Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Closing The Modern Irish Municipal Wastewater Phosphorus Cycle, Ciaran O’Donnell

Theses

Phosphorus (P) is an essential life-supporting nutrient for which there is no substitute. P naturally cycles within nature. Modern farming practice and food production have altered the natural P cycle. Successive crop harvests remove P from the soil as crops and transport them to urban areas to feed the population. To replace P removed from the soil through these crop harvests, mineral P fertilisers are applied to the soil to sustain crop production. Mineral P fertilisers are derived from finite phosphate rock. The European Union does not have an indigenous supply of phosphorus rock, which poses a significant issue for …

Vulnerable Vegetables And Efficient Fishers: A Study Of Primary Production Food Losses And Waste In Ireland, Tracey O'Connor, Rosanna Kleeman, Jennifer Attard

Publications

From 2022, the European Union Waste Framework Directive (WFD) requires member states to report annual food waste from each food supply chain stage. Comprehensive food losses and waste (FLW) data can be challenging to obtain for the primary production stage, i.e., farming and fishing. However, this information is vital in developing FLW mitigation actions appropriate to each country. This study describes the nature and extent of FLW from primary production in Ireland, using methods approved for WFD reporting. Causes of FLW and FLW as a proportion of total production were determined through interviews with Irish primary production stakeholders and using …

Desired Properties Of Recycling-Derived Fertilisers From An End-User Perspective, Aoife Egan, Niamh Power

Grey Literature

The Interreg North-West (NW) Europe ReNu2Farm project aims to increase the recycling rates of the plant nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K). Currently, farmers predominantly use mineral fertilisers that are a finite resource and in the case of nitrogen are energy-intensive to produce. Then again, there are several regions in NW Europe with a nutrient surplus and there have been many advances in technology that can recover these nutrients. However, there has been very little up-take overall, with these recycling derived fertilisers (RDFs). To explore the reason behind the reluctance of farmers to use these sustainable recycled products, …

Optimisation Of Grass Measurement Technologies Through Field Experimentation And Numerical Simulation Methods, Darren Joseph Murphy

Theses

Maximising pasture utilisation through optimal grassland management is vital in terms of ensuring the economic sustainability and mitigating the environmental impact of both Irish and global pasture-based livestock production. Frequent and accurate measurement of grass quantity and quality is one of the main methods of maximising grass production and utilisation on pasture-based farms. The most prominent grass measurement tool used on Irish pasture is the rising plate meter (RPM), however, there are a range of issues with this method including operator bias, precision and difficulties in accounting for spatial variation. Currently, there is no definitive protocol for grass measurement which …

Development Of A Grass Measurement Optimisation Tool To Efficiently Measure Herbage Mass On Grazed Pastures, D. J. Murphy, B. O'Brien, Michael D. Murphy

Publications

Accurate and efficient estimation of herbage mass is essential for optimising grass utilisation and increasing profit for pasture farming. There is no definitive sampling protocol for grass measurement on Irish pastures. This paper presents the Grass Measurement Optimisation Tool (GMOT), designed to generate measurement protocols that optimise for time and accuracy. The GMOT was designed in the form of a decision support tool that generates interactive paddock maps that guide the farmer on how to optimally measure their pastures in a random stratified manner based on GPS co-ordinates, resulting in accurate non-biased estimations of mean herbage mass. Rising plate meter …

Photovoltaic Systems On Dairy Farms: Financial And Renewable Multi-Objective Optimization (Farmoo) Analysis, Michael Breen, J. Upton, Michael D. Murphy

Publications

No abstract provided.

An Optimal Milk Production Model Selection And Configuration System For Dairy Cows, Fan Zhang

PhDs

Milk production forecasting in the dairy industry has been an independent research topic since the early 20th century. The accurate prediction of milk yield can benefit both the processor (creameries) and the producer (dairy farmer) through developing short-term production schedules, planning long-term road maps, facilitating trade and investment in the dairy industry, improving business operations, optimising the existing infrastructure of the dairy industry, and reducing operating costs. Additionally, due to the innate characteristics of the milk production process, the accurate prediction of milk yield has been a challenging issue in the dairy industry. With the abolishment of EU milk quotas …

Design Of A Smart System For Monitoring Concrete Curing And Structural Health, William Quinn

Theses

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a rapidly growing sector of the construction industry. Automated monitoring methods arc mainly limited to global monitoring and the application of local monitoring methods has not gained widespread application due to the fact that currently technology requires that the systems are wired to data acquisition devices. This thesis presents a fully embeddable wireless sensor node for the local monitoring of structural concrete. It presents the first reported wireless embedded system implementation of the electromechanical impedance method using both resonant and antiresonant sensors for this purpose.

The first section of this thesis examines the feasibility of …

Anaerobic Digestion: Decision Support Software, Marco Poliafico

Theses

Ireland has significant quantities of livestock; meat exportation is a vibrant sector of the economy. Environmental management of animal wastes has therefore become an important concern. On the other hand in the last decade, national and EU policy debate has highlighted the need to investigate alternative energy: in particular energy for transport.

This study investigates the quantities of animal wastes produced in Ireland and their potential treatment using Anaerobic Digestion technologies. In 2005 Ireland had over 8 millions animals (cattle and pigs) and the annual slaughter accounted for over 4.2 million of these creatures. These animals have been responsible for …

Loss Detection In The Dairy Industry., Michael Quealy

Theses

In any waste management program, the primary objective must be minimizing product loss without having an affect on product quality. Good waste management is recognized as good manufacturing practice and optimizes the processes to gain the highest possible yield from the available raw materials. A good waste management program must involve the daily monitoring of effluent from the plant for volume and strength. This data needs to be analyzed sufficiently to obtain clear pictures of what problems are present and where they are originating. If this is achieved then the task of reducing the product loss is made much easier. …