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Compost And Biochar To Promote Soil Biological Activities Under Sweet Potatoes Cultivation In A Subtropical Semiarid Region, Josabeth Navarro, Jahdiel Salazar, James Jihoon Kang, Jason Parsons, Chu-Lin Cheng, Alexandria Castillo, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira Nov 2020

Compost And Biochar To Promote Soil Biological Activities Under Sweet Potatoes Cultivation In A Subtropical Semiarid Region, Josabeth Navarro, Jahdiel Salazar, James Jihoon Kang, Jason Parsons, Chu-Lin Cheng, Alexandria Castillo, Engil Isadora Pujol Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

South Texas is located in a subtropical semiarid climate, and due to high temperature and irregular precipitation, farmers opt to leave their fields fallow during the summer months jeopardizing overall soil health. We evaluated whether sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivation coupled with drip irrigation could restore soil biological activities compared with bare fallow. Additionally, because sweet potatoes have high demand of soil nutrients, especially potassium (K), we evaluated the nutrient supply of locally sourced soil amendments. Sweet potato was cultivated during summer 2018 in McAllen, Texas, under control (no fertilizer), NPK (synthetic fertilizer), RC (yard-waste compost), and AC (compost produced …


Techno-Economic Optimization Of Food Waste Diversion To Treatment Facilities To Determine Cost Effectiveness Of Policy Incentives, Kanwal Shahid Nov 2020

Techno-Economic Optimization Of Food Waste Diversion To Treatment Facilities To Determine Cost Effectiveness Of Policy Incentives, Kanwal Shahid

Theses

New York state recently passed a food waste (FW) disposal ban, which will prohibit land-filling of FW produced by commercial entities generating more than 2 tons/week by the year 2022. This will redirect 370,000 tons/year of FW from landfills. In this work, we investigate three questions about the landfill ban: 1) How can this waste be diverted to treatment facilities at lowest system cost? 2) To what degree can an expanded anaerobic digestion portfolio help with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standards? 3) What policies can help with the transition of waste-to-energy technologies? We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model that …


Assessment Of Dehydration As A Commercial-Scale Food Waste Valorization Strategy, Jon T. Schroeder, Ava L. Labuzetta, Thomas A. Trabold Jul 2020

Assessment Of Dehydration As A Commercial-Scale Food Waste Valorization Strategy, Jon T. Schroeder, Ava L. Labuzetta, Thomas A. Trabold

Articles

Using a commercially available dehydration unit, this study aimed to valorize various food waste streams from different sources in the Rochester, New York area. Dehydration of the food waste collected for the study helped reduce the weight of the feedstock by 70–90%, as the incoming waste streams were relatively wet. The output was materially characterized against end uses such as cattle feed, fish feed, and compost. The results demonstrated that, other than fertilizer, the remaining five end uses (compost, fish feed, cattle feed, pyrolysis, and pelletized fuel) were potentially compatible with varying waste feedstocks based on the parameters analyzed. Fish …


Yields Of Relay Cropped Greens Grown In Green Roof Production Systems, Leigh Whittinghill, Pradip Poudel Jan 2020

Yields Of Relay Cropped Greens Grown In Green Roof Production Systems, Leigh Whittinghill, Pradip Poudel

Urban Food Systems Symposium

As interest in urban food production increases, urban farmers are looking for solutions to the challenge of space availability. One solution is to move production to building rooftops, a space that is often underutilized. The use of green roof technology is one method of achieving food production on rooftops; however, there are some additional challenges associated with this practice as a result of the fast-draining, low-nutrient media used. This is particularly challenging for vegetable crops, which typically require more nutrients than the ornamental plants traditionally grown in green roof media. Some rooftop farmers are adding additional organic matter in the …