The Fuel Crisis

Based on facts available to the public, almost everyone agrees that an energy shortage or fuel crisis now exists in our country and state. While there is not general agreement about the quantitative aspects of this crisis, there is agreement that it is of significant magnitude to create very great concern about sustaining the current high levels of industrial productivity with its related employment and economic activity. In our complex society and economic system, it is not possible to easily determine all of the causes of the current fuel crisis. To better understand the problems of causing fuel supply to increase to correspond to fuel demand, an effort is made to briefly describe some of the more apparent causes for the fuel crisis. The primary attention and discussion herein are directed toward what may be done, both short range and long range, to help overcome the fuel crisis from the point of view of the Florida Citrus Industry. Paper published with permission.

Economics of d-Limonene Recovery

d-Limonene is the main volatile constituent of citrus peel oil, and the collected volatile portion of oil is usually referred to as d-Limonene in the trade. The later definition will be used throughout this paper rather than the exact chemical definition. Paper published with permission.

Progress on Mechanically Grading Citrus Fruit in Processing Plants

An inexpensive method to mechanically pregrade citrus fruit in processing plants is needed to improve effectiveness of manual grading and reduce handling costs. The need for mechanical pregrading will increase with mechanically harvested fruit which will contain more damaged and unwholesome fruit than manually harvested fruit. Chemical abscission to loosen the fruit prior to harvest causes considerable pre-drop, and rake-pick-up procedures will be necessary to recover fruit from the ground. Fruit harvested from the ground may contain “old drops” in varying stages of decay. Normal grading procedures are sometimes inadequate to remove the larger amounts of unwholesome fruit present after a freeze or late in the processing season. Such periods require either additional temporary graders or reduced processing rates and occasionally, regrading. Paper published with permission.

Centralized Control Techniques for the Citrus Concentrating Plant

There is a strong tendency within the citrus industry to regard the citrus concentrating plant as being a series of discrete operations. From the viewpoint of the instrument engineer the process is a continuous one, incorporating three major dead time areas: (a) the fruit bins, (b) the surge (evaporator feed) tanks, and (c) the tank farm At all other points in the process the product can be treated as a continuous flow. Paper published with permission.

Bulk Storage of Citrus Juice Concentrate

Bulk holding tanks for the storage of juice and concentrates are becoming a way of life in the Florida Citrus Processing Industry. Most of the processors in this industry either have now or are considering some form of bulk tank system. These tanks vary from a few hundred gallons up to one hundred thousand gallons capacity. Outside the State of Florida there are fruit juice holding tanks which approach three hundred thousand gallons, and the wine industry exceeds even this in tank capacity. Tanks of both vertical and horizontal structure are in use. These tanks may be made of stainless steel, coated mild steel, fiberglass reinforced resin or coated concrete. Reinforced, collapsible neoprene “cushion” tanks of up to forty thousand gallons capacity are in use. Paper published with permission.

The Food Outlook: A World Imperative

Population has proved its propensity to grow faster than its food supply until a balance is reached at the Asiatic level of subsistence. The less-developed countries continue in nutritional crisis largely because of inadequate application of food production technology and the resource requirements imposed by child dependency. Developed countries show much more promise of avoiding this tragedy through management of resources and populations. Increases are essential in research, teaching and extension education in the many competencies comprising the technologies of food production and public health if food supply is to gain on population. Mechanical engineers must lead if that technology is to be applied through mechanization to bring about desired increases in the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the food industry, so people may heed their nutritional history and not relive it. Paper published with permission.

Spray Irrigation of Citrus Waste

Land application of wastewater is an old practice — it was used by the Greeks in Athens and was begun in the United States over 100 years ago. Hundreds of communities throughout the nation currently use one form or another of land application with varying degrees of success. The application of wastewater to the land brings into play elements of climate, air, land, irrigation and water so that understanding and analysis of its many aspects requires a multi-disciplinary approach. There are three generally accepted approaches to land application. These are: 1. Irrigation 2. Overland Flow 3. Infiltration Percolation Paper published with permission.