DRYING WHITE CABBAGE ON A CONVECTIVE DRYING BENCH

Known methods of production of dried cabbage are long-term production processes that take place within 12… 24 hours. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new methods of drying and intensification of this process. The article presents experimental studies of the kinetics of the drying process of white cabbage with different energy supply and their combinations, such as convective, infrared and convective-infrared drying methods. The main criterion for choosing a rational mode of drying is the quality of raw materials after heat treatment, in particular the visual assessment of color by temperature. During convective drying, the analysis of temperature regimes for process intensity and quality of raw materials was performed. The drying mode of 60ºC which satisfies all requirements for quality of material was chosen. To speed up the process, it is proposed to reduce the drying time by introducing a step mode of 80 / 60ºC, which also reduces the energy component. Infrared radiation intensifies the process due to the rapid heating of the material, but in turn it burns. Therefore, a combined convective-infrared method is proposed in which the temperature in the product did not exceed 60 ° C. This method of drying showed good results with a shorter drying time.Infrared radiation intensifies the process due to the rapid heating of the material, but in turn it burns. Therefore, a combined convective-infrared method is proposed in which the temperature in the product did not exceed 60 ° C. This method of drying showed good results with a shorter drying time.

In Situ Evaluation of the U-Value of a Window Using the Infrared Method

The amount of heat lost through the envelope of a building is one of the most important variables that affects the energy performance evaluation of a house. In addition, it is especially important to estimate and accurately diagnose the amount of heat produced by windows. In Korea, windows’ U-values reflect a building’s initial design values and thermal characteristics that determine the thermal performance of an existing building, and is a factor that can overestimate the energy performance of a building. Therefore, there is a need for a field measurement method that can accurately measure the total U-value of windows in an existing house. This study provides a method of quantitatively measuring the total U-value of windows using the infrared (IR) method in ISO 9869-2. As a result of measuring the U-value using the infrared (IR) method, the Korean Standard (KS F 2278) for window performance test result values and the root mean square error (cvRMSE) for the U-value measurements using the IR method showed a high accuracy of about 3.29%. In addition, we confirmed that the IR method is an effective (cvRMSE about 7% improvement) method that can measure the comparison result faster than the heat flow meter (HFM) method, which is a conventional thermal performance measurement method.

Assessing tree effect on total soil carbon in agroforestry parklands systems along a rainfall gradient in Burkina Faso (West Africa)

Trees contribution in improving soil carbon is well established, but few works addressed how this was affected by a climatic gradient. This research investigated effects of Vitellaria paradoxa C. F Gaertn and Parkia biglobosa (Jacq.) Benth on total soil carbon in parklands along a rainfall gradient for recommendations of tree species which better improve soil carbon under specific climatic conditions for parklands adaptation to climate change. Total soil carbon at topsoil and subsoil layers measured using spectrophotometry infrared method, was higher when rainfall increased and were respectively (1.598 ± 0.040; 1.033 ± 0.022; 0.834 ± 0.014; 0.857 ± 0.016%). It was higher at topsoil (0.529 ± 0.015%) and subsoil (0.282 ± 0.019%) under V. paradoxa when rainfall decreased while it was higher under P. biglobosa and V. paradoxa when rainfall increased slightly. Its improvement was higher under V. paradoxa and P. biglobosa when rainfall respectively decreased and increased. A decrease trend of total soil carbon under both tree species from trunk to outside the canopy whatever rainfall levels and soil layers was observed. Tree species choice could play an important role in improving total soil carbon and crop productivity according to rainfall level for parklands adaptation to climate change.

Iranian Qara Qat fruit (redcurrant) in Arasbaran forests as the resource of anthocyanin pigments in formation of [ACN-Mg2+/Al3+/Ga3+/ Sn2+/Cr3+/Fe3+] chelation clusters

Clusters of metallic cations (Mg2+, Al3+, Ga3+, Sn2+, Cr3+ and Fe3+) jointed to anthocyanins in water media were studied for unraveling the color shifting of different complexes of these structures in the low ranges of pH. Anthocyanin jointed to metallic cation progresses the color expression range of anthocyanin in more different range of pH. In this verdict, it has been studied the metallic cations diffusing of deprotonating for the anthocyanin (B)-ring of cyanidin (Cy), delphinidin (Dp) and petunidin (Pt) in two media of gas and water, transforming flavylium cations to the blue quinonoidal bases at lower range of pH applying the infrared method by approaching Beer Lambert law for getting the physico-chemical parameters of frequency, intensity, and absorbance of the compounds, respectively. In previous investigation, it has been indicated that the important factor for enhancing the absorbance in a positive non-linear fashion due to deviating from the Beer Lambert law is the self-association of anthocyanins of cyanidin, delphinidin and petunidin of anthocyanin structures. The difference of heat of formation (∆HR) among clusters of metallic cations jointed to anthocyanins has been illustrated toward the double bonds and carbonyl groups by the chelation of (B)-ring for cyanidin, delphinidin and petunidin anthocyanins in two media of gas and water that explains the stability and color of [anthocyanin-metallic cations] cluster chelation of cyanidin (Cy), delphinidin (Dp) and petunidin (Pt) colorful pigments in a weak acidic medium. By this work we exhibited that the color of the anthocyanin chelates is an important factor for estimating the efficiency of these types of food colorants.

Intensification of the flow process of grain drying using two-sided infrared irradiation

The object of research is the process of infrared drying of grain of agricultural crops. In the process of processing seeds of cereals and oilseeds is a fairly large number of technological operations, among which one of the most important is drying. Maintaining the required grain moisture is a major factor influencing its shelf life and quality. Therefore, an urgent and important problem is the intensification of the process of drying seeds of cereals and oilseeds at low energy consumption. The process of infrared drying of grain has significant advantages over the most common convective drying due to the fact that no organic fuel is used. Infrared rays are characterized by high thermal action of products, so the demand for the use of infrared radiation in agricultural, food and processing industries for drying grain, bulk ingredients, thermal disinfection, etc. is growing. The principle of operation of the infrared method is that the moisture inside the grain absorbs infrared rays, due to which it is heated. In other words, energy is directly supplied to moisture, which is why we managed to achieve not only high efficiency but also high efficiency. To increase the efficiency of removing moisture from the grain by infrared irradiation, it is necessary to increase the area of contact of grains with infrared rays. Given the permeability of infrared rays and the layer of grain on the working body of the conveyor, it is possible to use several ways to increase the area of irradiation. The first method is to apply the vibration of the working body to mix the layers of grain, which contributes to a more uniform processing of products. The second method described in this paper is to use a larger number of emitters, which are located not only above the tray of the conveyor, but also below it. The tray must be made of infrared-permeable material.

Dynamic Infrared Gas Analysis from Longleaf Pine Fuelbeds Burned in a Wind Tunnel: Observation of Phenol in Pyrolysis and Combustion Phases

Pyrolysis is the first step in a series of chemical and physical processes that produce flammable organic gases from wildland fuels that can result in a wildland fire. We report results using a new time-resolved Fourier transform infrared method that correlates the measured FTIR spectrum to an infrared thermal image sequence enabling identification and quantification of gases within different phases of the fire process. The flame from burning fuel beds composed of pine needles (Pinus palustris) and mixtures of sparkleberry, fetterbush and inkberry plants was the natural heat source for pyrolysis. Extractive gas samples were analyzed and identified in both static and dynamic modes synchronized to thermal infrared imaging: A total of 29 gases were identified including small alkanes, alkenes, aldehydes, nitrogen compounds and aromatics, most previously measured by FTIR in wildland fires. This study presents one of the first identifications of phenol associated with both pre-combustion and combustion phases, using ca. 1 Hz resolution. Preliminary results indicate ~ 2.5× greater phenol emission from sparkleberry and inkberry compared to fetterbush, with differing temporal profiles.

The effect of infrared drying to the microstructural structure and texture of whole Duku intact skin by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique

The Infrared method has the potential to extend the shelf life of duku fruit by drying the duku’s skin into "shell likeness". Duku’s skin drying using infrared method could change the shape and characteristics of duku’s skin which would significantly affect the length of fruit shelf life. The texture of duku’s skin for the treatment of infrared emitter distance of 6 cm, temperature of 400 °C and exposure time of 80 seconds was increasing with the storage time which made the fruit inside the skin to experience a passive modified atmosphere and increase the shelf life of duku. The 3D visual depiction of the optimization result on drying process using infrared had the largest porosity and cavity value in the treatment of infrared emitter distance of 10 cm, temperature of 300 °C, and exposure time of 80 seconds. At the magnification of 2500 times, with a resolution of 10 mm, it was found that the porosity and thickness of the duku’s void were greater than duku fruit without treatment. The result of the porosity also found that drying process with the infrared emitter distance of 6 cm at temperature of 400 °C, and exposure time of 80 seconds has more stable porosity (without collapsing) which confirmed the result found on the texture of the skin. The results of scanning electron microscopy analysis and 3D visual analysis confirmed the results of optimization that had previously performed in the drying process of duku fruit using infrared method.