Research in Agricultural Engineering, 2022 (vol. 68), issue 3
The effect of ethanol on potato growth and production at moderate elevationOriginal Paper
Andi Muhibuddin, Zulkifli Maulana, Suryawati Salam, Syamsia Syamsia, Reta Reta, Arifin Fattah
Res. Agr. Eng., 2022, 68(3):113-119 | DOI: 10.17221/45/2021-RAE 
Indonesia's current potato cultivation areas are mainly in the highlands (1 000 m above sea level - a.s.l.). However, there are obstacles to potato cultivation in the highlands, including erosion, declining land productivity, limited area, and high production costs (i.e. labour wages, fertilisers, and pesticides). This study was aimed at analysing the effects of both an ethanol application and moderate altitudes on the potato production and quality. This study was conducted at the Horticulture Seed Station in the Ulu Ere subdistrict, Bantaeng Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. A split randomised plot design with two factors was used. The main plots...
Drying kinetics and mathematical modelling of Arundo donax L. canes, a potential renewable fuelOriginal Paper
Verónica Córdoba, Alejandra Manzur, Estela Santalla
Res. Agr. Eng., 2022, 68(3):120-130 | DOI: 10.17221/73/2021-RAE
Arundo donax L. is an energy crop with the potential use as a renewable fuel. This study focused on the drying process of the canes in field and laboratory conditions to determine the effect of the harvest conditioning on the kinetics parameters of whole and slashed canes. The lab drying test was conducted in a thin layer dryer at temperatures between 30 and 80 °C and a 0.5 m.s-1 air velocity. The whole and slashed canes showed faster water evaporation rates as the temperature increased, but the slashed canes achieved a lower final moisture content in a shorter time. The effective diffusion coefficient varied between 3.67 × 10-12...
Models for feature selection and efficient crop yield prediction in the groundnut productionOriginal Paper
Kuruguntu Mohan Krithika, Nachimuthu Maheswari, Manickam Sivagami
Res. Agr. Eng., 2022, 68(3):131-141 | DOI: 10.17221/15/2021-RAE
Tamil Nadu ranks high in groundnut production in India. The yield prediction of the crop over Tamil Nadu will be highly useful in improving the efficiency of the production. This article aims to identify an efficient machine learning model to predict the groundnut crop yield and analyse the performance of the tested models. The study used the irrigation, rainfall, area and production data as factors for the groundnut crop yield across the districts of Tamil Nadu. This article identified the best set of features for training the models and studied various prediction models to evaluate the performance on the collected data. The trained and tested data...
Monitoring the movement of housed animals by means of wireless technologyOriginal Paper
Martin Olmr, Marek Pačes, Jan Lešetický, Miroslav Přikryl
Res. Agr. Eng., 2022, 68(3):142-149 | DOI: 10.17221/66/2021-RAE
Currently, several, more or less, suitable means for detecting, identifying and monitoring the position of housed animals exist. However, these means suffer from various limitations, which could be eliminated with regard to the current technical and technological possibilities. One possible solution could be the use of some wireless technologies from the Internet of Things (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.). The uninterrupted supervision of individual housed animals would bring important information about the daily routine of individuals and then, based on the deviations from this daily routine, the opportunity to derive their physical and mental state...
Impacts of HHO gas utilisation on the operating parameters in internal combustion enginesOriginal Paper
Petr Jindra, Martin Kotek
Res. Agr. Eng., 2022, 68(3):150-156 | DOI: 10.17221/63/2020-RAE
Social pressure is forcing manufacturers to make huge investments in development in order to reduce the harmful emissions of passenger cars. However, there are also cheaper solutions that promise to reduce pollutants with minimal investment. One way is to enrich the fuel/air mixture with HHO gas (oxyhydrogen with a 2:1 ratio of hydrogen and oxygen). HHO gas is produced by the electrolysis of water using the vehicle's electrical system. This study investigated the impact of an HHO generator on the operating parameters of an internal combustion engine. The testing took place on two levels. The first was a laboratory test with an spark ignition (SI) engine...
Inactivation of anti-nutrients in soybeans via micronisationOriginal Paper
Vladyslav Zubko, Svitlana Plavynska, Volodymyr Plavynskyi, Oleksandra Plavynska, Anatolii Saienko, Hynek Roubík
Res. Agr. Eng., 2022, 68(3):157-167 | DOI: 10.17221/2/2021-RAE
The soybean (Glycine max) is used as one of the main protein sources in various animal fodders. However, the presence of anti-nutrients significantly reduces the nutritional value of the bean. To solve this problem, the present work is devoted to the inactivation of the anti-nutrients in soybeans by the use of micronisation as a means of thermal treatment. The purpose of the work is to improve the process of soybean micronisation by determining the impact of the process parameters on the soybean's quality and energy performance, namely - the urease activity and specific energy consumption. A multifactor experiment was carried out using an...