Engineering Commons^™

Yield Measurement System For Seed Corn: Improving Dynamic Weight Accuracy And Harvest Area Determination, Fatima Ellyn Murillo

Masters Theses

A prototype weight-based yield mapping system for seed corn production was developed at the University of Tennessee (UTK) and field tested in Iowa. The first chapter of the following study focuses on assessing the accuracy of this yield mapping system which employs a novel yield prediction and analysis software called Yield Analyzer. Yield Analyzer was designed using a rule-based system for producing yield maps with minimal user input by automatically determining acceptable ranges for known dependent variables that contribute to dynamic weight measurement errors.

The second chapter of this thesis covers the development of a non-intrusive, machine vision technique to …

An Economic Evaluation Of A Biofuel Supply Chain Utilizing Multiple Feedstocks, Huaqi Zhang

Masters Theses

Biomass is considered as one potential feedstock for biofuel production. However, the high cost of biomass-to-biofuel supply chain, attributed to biomass’s low bulk density and resulting harvest, storage, and transportation challenges, has been a major hindrance to the success of biomass-based biofuel industry. In addition, the issue of dry matter losses during storage for a feedstock has affected biomass quantity and quality if the feedstock is stored for several months after a single harvest in a year. One potential way to improve the economics of biomass supply chain is to reduce storage need and enhance the utilization of harvest equipment …

Rural School Wastewater Treatment System, Parker J. Dulin, Payton M. Smith, James W. Swart

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Impacts Of Biopolymer-Ionic Liquid Interactions On The Utilization Of Lignocellulosic Biomass, Jing Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

In the bioenergy field, the recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass has been mainly attributed to lignin. Many ionic liquid (IL) pretreatments were performed to maximize the removal of lignin. However, those methods seriously degraded lignin and hemicellulose, and could generate lignin or hemicellulose for developing an integrated biorefinery that utilizes efficiently the whole biomass. To fulfill the requirements of the integrated biorefineries, this dissertation explored the interactions between biopolymers and IL for a better utilization of lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock. By removing a large portion of hemicellulose, through an autohydrolysis, this physical and chemical barrier for IL diffusion was dismantled and …

Influence Of Application Technology On Foliar Fungicide Efficacy On Cercospora Sojina Infected Soybean, Shawn Alan Butler

Masters Theses

Due to the constant concern with off-target contamination and application technology requirements associated with future herbicide-tolerant crops, the use of drift-reduction nozzle technology (DRT) may increase. The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of coarse droplets generated by drift-reduction nozzles on foliar fungicide efficacy and residual in soybean infected by frogeye leaf spot caused by Cercospora sojina. No differences in disease control, soybean yield, spray retention, and residual when applying Quadris Top SB, a premix of azoxystrobin and difenoconazole, using nozzles that produce either a medium or ultra coarse droplet spectrum were determined.

Due to …

A Mobile Canoe-Mounted, Geo-Referenced, 3-D Water Quality Analyzer, Alex Shpik, Alysse Ness, Ryan Vernich

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Water quality analysis is vital to ensure the health of water sources, as well as identifying pollutants and modeling how they affect a river system. Current methods of collecting water samples consist of stationary samplers that measure changes in water quality at only one location over time. We have designed a mobile, canoe-mounted, water quality analyzing system that will enable researchers to efficiently collect a large number of water quality samples with an associated GPS location and depth for each data point. While the canoe travels in parallel swaths bank to bank, the unit will alternately collect samples from 3 …

Design Of A Mobile Shade And Cooling Structure For Grazing Dairy Herds, William Barbour, Ellen Moore, Jay Mcmillan

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The U.S. organic dairy industry has experienced significant growth in recent years: over 10% growth annually since 2009 and 14.5% from 2010 to 2011; total market share is approximately 5% in the United States. The USDA places certain requirements on diary products that are certified organic, some of which are aimed at grazing practices. One challenge farmers must overcome to comply is keeping the cows in optimum conditions in a free-range grazing scenario; poor conditions such as excessive heat can decrease milk production and pose an economic burden on the dairy. The proposed system intends to control environmental conditions for …