7.3%. Therefore, different higher levels of seed moisture content were attained by cold and hot water sprinkling, hot water soaking and steaming treatments. The expression of oil using seed kernel alone resulted in formation of pastes inside the compression chamber, therefore, seed kernels were mixed with 10, 20, 30 and 40 percent hull. The expression of oil by changing wormset configurations were also studied. It was observed that average length, width and thickness of jatropha seed was 17.8 mm, 11.1 mm and 8.6 mm respectively. The mass of thousand seed was found to be 581.4 g with initial moisture content of 7.3%. The oil content of seed was 36.6% and that of kernel as 61.2%. The whole jatropha seed treatment using steam at 1050C for 15 min raising the moisture content of seed from 7.3% to 18.2% is recommended. The oil expression, efficiency of oil expression, specific power consumption and expeller throughput at above treatment were 26.8%, 73.3%, 0.136 kW/kg, 28.2 kg/h and Rs. 1.8 per kg respectively.ThesisItem Open Access Design, development and performance evaluation of deep soil volume Loosener-cum-Fertilizer applicator and its response on sugarcane ratoons(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2010-04) Manoj Kumar; Thakur, T.C.An equipment named as ‘Deep Soil Volume Loosener-cum-Fertilizer Applicator’ was designed and developed with three main units viz. deep soil volume loosening unit, fertilizer metering and placement unit, and clod crusher unit. Deep soil volume loosening unit consisted of specially designed V-shaped tines mounted on a rectangular frame and positioned exactly behind the tractor rear tyres. The V-shaped tines deform the soil and place it at almost same location without inversion, thereby maintain original level of the field. It operates upto a depth of 300 mm and places fertilizers along both sides of V-tines at 200±50 mm depth. The fertilizer metering and placement unit consisted of four inverted-T openers with attachment for fertilizer conveying and placement, two fertilizer boxes of 75 kg each with independent metering system and a ground drive wheel for power transmission along with its accessories. The fertilizer could be applied at the rates varying from 250 to 1000 kg/ha. The third unit consisted of two floating arms spiked roller clod crushing units positioned behind each V-shaped tine for soil pulverization and consolidation of tilled soil for moisture conservation. The performance of developed equipment was evaluated in the laboratory for uniformity of fertilizer distribution and in the field for the measurement of draft, fuel consumption, field capacity, final field surface configuration etc. The laboratory evaluation of developed equipment showed its suitability for field use with uniformity coefficient of 94-97%. On the basis of field evaluation of developed equipment, the draft, soil disturbance, specific draft, wheel slippage, fuel consumption, field capacity and field efficiency were observed as 10.96 kN, 0.183 m2, 59.83 kN/m2, 17.37%, 11.13 l/h, 0.234 ha/h and 78%, respectively when working at its full depth (deep soil loosening at 300 mm and fertilizer placement tines at 200 mm depth) for 2.5 km/h forward speed of operation. The developed equipment gave least disturbance of field level in comparison to subsoiler and disk plough indicating its suitability for soil cultivation in laser levelled fields. The sugarcane ratoon was selected as a test crop for evaluation of developed equipment. Three sets of experiments were carried out in three different experimental fields for observing the effect of developed equipment on ratoon crop. In the first experiment, the increase in yield of second ratoon crop was found to vary in the range of 16-25% with the use of developed equipment over that of zero-till drill (Control). In the second experiment, subsoiling+ harrow/rotavator+ furrow application of fertilizer (FAF) in sugarcane plant crop followed by off-barring and fertilizer application with ZT-drill increased yield by 17-19%, whereas, subsoiling/cross-subsoiling+ fertilizer application with Pant-ICAR subsoiler in sugarcane plant crop followed by off-barring and soil loosening upto 300 mm and fertilizer placement at 200 mm depth by developed equipment increased yield by 21-30% than that of MB plough×1+ harrow×4+ FAF in sugarcane plant followed by broadcasting of fertilizer + manual mixing with spade in ratoon (Control). The first two experiments were carried out in same soil type (silty clay loam), variety (Co Pant 90223) and row spacing (750 mm). In the third experiment which was carried out in a farmer’s field in clay loam soil with cane variety CoS 8436 planted at 900×300 mm paired rows, the increase in ratoon yield was 7.7% with ZT-drill (fertilizer application at 120 mm depth), 18.8% with developed equipment (soil loosening upto 300 mm and fertilizer application at 120 mm depth) and 30.7% with developed equipment (soil loosening upto 300 mm and fertilizer application at 200 mm depth) in comparison to broadcasting of fertilizer+ mixing with rigid tine cultivator in ratoon crop (Control). Presently, the developed equipment is being extensively used by the farmers of Tarai region for sugarcane ratoon management and it is being patented through NRDC, New Delhi.