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Open Access
Assessment and optimization of energy requirement in major crops of Uttarakhand
(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 2022-12) Akanksha; Singh, T. P.
The energy use pattern for wheat, sugarcane and major crop cultivation in Tarai region and maize cultivation in hilly region of Uttarakhand have been studied.Survey was carried under AICRP on EAAI utilising the performa designed for the purpose and data were acquired from specific farmers. The selected farmers were divided into different category according to their land holding. All categories of farmer use different energy sources in different unit operations according to their farm power availability. The calculation of used energy in performing all unit operations were done for different categories farmers. A total of 23933.47 MJ/ha of energy was found to be used in the cultivation of wheat crops by all categories of farmers. Fertilizer application accounted for the largest portion of the total input energy used 12149.32 MJ/ha (50.76%). The second highest overall energy contributor was irrigation, which is 4029.77 MJ/ha (16.84%), sowing operation involves 2916.54 MJ/ha (12.19%) of the total input energy used followed by 2100.01 MJ/ha (08.77%) of tillage. Harvesting and threshing operation involves 1847.77 MJ/ha (07.72%) and plant protection share 890.07 MJ/ha (03.72%) in total input energy.Average crop yield obtained by large, medium, semi-medium, small and marginal category farmer was 5494.86, 5350.88, 5126.81, 5126.40 and 4800.69 kg/ha respectively using the input energy of 25248.00, 24600.86, 23858.33, 23832.27 and 23504.98 MJ/ha respectively.The energy ratio for large, medium, semi-medium, small and marginal category was found as 6.68, 6.67, 6.42, 6.48 and 6.64 respectively. In Tarai region of Uttarakhand, for all categories of farmer growing wheat cropthe energy ratio was obtained as 6.55 with energy productivity of 0.21 kg/MJ. The average farm power availability was found 2.68 kW/ha.The total energy used in the production of sugarcane crop including all unit processes was determined to be 169.644 GJ/ha. The sowing operation accounted for the largest portion of the total energy use 142.041 GJ/ha (83.73%) to cultivate sugarcane crop. It was observed that the sugarcane cultivation required highest seed energy because of high seed rate used by farmers in the region. Total input energy for sugarcane accounts fertilizer energy 21721.94 MJ/ha (12.80%), tillage energy 2872.19 MJ/ha (1.69%) followed by irrigation energy 1002.15 MJ/ha (0.59%).Medium category farmer used input energy of 173.683 GJ/ha and obtained output energy of 1127.913 GJ/ha. Similarly, total input energy used by semi-medium, small and marginal category farmers was 171.234, 166.356, 162.407 GJ/ha respectively. The output energy obtained by semi-medium, small and marginal category farmers against the used input energy was 1029.819, 916.994 and 821.913 GJ/ha respectively. The overall energy ratio, of all categories of farmers in Tarai region of Uttarakhand,wasfound as 5.74 with energy productivity was 0.36 kg/MJ.According to the study the average farm power availability for sugarcane crop cultivation in Uttarakhand's Tarai region is 2.48 kW/ha. Total of 2903.97 MJ/ha of input energy was used by the marginal farmers to cultivate maize crops in hilly region of Uttarakhand. Fertiliser contributed the most at 1346.55 MJ/ha (46.37%) and machinery contributed the least 22.26 MJ/ha (0.77%). The second largest energy input contributor for the cultivation of maize was seed, which contributed 844.25 MJ/ha (29.07%) of energy. The output of maize is influenced by animal energy to the tune of 452.68 MJ/ha (15.59%). The amount of energy needed to cultivate maize is 238.23 MJ/ha (8.23%) which comes from human as source of energy.Average maize crop yield obtained by marginal category farmer was 1174.39 kg/ha using input energy of 2903.37 MJ/ha. Output energy obtained by marginal category farmers is 38179.36 MJ/ha against the used input energy in maize crop cultivation. Energy ratio obtained was 13.14 which indicated that with the consumption of lower amount of energy the yield and output energy obtained was high. Farm poweravailability in hilly area was observed as 0.42 kW/ha which is quite low mainly due to use of animal power as source and also due to least or no intervention of improved implement/machinery for performing unit operations.
Open Access
Development of a silpaulin material tubular biogas plant and studies on defoaming characteristics of different defoamers for mitigation of foaming
(G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, 2022-10) Arya, Deepika; Arun Kumar
Biogas technology can sufficiently meet the energy needs of rural communities and also help to mitigate the negative impacts of careless biomass resource burning.Currently, the total biogas production in India is 2.07 billion m3/year. This is quite low as compared to its potential, which is estimated to be around 29–48 billion m3/year.There are several biogas plant designs that can produce both biogas along with fertilizer as a byproduct. Biogas production in mountainous areas is insufficient and it is expensive to build and install biogas plants.For the best performance of a biogas plant, its design, operation efficiency, and economic viability are crucial variables that can be altered to enhance small-scale residential biogas plant adaption in rural regions. Therefore, a small Tubular type biogas plant (0.5m3) was designed and installed to check the operation efficiency and economic feasibility and compared with the Prefabricated balloon type and the Pant RCC biogas plant. Different parameters affecting the biogas production such as Total Solids, Volatile Solids, pH and Total alkalinity were measured on the weekly basis and biogas produced and its pressure were measured daily. The study shows that the daily biogas production per cubic meter for Tubular type was equivalent to balloon type biogas plant during psychrophilic temperature conditions. However, the highest biogas production was recorded in the Pant RCC biogas plant during psychrophilic and mesophilic temperature conditions with maximum pressure throughout the year. The cost of installation of Tubular type biogas plant lowest as compared with Pant RCC and Balloon type biogas plant. The highest methane content was 61.21% for Pant RCC followed by 53.6 % for Tubular type, 51.78% for Balloon type and biogas plant. Thus,Tubular type flexible designs can be suggested for rural hilly areas. Foaming is one of the major problems that occasionally occur in biogas plants, affecting negatively the overall digestion process and resulting in adverse operational, economic and environmental impacts.The foam can be categorized as stable and unstable, of which stable foam defines the foaming potential. The foaming potential of Tubular type, Balloon type and Pant RCC was determined and found for both psychrophilic and mesophilic temperature conditions as the temperature is one of the factors causing foam. The highest stable and unstable foam ratio was found to be 0.14 and 0.28 for the Tubular type,0.18 and 0.25 for balloon type, and 0.26 and 0.28 for Pant RCC biogas plantduring psychrophilic temperature range. The highest stable and unstable foam ratio was found to be 0.19 and 0.51 for Tubular type, 0.26 and 0.59 for balloon type, and 0.39 and 1.20 for Pant RCC biogas plant during mesophilic temperature range. The maximum stable foam ratio was found in Pant RCC biogas plant which implied that Pant RCC biogas plant has a problematic foaming situation. After foaming problem was identified, a batch experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the foam-reduction efficiency and to investigate the influence on process performance of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate and urea in batch reactors. The four defoamers was tested for three different concentrations with three replications and were 0.1%v/v, 0.2%v/v and 0.5%v/v.The foam reduction of 20% was achieved with 0.1%v/v sodium bicarbonate, 40% with 0.1%v/v for sodium carbonate, 16% with 0.5%v/v calcium bicarbonate and 44% with 0.5%v/v urea with a maximum biogas production of 23 liters.Thus, urea was found to have best potential to be used as a defoamer which does not affect the biomethanation process negatively.
Open Access
Development of a machine for residue management of combine harvested paddy field
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2020-02) Ramulu, Chelpuri; Pateriya, R.N.
Burning of paddy residue is a critical issue that leads to inimical affect on environment. Management of crop residues in conservation agriculture is an essential for long-term sustainability of Agriculture. The paddy residue management includes straw cutting, chopping and their incorporation with soil. Residue incorporation was the most effective practice for enhance both agricultural productivity and sustainability by improving the soil health and fertility. As per the available literature that there is no such appropriate machine which can cut, chop and incorporate of paddy residue in a single pass. The present developed residue management machine can perform chopping of paddy residues and mix with the soil of combine harvested paddy field. This developed machine consists of chopping unit, incorporation unit, adjustable frame, pulleys and belts. The power is transmitted to the chopping unit and incorporation unit by tractor (55.95kW) PTO with the help of gear box, belt, pulley and gear arrangement. The fuel consumption, field capacity and field efficiency of residue management machine were observed 12.5-14.0 l/h, 0.43-0.64 ha/h and 60.46 % respectively. The four independent parameters selected for study were rotary speed (R1 =900 & R2 = 1100 rpm), forward speed (F1 = 2.1 & F2= 3.0 kmph), horizontal adjustment (H1 = 550 & H2= 650 mm) and vertical adjustment (V1 = 100 &V2= 200 mm) between straw chopper shaft and rotavator shaft and its effect was found on incorporation efficiency, shredding efficiency and trash size reduction of chopped paddy residues. The incorporation of residue and shredding efficiency were found highest at V1H2F1R2 (95.31%) and V1H2F1R2 (61.92 %) arrangements respectively. The trash reduction of chopped paddy residue was recorded maximum at V1H2F2R2 (40.58%) arrangement. Cost economics of developed residue management machine was compared with existing technologies adopted by farmers i.e. straw chopper + 2 rotavator practice and 6 harrowing + rotavator + planker practice. The cost of operation of developed residue management machine was observed 4272.8 Rs.ha-1 lower than existing technologies. The breakeven point (BEP), payback period and benefit cost (B:C) ratio of the developed residue management machine were 45 ha, 0.7 years and 1.17 respectively. Therefore, it is concluded that the developed residue management machine can be recommended to the farmers for paddy residue management of combine harvested paddy field.
Open Access
Investigation on wear pattern of various makes of agricultural discs
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2020-09) Annu Rani; Singh, T.P.
Mechanization of agriculture involves the use of different machineries in farming operation right from ploughing to marketing of produce. In underdeveloped countries like India, farmers require low cost machinery so they generally prefer locally available equipment. Tillage equipment such as disk harrow, which is used for both primary and secondary tillage, have become common in modern Indian agriculture as disc tillage implements are impressively applicable over a wide range of soil conditions. It has been seen that disc tillage implements imposes recurrent downtime and replacement cost on farmers as the farmers use locally available discs manufactured by small scale industries. The study has been undertaken to find the best suitable disc among the various commonly used makes available in Indian market and to estimate the life of each disc so the farmers can keep sufficient stock aforetime, thus reducing downtime and replacement cost. The agricultural discs have large surface area exposed to the abrasive medium i.e. soil and thus they are subjected to large abrasion due to the soil particles. An experiment was conducted to determine the wear of various makes (M1, M2, M3 and M4) of discs as weight reduction, radius reduction and thickness reduction in circular soil bin;and the effect of different soil (sand and silty-clay-loam), operating speed viz.2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 km/h and soil moisture content on wear was taken into consideration.The data obtained from the laboratory test was then compared to the field test conducted at soil moisture content of 12-14 % with 4.5 km/h forward speed and depth of operation as 10 cm. The test was conducted in rice harvested field with duration of work 100 hours. According to both field and laboratory conditions, mathematical correlations were developed relating wear to different operating conditions. The maximum wear was found at 6-8 percent moisture range in both sand and silty-clay-loam and the wear was found to increase with increase in moisture content for sand and decrease with increase in moisture content for silt clay loam. Along the radius, the maximum decrease in thickness was found at the edge of the discs and minimum at point H which is 12.5 cm away from the edge of the disc. The wear loss was found to increase with increase in speed of operation. The M4 (42.1 HRC) make of disc found better in circular soil bin due to minimum wear. It was observed that in field conditions the cumulative wear (in terms of weight loss) was 1.79, 1.75, 1.85 and 3.49 times more than the laboratory conditions for discs M1, M2, M3 and M4, respectively. In terms of radius reduction, the wear was 1.89, 1.72, 1.61 and 1.79 times more whereas in terms of thickness reduction, the wear was 2.26, 2.19, 2.24 and 2.27 times more at grid point A to 0.585, 0.535, 0.488 and 0.429 times more at grid point H in the field test than the laboratory test for discs M1, M2, M3 and M4, respectively. This increase in wear may be due to the wide range of abrasives available in the actual field condition and more compactness. The disk of make (42.1 HRC), speed 2.5 km/h and moisture content 0-2 percent were selected as optimum for sand with desirability of 0.99. The disk of make (42.1 HRC), speed 2.5 km/h and moisture content 12-14 percentwere selected as optimum for silty-clay-loam with desirability of 0.998. The make of disc M4 (42.1 HRC) was selected as optimum for field soil. The weight loss, radius reduction and thickness reduction obtained at optimal condition were in good agreement with the predicted value obtained the optimization model. The life of the discs in number of working hourswas calculated by the developed modelkeepingminimum allowable radius up to 228.6 mm and the working life of discs M1 (36.3 HRC), M2 (38.1 HRC), M3 (41.5 HRC) and M4 (42.1 HRC) were calculated as 423.86, 585.51, 950.64 and 1329.4 hours respectively. Based on the study, the make M4 showing minimum wear and maximum working life was selected as the best suitable for farmers followed by M3, M2 and M1.
Open Access
Design and development of planter for tuberose and gladiolus crops and its performacne evauation under field condition
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2019-07) Ananda Kumar, T. M.; Singh, T. P.
Sowing / planting is the pivotal operation in cultivation of any crop which involves factor like correct seed rate, appropriate depth of placement, proper spacing and orientation. These parameters influence the production of crop. Presently the planting of Tuberose bulbs and Gladiolus corms is performed manually in the hilly states of Uttarakhand. The time and method adopted for planting Tuberose and Gladiolus corms decisively affect the germination and hence production. The traditional method of planting Tuberose and Gladiolus as adopted by farmers is to make shallow furrow digging with the spade and put the corm (bulb) in the furrow and cover it with the soil which is very tedious and time consuming operation. Hence, mechanization of planting of Tuberose and Gladiolus is one such area where there is a greater scope to increase its production and productivity and make it a profitable business venture for farmers. Thus it requires to develop a single planter which can plant both the crops to achieve planting operation timely. The present study was undertaken to develop a suitable planter for planting Tuberose bulbs as well as Gladiolus corms in field with minimum bulb damage. During this study, the physical properties of Tuberose bulbs and Gladiolus corms namely, size, shape, bulk density, true density, porosity, moisture content, angle of repose and coefficient of friction were also studied to make good use of the result in designing the components of the planter. Firstly picker wheel type metering mechanism was developed and evaluated in the soil bin. The performance of this mechanism was not found satisfactory for both Tuberose bulbs as well as Gladiolus corms. Hence, another metering mechanism, wheel with curved fingers was developed and evaluated for both Tuberose bulbs as well as Gladiolus corms in soil bin. The performance of this metering mechanism was found satisfactory in soil bin test and hence a prototype planter with four rows was designed and developed by incorporating the developed metering mechanism. Thereafter the prototype planter was evaluated in actual field condition for both the mentioned crops. The performance parameters namely mean spacing, missing index, multiple index, quality feed index, coefficient of uniformity, precision, coefficient of precision (CP3 values), visible damage and number of bulbs per meter length were calculated and analyzed statistically. The economics of planter was also determined and was compared with current practice of planting of bulbs/corms i.e. manual method. From the results, the values of geometric mean diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, sphericity was found as 29.6 and 26.74 mm, 0.435 respectively. Similarly for Gladiolus corms these parameters were found as 33.91 and 34.56 mm, 0.77. The bulk density, true density, porosity and angle of repose of Tuberose bulbs were found as 656 and 875.2 kg/m3, 25.02 % and 37° respectively whereas for Gladiolus corms these values were found as 580 kg/m3, 879 kg/m3, 33.92 % and 32° respectively. The soil bin test results indicated that wheel with curved fingers type mechanism gave the better results for both Tuberose bulbs as well as Gladiolus corms at forward speed of 1.5 and 2.0 km/h for all the three nominal spacings of 15, 20 and 25 cm. The quality feed index of 98.12, 93.89 and 96.26 % was obtained for Tuberose bulbs at forward speed of 1.5 km/h for nominal spacings 15, 20 and 25 cm respectively whereas for Gladiolus corms it was observed 96.37, 97.12 and 97.62 % at all three nominal spacings respectively. Visible damage of bulb/corms was found zero for all three nominal spacings at forward speeds of 1.5 and 2.0 km/h for both Tuberose bulbs as well as Gladiolus corms. The result of field evaluation of planter for both crops was found better at forward speed of 1.5 km/h and wider nominal spacing of 25 cm. The draft requirement, actual field capacity and field efficiency of the planter was found as 3310.4 N, 0.135 ha/h and 83.05 % respectively. The average fuel consumption of the tractor to operate planter was observed as 6.75 lph and 50.00 l/ha. The total cost of manual planting of Tuberose bulbs and Gladiolus corms per hectare was found as Rs. 14732.00 and Rs. 15237.00 respectively while the same by planter was found as Rs. 6623.70/- per hectare. Thus a saving of 55.04 and 56.93 % was found in planting of Tuberose bulbs and Gladiolus corms by the developed planter over the compared to manual method.
Open Access
Optimization of process parameters for conversion of pine needles to bio-oil, biochar and product gas through batch and continuous pyrolysis
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2018-04) Mandal, Sandip; Bhattacharya, T.K.
Experiments were conducted to convert pine needles into bio-oil, biochar and product gas through pyrolysis as an alternate way to use pine needles to reduce forest fire. Batch pyrolysis of pine needles was carried out in a stainless steel tubular reactor using CO2 as sweep gas. Process parameters such as pyrolysis temperature, gas flow rate, vapour cooling temperature, heating rate, holding time were optimized by employing central composite design (CCD) in Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for the batch process. Continuous pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a screw reactor using N2 as sweep gas. Process parameters were optimized by Taguchi’s L9 Orthogonal Array. A batch type biochar production unit was also designed and developed to convert pine needles to biochar in bulk. Chemical characterization of bio-oil was conducted using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and gas chromatographic/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). Fuel properties of bio-oil and biochar were determined using ASTM standard methods. Product gas composition was determined using gas chromatography. Bio-oil was produced from pine needles with a recovery rate of 26.7 wt.% in batch pyrolysis experiment and 28.98% in screw pyrolysis. The adaptation of response surface methodology indicated the optimum conditions for maximum bio-oil yield at pyrolysis temperature of 547C, 1.85 l min−1 gas flow rate, 15C vapour cooling temperature and 50C min−1 heating rate. The optimum conditions in screw pyrolysis experiments were pyrolysis temperature of 500C, particle size of 1.25 – 2.0 mm, residence time of 15 min and N2 gas flow rate of 30 l h–1. Bio-oil produced at optimum condition had a high heating value of 28.52 MJ kg−1 and had less oxygen content than parent material. The GC/MS analysis showed presence of about 50% phenolic compounds and many other valuable compounds. Conversion efficiency of the biochar production unit with pine needle as substrate was found to be 28.88% at 80% loading, 12% moisture and air flow rate of 40 m3 h1. Bio-char had a higher pH value and high heating value with suitability for both acid soil ameliorant and solid bio-fuel. The average composition of product gas was 6.8% H2, 65.7% N2, 3.9% CH4, 10.46% CO, 12.1% CO2 and 1.06% C2H4 with a high heating value of 4.16 MJ Nm3. The quantitative results of energy analysis indicated that the all three processes could be used to produce bio-oil, biochar and product gases to recover energy from pine needles. Among three processes, screw pyrolysis process was most energy efficient.
Open Access
Studies on compatibility of tyre pyrolysis oil as fuel for diesel engine
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2017-08) Wankhade, Ratnakiran Dnyandeo; Bhattacharya, T.K.
The development of alternative renewable liquid fuel has become nowadays necessity for better economy of the country and saving the environment from further deterioration. The pressure of increasing fuel prices, deteriorating global supplies of crude oil demand an urgent need of finding alternative resources. The studies were conducted to assess the performance and combustion characteristic of a CI engine on formulated fuels. Eight different fuel blends were prepared by blending high speed diesel and ethanol with distilled refined tyre pyrolysis oil in 10, 20, 30, 40, and 5, 10, 15 and 20 % ratio, respectively. The distilled refined tyre pyrolysis oil was obtained by acid treatment with different levels of H2SO4 and distillation after the moisture removal. The fuel properties like relative density, kinetic viscosity, high heat value, ash content, carbon residue, flash point, fire point, pH and copper strip corrosion were studied at every stage of refining process like initial, acid treatment, distillation and blending and compared with high speed diesel to check its suitability as fuel in CI engine. The performance of multi cylinder CI engine in terms of brake mean effective pressure, brake power, brake specific fuel consumption, fuel consumption, air-fuel ratio, heat input, heat equivalent to brake power, heat carried away by water jacket, heat carried away by exhaust gas and heat un-accounted was compared on high speed diesel as well as selected fuel blend to assess their suitability as engine fuel. The observed results of the experiment indicate that the raw tyre pyrolysis oil contain 10 to 14% moisture. Also there was improvement in the fuel properties by acid treatment but high concentration of acid resulted in low pH of the sample. Hence, acid concentration up to 6% level was most effective. It was also observed that after distillation there was also improvement in the fuel properties because of removal of suspended contaminants. It was also observed that there was positive effect of blending the distilled refined tyre pyrolysis oil with high speed diesel and ethanol which shows the non-significant differences in fuel properties. It was also clear from the performance of engine on high speed diesel blend with refined tyre pyrolysis oil that engine had similar power producing capacity from all blend compared to the diesel. The brake specific fuel consumption on blended fuels was higher than diesel. The air-fuel ratio of blends was found much lower than that of diesel at high load which indicate the poor combustion. Also, in case of ethanol engine developed same power on blends as well as diesel on all load conditions. The fuel consumption of engine increases with increase in anhydrous ethanol in blend. The air-fuel ratio was lower than diesel at all load condition. Hence, it required combustion booster as an additive and certain change in injection timing to allow more time for combustion of fuel.
Open Access
Design and development of a fertilizer band placement cum earthing machine; fabrication of nanocomposite based metering device and evaluation of different wheat sowing technologies under chopped rice residue
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2012-08) Umran, Ahmed Hamza; Arun Kumar
Open Access
Analysis of Thermal and Resistance Characteristics of Fixed-Bed Regenerator with Small D/dp Ratio
(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2016-07) Panwar, Kuldeep; Murthy, D. S.
The present thesis investigates the performance of the Fixed-bed regenerator from the study of inertial, viscous resistance and thermal characteristics of the packed bed regenerator with small D/dp ratios. The Ergun’s equation has been accepted widely to calculate the pressure drop in the thermal regenerator with its two coefficients, 150 and 1.75. Revised Ergun’s equation is achieved for thermal fixed-bed regenerator with new coefficients, 294 and 0.72. The values of coefficients of Ergun’s equation calculated by simulation are compared with the experimental results and are fond in good agreement. The thermal characteristics of the regenerator are studied by using 3-D transient model. The variation of pressure drop, temperature, effectiveness, velocity along the regenerator bed is studied and presented. With the help of mathematical modeling of regenerator codes are written in MATLAB software to evaluate various parameters of design of the fixed- bed regenerator. Regenerator length, switching time, thermal mean residence time and various other design parameters for maximum single-pass efficiency, maximum heat storage factor and maximum thermal efficiency of fixed-bed regenerator are calculated. The thesis also presents the 3D, CFD modelling and analysis of unsteady flow through a fixed-bed regenerator. Fixed-bed regenerator having particle to diameter ratio (D/dp) 3, 8, 12 were used to analyse the flow complexities and thermal characteristics of the regenerator. To study the detailed flow complexities within these vicinities commercial Ansys Fluent 14.0 software is used. The predicted results of pressure drop and wall effect were compared with the previous experimental results and a good agreement found between them.

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