scholarly journals Setting Up a Lab-Scale Pilot Plant to Study the New Growing System (NGS®) for Leafy Vegetable and Culinary Herb Growth

Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Silvana Nicola ◽  
Giuseppe Pignata ◽  
Manuela Casale ◽  
Saeid Hazrati ◽  
Andrea Ertani

New cultural techniques have been developed to improve the yield and raw material quality at harvest, and enhance the postharvest shelf life, by standardizing the growing system. Among the different Soilless Cultivation Systems, the New Growing System (NGS®) is a closed-recirculating system that was designed for open fields and protected cultivations. The aim of this work was to investigate the structural setting of the system and its functioning to harness the full potentiality of NGS®. A lab-scale pilot plant (LSPP) was designed with NGS® technology and the technical aspects have been set up to have a standardized and reproducible growing system. The trials were conducted on growing mature-leaf vegetable species; that is, on both head and multi-leaf vegetables, and on culinary herbs at high plant densities. Positive yield results were found for culinary herbs and leafy vegetables. Mints showed high yields for the two re-growths carried out after the first harvest. The LSPP can also be used in a series of reliable experiments and enable researches to test several species, substrates, hydroponic nutrient solutions, and fertigation scheduling.

1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109
Author(s):  
H. Kirk Johnston ◽  
H.S. Lim

Abstract The suitability of reverse osmosis as a renovation technique for the treatment of municipal wastewaters has been assessed. Cellulose acetate membranes capable of 70% and 90% NaCl rejections were employed in both laboratory and pilot plant studies to evaluate the efficiency of this technique in removing the residual precipitant chemicals generally employed in phosphorus removal programs (iron chloride, alum, and lime) and the nutrients (phosphates, nitrates and ammonia) characteristic of municipal wastewaters. Secondary sewage and raw sewage as well as prepared nutrient solutions were employed in the course of this program. Both laboratory and pilot plant studies indicated consistently outstanding removal efficiencies for the species examined, almost independent of the nature of the waste solutions being treated. Permeation of the purified effluent was subject to significant reductions due to membrane fouling. This characteristic was most pronounced for the more permeable (less selective) membranes. Routine chemical and physical cleanings enable satisfactory flux levels to be maintained, thereby suggesting that reverse osmosis may become a viable municipal waste treatment technique.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Virginia Birlanga ◽  
José Ramón Acosta-Motos ◽  
José Manuel Pérez-Pérez

Cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is one of the most important leafy vegetables in the world, and most of the production is concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin. Hydroponics has been successfully utilized for lettuce cultivation, which could contribute to the diversification of production methods and the reduction of water consumption and excessive fertilization. We devised a low-cost procedure for closed hydroponic cultivation and easy phenotyping of root and shoot attributes of lettuce. We studied 12 lettuce genotypes of the crisphead and oak-leaf subtypes, which differed on their tipburn resistance, for three growing seasons (Fall, Winter, and Spring). We found interesting genotype × environment (G × E) interactions for some of the studied traits during early growth. By analyzing tipburn incidence and leaf nutrient content, we were able to identify a number of nutrient traits that were highly correlated with cultivar- and genotype-dependent tipburn. Our experimental setup will allow evaluating different lettuce genotypes in defined nutrient solutions to select for tipburn-tolerant and highly productive genotypes that are suitable for hydroponics.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (25n27) ◽  
pp. 4613-4618 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. T. LIN ◽  
D. BHATTACHARYYA ◽  
S. FAKIROV

Being a fast growing plastic manufacturing industry, rotational molding has been using the linear polyethylenes extensively as the raw material. As these materials have shown insufficient mechanical properties for certain applications where strength and stiffness of the products are the main concerns, worldwide rotational molders have expressed a need for stronger and stiffer materials to be available for rotomolding. A possible attractive solution may be the recently developed microfibril reinforced composites (MFCs). Blends of linear medium density polyethylene/polyethylene terephthalate (LMDPE/PET) with an MFC structure are manufactured on a commercial-scale set-up and thereafter used in rotational molding. The samples are characterized morphologically and tested mechanically. The results obtained show that the MFC-concept has good application opportunities in the polymer processing including rotational molding.


2012 ◽  
Vol 504-506 ◽  
pp. 587-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Merklein ◽  
Tommaso Stellin ◽  
Ulf Engel

A high rate of production of complex microparts is increasingly required by fields like electronics and micromechanics. Handling is one of the main problems, limiting those forming processes of small metal components consisting of multiple forming stages. A forming chain in which a metal strip acts both as raw material and support of the workpiece through the different stages of the process, is seen as a solution that radically simplifies the positioning of microparts. Each workpiece stays connected to the strip through all the forming steps, being separated just at the end of the process chain. In this work, a tooling system for the bulk forming from copper strips has been set up and employed in a full forward extrusion process of a micro-billet. The same die, with a diameter of 1 mm, has been used with three different strip thicknesses (1, 2 and 3 mm) and three different material conditions. The use of thinner and hard-as-rolled strips has resulted in achieving a higher ratio of the billet length to strip thickness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-43
Author(s):  
Ngoc Vuong Tran ◽  
Manh Hung Luong ◽  
Dinh Dang Nguyen

Zinc scrap is a source of raw material for zinc oxide production. However, to qualify the requirement of raw material for zinc oxide (99.5%) production, refining this source is needed. Many methods are considered such as rectification, chemical method, etc., but difficult to apply on an industrial scale. This workfocused on the investigation of the influence of temperature and time factors for asessing the possibility of applying liquation method for the purification of impurities from scrap zinc.The experiment results show that the optimum temperature of liquation to remove Pb,Fe from zinc scrap is in the range of 440-450°C, the optimal time of the process is 8h for the pot with 8cm in height and 6cm in diameter (the quantity of raw zinc sample is about 2kg / batch), then we can obtain about 80% of zinc metal with an average Zn content of about 97, 0%, both Pb and Fe content decreased to a range from 0.35 to 0.4%, and 1.0 to 1.1%, respectively, which meet the requirement of raw materials for the production of high quanlity ZnO ( 99,5 %). Based on the parameters obtained on lab-scale, a trial on pilot scale of 250 kg / batch was conducted, The result confirms that the quality of the products meets the requirement of raw materials for production of high quality ZnO (99.5%) and a technology process for refining zinc scrap by the liquation was proposed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. e87365
Author(s):  
Darwin Carranza Saavedra ◽  
Jorge Andrés Alvarado Nuñez ◽  
José Fernando Solanilla Duque ◽  
Claudia Patricia Valenzuela Real

In Colombia, approximately 855 840 tons of arracacha are produced each year. The unsalable postharvest arracacha root (Arracacia xanthorriza Bancroft) is not commercialized, mainly due to mechanical damage or small and misshapen roots. In this work, dry samples were characterized and subjected to two treatments: one using thermal hydrolysis, applying saturated steam at pressures of 0,1034 MPa, 0,2068 MPa, and 0,4137 MPa; and another one using hydrolysis with sulfuric acid in concentrations between 0,252,00 M. Then, the cake resulting from the hydrolysis and filtration process was enzymatically hydrolyzed (Liquozyme SC DS, Novozymes) at 1,5, 5 and 10 KNU/g (pH 6, 80 _C, 2 h). Fermentation inhibitors (acetic acid and furfural) were evaluated in the best pretreatment. The results showed that the treatment with sulfuric acid at 1,00 M (2 h) has high yields in reducing sugars added to enzymatic hydrolysis. The maximum level of fermentable carbohydrates per gram of dry sample (1,04 g/g) was also reached. Regarding the fermentation inhibitors of the reducing sugar, a higher concentration of acetic acid was found with a lower furfural content. Therefore, arracacha discards are a promising raw material to increase the supply of bioethanol.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Vinod M Lakhwani ◽  
Swati Tiwari

Entering into the new field of business is not an easy go. One has to do market research, to identify the gap, to identify the product/service to be offered, and to target the right customer segment. After doing the required research, the next step is to make decisions on plant location, layout and then set up.  Assessment of funds required for capital as well as revenue expenditure, procurement of machinery and other materials also take substantial amount of efforts. Searching for vendors and finalizing the right one are few other issues. After having worked successfully for more than 30 years in Bali in the field of sesame seeds and oil business Harsh was standing on a crossroad in 2011. Rising prices of sesame oil resulted in shift in customers’ taste and preferences towards refined oil. Moreover entry of big players at a large scale of operations and rise in price of raw material (sesame seeds) made survival tough. He had a number of options, one to continue with existing business at different scale of operations. Two, enter another business? Three, what business, Four, which place? The case talks about Harsh’s journey to new business, his choice and then the result.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucielen Oliveira Santos ◽  
Pedro Garcia Pereira Silva ◽  
Sharlene Silva Costa ◽  
Taiele Blumberg Machado

Use of fuels from non-renewable sources has currently been considered unsustainable due to the exhaustion of supplies and environmental impacts caused by them. Climate change has concerned and triggered environmental policies that favor research on clean and renewable energy sources. Thus, production of third generation biofuels is a promising path in the biofuel industry. To yield this type of biofuels, microalgae should be highlighted because this raw material contains important biomolecules, such as carbohydrates and lipids. Technological approaches have been developed to improve microalgal cultivation under ecological conditions, such as light intensity, temperature, pH and concentrations of micro and macronutrients. Thus, magnetic field application to microalgal cultivation has become a viable alternative to obtain high yields of biomass concentration and accumulation of carbohydrates and lipids.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Christin Wagner

Through a hospitality lens, the article looks at an Evangelical grassroots organization’s practice of house visits to Syrian refugees in Mafraq, Jordan. It begins by situating the hosting practices of European volunteers in the context of Mafraq’s multi-layered NGO environment and within the emerging literature on the role of transnational support networks in faith-based humanitarianism. A review of philosophical and anthropological literatures reveals how power dynamics and bordering practices shape the hospitality encounter. Its function as a scale-shifter between the local and the national makes “hospitality” well-suited for the study of displacement. Subsequent parts of the article explore volunteers’ acts of infringement on Syrians’ hospitality code that allow them to “contain” refugees’ demands for aid. The final section revisits Boltanski’s theory of a “politics of pity” in communicating distant suffering. The set-up of house visits forces refugees to perform “suffering” which provides the raw material for volunteers’ moving testimonies back home.


Author(s):  
Forbes Chiromo ◽  
Goodwell Muyengwa ◽  
Joseph Makuvaza

AbstractThis study investigates the extent to which tenants in a jewellery incubator in the Limpopo Province of South Africa network. Since 1994 SEDA has set up more than 31 incubation centres in furniture making, construction, chemicals, jewellery, ICT, metal fabrication, agriculture and small scale mining. This study was done through a survey conducted on tenants in the SEDA Limpopo Jewellery Incubator (SLJI). Information was obtained through a structured questionnaire. The study revealed how tenants benefit from networking around exhibitions and collective purchasing of raw material. Through the Incubator institutional mechanisms, the study explains how tenants share expertise, experiences, technology and resources. Unfortunately the tenants do not initiate the own networking programmes. They lose out on benefits associated with collective effort in other areas such as advertisements, lobbying the government for industrial stands, organising an newsletter, hiring of consultants, and organising joint training programmes. Lastly the study identified opportunities that the tenants could collectively exploit in order strengthen and sustain their businesses.


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