Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

High Throughput In Vivo Analysis Of Plant Leaf Chemical Properties Using Hyperspectral Imaging, Piyush Pandey, Yufeng Ge, Vincent Stoerger, James C. Schnable

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The possibility of predicting plant leaf chemical properties using hyperspectral images was studied. Sixty maize and 60 soybean plants were used, and two experiments were conducted: one with water limitation and the second with nutrient limitation, with the purpose of creating wide ranges of these chemical properties in plant leaf tissues. A hyperspectral imaging system with a spectral range from 550 to 1700 nm was used to acquire plant images in a high throughput fashion (plants placed on an automated conveyor belt). Leaf chemical properties were measured in the laboratory. Partial least squares regression was implemented on spectral data to …

Energy–Water Reduction And Wastewater Reclamation In A Fluid Milk Processing Facility, Carly Rain Adams, Yulie E. Meneses, Bing Wang, Curtis L. Weller

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The energy-water nexus is the inseparable connection linking water and energy. We are faced with a unique opportunity to co-manage these resources, as conservation of one is directly linked to the conservation of its counterpart. Therefore, immediately facing this critical challenge, will lead to tangible impacts on the water and energy crisis our food system is faced with. Determining the role of water and energy in the food industry has proved to be the starting point for reducing the distance between process productivity and resource efficiency. Therefore, this research focuses on determining opportunities for water-energy optimization and wastewater reduction and …

Investigation Of Petroleum Use In Off-Road Agricultural Machinery And Analysis Of J1939 Controller Area Network (Can) Data For Advanced Machinery Testing, Rodney Rohrer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nearly all modern off-road agricultural machinery are powered by petroleum, primarily diesel fuel. Equipment manufacturers work to improve fuel efficiency of their equipment to provide better value to their customers. Benefits of reducing petroleum use include lower operating costs, improved operational efficiency, improved energy security, and environmental benefits. Agricultural tractor testing focuses primarily on characterizing maximum performance but there is a need for advanced test procedures to better measure fuel efficiency for load cases representative of in-field operations. This would help farmers make better equipment purchasing and utilization decisions and help manufacturers quantify efficiency improvements; ultimately driving continued progress toward …

Towards A Cost-Effective Biorefinery : Production Of Activated Carbons From Residual Biomass For Energy Storage Devices., Zachary Dean Herde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biomass processing for industrial products and biofuels has gained an increasing presence as society looks to using sustainable resources for manufacturing and renewable fuels for energy. However, these sustainably produced materials and products cannot gain a competitive edge because of the manufacturing expenses that are a result of high process temperatures and pressures. In order to lower these costs, theoretical modeling has described a value-added co-product strategy as one of the best ways to combat high bioprocessing prices. Biomass has been shown to make effective carbons for energy storage devices such as supercapacitors and batteries. These carbons, with the right …

Oral History Conversation With Lydell Aaron (Beartha), Alexander Z. Bulkin, Kari Schattinger, Kate L. Gardner, Charbel Mouannes, Danielle Silvaggio

Philosophy: All Student Work

Oral History Interview conducted with Lydell Aaron. He founded Beartha Systems which builds scalable and smart systems that harness energy and resources for small communities.

Using The Vehicle Routing Problem To Reduce Field Completion Times With Multiple Machines, Hasan Seyyedhasani, Joseph S. Dvorak

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is a powerful tool used to express many logistics problems, yet unlike other vehicle routing challenges, agricultural field work consists of machine paths that completely cover a field. In this work, the allocation and ordering of field paths among a number of available machines has been transformed into a VRP that enables optimization of completion time for the entire field. A basic heuristic algorithm (a modified form of the common Clarke-Wright algorithm) and a meta-heuristic algorithm, Tabu Search, were employed for optimization. Both techniques were evaluated through computer simulations in two fields: a hypothetical basic …

Influence Of Supply-Channel Velocity On Farm Delivery Meter Gate Flow Measurement, Daniel J. Howes, Charles M. Burt, John M. Thorburn

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The work presented here is an extension of previous papers that updated the calibration of round (Armco-type) meter gates (three sizes: 0.30, 0.46, and 0.61 m), developed ratings for rectangular gates (two sizes: 0.46 and 0.61 m) on round pipes, and examined errors and uncertainty related to using these devices for water discharge measurement. Previous works examined gate discharge ratings under low supply-channel flow velocity perpendicular to the gate discharge pipeline. Here, additional testing was conducted to test the hypothesis that higher velocities in the supply channel would show decreased meter gate flow compared to the low-velocity ratings, but that …

Contemporary And Future Characteristics Of Precipitation Indices In The Kentucky River Basin, Somsubhra Chattopadhyay, Dwayne R. Edwards, Yao Yu

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Climatic variability can lead to large-scale alterations in the hydrologic cycle, some of which can be characterized in terms of indices involving precipitation depth, duration and frequency. This study evaluated the spatiotemporal behavior of precipitation indices over the Kentucky River watershed for both the baseline period of 1986–2015 and late-century time frame of 2070–2099. Historical precipitation data were collected from 16 weather stations in the watershed, while future rainfall time-series were obtained from an ensemble of 10 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) global circulation models under two future emission pathways: Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5. Annual …

Remediating 1,4-Dioxane-Contaminated Water With Slow-Release Persulfate And Zerovalent Iron, Ann Kambhu, Megan Gren, Wei Tang, Steve D. Comfort, Clifford Harris

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

1,4-dioxane is an emerging contaminant that was used as a corrosion inhibitor with chlorinated solvents. Metal-activated persulfate can degrade dioxane but reaction kinetics have typically been characterized by a rapid decrease during the first 30 min followed by either a slower decrease or no further change (i.e., plateau). Our objective was to identify the factors responsible for this plateau and then determine if slow-release formulations of sodium persulfate and Fe⁰ could provide a more sustainable degradation treatment. We accomplished this by conducting batch experiments where Fe⁰-activated persulfate was used to treat dioxane. Treatment variables included the timing …

Center Pivot Irrigation Handbook (Ec3017), Derrel Martin, William Kranz, Tyler Smith, Suat Irmak, Charles Burr, Ron Yoder

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Center pivot irrigation has been the most rapidly expanding form of irrigation in the Central Great Plains and across the United States. The amount of land irrigated with sprinkler, gravity and drip or trickle systems was determined for all states in the USA in the Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey1 by the USDA in 2012. Results of the survey for the Great Plains States shows that approximately 85% of the land in Nebraska is irrigated with center pivots and that very little land was irrigated with drip systems in 2012 (Figure 1). The percentage of land irrigated with sprinklers in …

Tissue Decellularization Methods, Christine E. Schmidt, Rebecca A. Wachs, Robert Chase Cornelison

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Provided herein are methods of producing an acellular tissue product wherein the method can include the step of inducing apoptosis and washing the tissue after induction of apoptosis with a tonic solution. Also provided herein are acellular tissue products produced by the methods provided herein and methods of administering the acellular tissue products to a subject in need thereof.

The Irreversible Momentum Of Clean Energy, Barack Obama

United States Department of Energy: Publications

The release of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to human activity is increasing global average surface air temperatures, disrupting weather patterns, and acidifying the ocean. Left unchecked, the continued growth of GHG emissions could cause global average temperatures to increase by another 4°C or more by 2100 and by 1.5 to 2 times as much in many midcontinent and far northern locations. Although our understanding of the impacts of climate change is increasingly and disturbingly clear, there is still debate about the proper course for U.S. policy—a debate that is very much on display …

2017 Nebraska Water Monitoring Programs Report, Marty Link, Ryan Chapman

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) is charged with monitoring, assessing, and to the extent possible, managing the state’s water resources. The purpose of this work is to protect and maintain high quality water and encourage or execute activities to improve poor water quality. Monitoring is done on nearly 17,000 miles of flowing rivers and streams, more than 134,000 acres of surface water in lakes and reservoirs, as well as the vast storage of groundwater in Nebraska’s aquifers.

Fate And Impacts Of Priority Pollutant Metals In Coal Fly Ash–Soil–Switchgrass Plant Mesocosms, Olushola M. Awoyemi, E. Kudjo Dzantor

Coal Combustion and Gasification Products Journal Archive

Coal fly ash (CFA) is a coal combustion by-product containing heavy metals (HMs) that can enter and accumulate in environmental matrices. The current study assessed the fate and effects of HMs contained in CFA on Armour silt loam (ASL) soil, switchgrass plant, and leachate. Soil impact indices compared levels of HMs in the CFA-soil admixtures to control soil (without CFA). These indices include contamination factor (*C*~f~), modified degree of contamination (m*C*~d~), and pollution load index (PLI). The ratio of the levels of HMs in switchgrass root and shoot tissues to their levels in the CFA-soil admixtures were used to determine …

Sugar Versus Lipid For Sustainable Biofuels, Yaşar Demirel

Yaşar Demirel Publications

Introduction

First‐generation biofuels, namely, ethanol and biodiesel, have led to far reaching impact on the peoples’ life world‐wide.[1] However, they inter-fere with the food supply chain and may not be sustainable although some of the biomass are converted to biofuels after those biomasses have met the human needs. Still, the first‐generation–based biofuels have proved that sugar and lipid platforms can be an answer to energy security and global warming concerns without the need for new infrastructure for feedstock delivery as well as for biomass‐to‐biofuel conversion tech-nologies. At the same time, we are discovering and assessing the long‐term environmental im-plications on …

Field-Observed Angles Of Repose For Stored Grain In The United States, Rumela Bhadra, Mark E. Casada, Sidney A. Thompson, Josephine M. Boac, Ronaldo G. Maghirang, Michael D. Montross, Aaron P. Turner, Samuel G. Mcneill

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Bulk grain angle of repose (AoR) is a key parameter for inventorying grain, predicting flow characteristics, and designing bins and grain handling systems. The AoR is defined for two cases, piling (dynamic) or emptying (static), and usually varies with grain type. The objective of this study was to measure piling angles of repose for corn, sorghum, barley, soybeans, oats, and hard red winter (HRW) wheat in steel and concrete bins in the United States. Angles were measured in 182 bins and 7 outdoor piles. The piling AoR for corn ranged from 15.7° to 30.2° (median of 20.4° and standard deviation …

Automated Calibration Of Electrochemical Oxygen Sensors For Use In Compost Bedded Pack Barns, John T. Evans, Michael P. Sama, Joseph L. Taraba, George B. Day

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to develop an automated calibration process for a galvanic cell type oxygen sensor. The manufacturer recommended a two-point calibration at room temperature; however, testing revealed that the response was not linear when both the temperature and oxygen concentrations varied. Thus, additional points were needed to generate a representative calibration equation and to reduce the sensor prediction interval. The calibration process needed to be capable of automatically recording sensor response (voltage) at an array of temperatures and oxygen concentrations. Calibration gases were used to precisely control the oxygen concentration inside a small manifold, and an …

Application Of Hyperspectral Imaging And Acoustic Emission Techniques For Apple Quality Prediction, Nader Ekramirad, Ahmed Rady, Akinbode A. Adedeji, Reza Alimardani

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

There is a growing demand for developing effective non-destructive quality assessment methods with quick response, high accuracy, and low cost for fresh fruits. In this study, hyperspectral reflectance imaging (400 to 1000 nm) and acoustic emission (AE) tests were applied to ‘GoldRush‘ apples (total number, n = 180) to predict fruit firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), and surface color parameters (L*, a*, b*) during an eight-week storage period. Partial least squares (PLS) regression, least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM), and multivariate linear regression (MLR) methods were used to establish models to predict the quality attributes of the apples. The results …

Ammonia And Carbon Dioxide Emissions Of Three Laying-Hen Housing Systems As Affected By Manure Accumulation Time, Timothy A. Shepherd, Hongwei Xin, John P. Stinn, Morgan D. Hayes, Yang Zhao, Hong Li

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Laying-hen housing design and management are the most significant factors affecting the generation and release of gaseous ammonia to the atmosphere. Transitioning the hen housing type from traditional high-rise (where manure is stored within the house for about one year) to modern manure-belt style (where manure is removed every 1 to 4 d and placed into long-term storage) has significantly improved in-barn air quality and reduced farm-level ammonia emissions. As a direct result of the advantages, 100% of new construction for U.S. egg production incorporates manure-belt systems that regularly remove manure from the houses. However, manure-belt system designs (e.g., active …

Development And Evaluation Of A Low-Cost Probe-Type Instrument To Measure The Equilibrium Moisture Content Of Grain, Paul R. Armstrong, Samuel G. Mcneill, Naomi Manu, Augustine Bosomtwe, James K. Danso, Enoch Osekre, George Opit

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Storage of grain in bags is common in Africa, Asia, and many other less developed countries making a bag probing method well-suited for moisture content (MC) measurement. A low-cost meter was developed under a USAID project to reduce post-harvest loss (PHL). The meter, referred to as the PHL meter, measures the MC of maize and other grains based on relative humidity (RH) and temperature (T) measurements obtained by a small digital sensor located in the tip of a tubular probe that can be inserted into bags of grain or other grain bulks. Measurements are used by equilibrium moisture content (EMC) …