Portable Plant Research Articles

Mild hybrid energy dual-slope solar stills: Design and performance

The critical increase in the lack of available freshwater worldwide owing to different anthropogenic and natural causes has led mankind to seek serious solutions, such as the use of solar stills. This study shows the design and performance of a dual-slope solar still powered by a mild hybrid power supply system. Different power supply configurations were created for the solar still, and commercial phase change materials were incorporated into the prototype. The highest freshwater production rate in the active solar still (6.76 l/m2d) was obtained when power was supplied from the portable photovoltaic plant at the beginning of the test, with an associated cost per liter of produced water of 0.2218 USD. It was shown that phase change materials increased the heat retention time and optimized the energy supply in the solar still. However, their use did not result in lower freshwater production costs.

Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Air (PLTA) Portable Berbasis IoT

Based on the increasing need for electricity for the community, especially in the Bangka Belitung region, which still uses a lot of expensive fossil energy (generators), so it is still a cost constraint for people living in remote areas that have not been electrified. So it is necessary to innovate in making electricity that utilises natural resources (water). However, the problem is that water sources in some places have erratic water discharge. Therefore, in this research it is proposed to make a portable hydropower plant so that it can be moved in a place that has a high water discharge that can monitor the rpm, voltage and current of the generator and battery and is expected to be used as a cheap and environmentally friendly alternative power plant. The methodology in making this hydropower plant uses a 100Watt DC generator with a 12-bladed breadshot turbine type and is controlled using LM393 sensors and INA219 sensors with a monitoring system using the Blynk application by utilising IoT-based technology. The test was conducted by testing the effect of generator rpm speed on generator current and voltage, battery charging and discharging time, and testing the monitoring system using the Blynk application. From the test results, it is obtained that the minimum generator rpm that must be achieved when charging the battery is 425 rpm with the power obtained of 12.19Watt. Charging a 50 Ah capacity battery at the hydropower plant takes 6 hour and 38 minutes with a charging current of 6,7A. While for battery discharge using a 12V 75Watt lamp load takes 7 hours 25 minutes. The generator monitoring system using the Blynk application works well in displaying the same measurement results on the LCD screen with an accuracy value of 100%.

Monitoring Optical Tool to Determine the Chlorophyll Concentration in Ornamental Plants

The accurate estimation of leaf photosynthetic pigments concentration is crucial to check the plant´s health. Traditional methods of measuring photosynthetic pigments involve complex procedures of solvent extraction followed by spectrophotometric determinations. Portable plant instruments such as Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) meters can facilitate this task for the speed and simplicity of the measures. The relationship between chlorophyll index obtained by SPAD-502 and pigment concentration in several ornamental species can help in the management of ornamental plant production. Two trials have been carried out in two different growing seasons (spring and summer) and facilities (greenhouse and open air), involving 30 ornamental species. There was a high linear relationship between concentrations of Chla and Chlb, as well as between Chlt and Ct in different species studied under greenhouse and open field conditions. The ratio between Chla and Chlb was higher at open field conditions and similar between Chlt and Ct. There was also a good relationship between Chlorophyll index and Chlt under both growing conditions, as well as between Chlorophyll index and Ct under greenhouse conditions. However, linear relationships with different slopes were observed for groups of species at open field conditions.

Development of a low-cost portable device for pixel-wise leaf SPAD estimation and blade-level SPAD distribution visualization using color sensing

Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) was proved as a reliable indicator for the representation of leaf chlorophyll or nitrogen content. Portable plant SPAD sensors have been widely studied to determine plant nitrogen status rapidly in recent years. However, the SPAD-502 device could only measure a single point in one shot, and its price was high. Moreover, most of the presented DIY devices for SPAD evaluation required clamping operation to get the transmitted light signal using complex hardware architecture. In this study, an ultra-portable SPAD evaluation system, defined as SPAD-Cap, was proposed for leaf SPAD distribution analysis. The RGB camera module, Raspberry Pi Zero, and light source were integrated. Two modeling methods, including partial least square regression (PLSR) and convolutional neural network for regression (CNN-R), were used to evaluate pixel-level SPAD value based on the color features of the corresponding pixel. The SPAD distribution map was generated by traversing all pixels of the tested blade sample using the trained model. A Web GUI was developed for controlling the whole system and accessing the visualization result. The testing result showed that the designed SPAD-Cap achieved R2 of 0.97 and RMSE of 2.5 SPAD units to inspect rape leaf SPAD. For leaves in several species, R2 was 0.91, and RMSE was about 4.0 SPAD. Moreover, all the processing steps, including data collection, processing, storage, and visualization, were involved in the SPAD-Cap system, which could be a potential solution for rapid and automatic inspection of leaf SPAD distribution.

Desain dan Implementasi MPPT PSO pada Sistem Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga

Indonesia is a large archipelago country with various characteristic areas. Based on a report from the Ministryof Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia's electrification ratio has reached 98.86%. Even though Indonesia'selectrification ratio is close to 100%, it cannot be denied that there are still many remote areas that still do not haveelectricity supply. This can be caused by areas that are difficult to reach, thus hampering the construction of theelectricity network. To meet electricity needs in remote areas and with not too many population, a Diesel Power Plant(PLTD) is usually built, but this type of plant requires fuel oil which of course also requires replenishment everycertain time after the fuel runs out. To solve the above problems, a portable solar power plant (PLTS) is proposedwhich can be easily mobilized to facilitate delivery to remote areas. PLTS portable can also be used as an emergencypower source in areas where electricity facilities have been cut off due to natural disasters. To adjust the output voltageof the solar panels, a single input multi output (SIMO) converter topology is proposed. This converter consists of aflyback converter that can increase and decrease the voltage and has isolation between the input and output sides. Inaddition, this converter also has several outputs so that it can supply two loads (battery and communication equipment)at the same time. To maximize the conversion of solar energy in this system, it is also proposed to use the MPPTcontrol with the PSO method.

Development and performance evaluation of small size household portable biogas plant for domestic use

Biogas is one of the renewable energy resources produced from the anaerobic fermentation of biomass. About 60% of Pakistan population live in rural areas that demand energy source for domestic and commercial use. Therefore, biogas plants can be used as one of the renewable energy sources in Pakistan. This paper described the development and performance evaluation of small size household portable biogas plant. The lightweight double-ply polypropylene material is used to fabricate the biogas plant, which is durable and easily portable. The volume of the digester was 2.15 m3, and the gasholder volume was 0.84 m3. The performance of the developed plant and biogas production is verified by three different treatments of feeding materials, i.e., buffalo dung (BD), buffalo dung plus sheep waste (BD + SW), and buffalo dung plus chicken droppings (BD + CD). The maximum biogas productions for treatments BD, BD + CD and BD + SW were recorded 0.59 m3/kg-VS, 0.61 m3/kg-VS, and 0.79 m3/kg-VS, respectively. The AMPTS was also conducted to compare total methane production. The nutrient analysis performed for both substrate and slurry showed improved nutrient quantity in the slurry. The cost estimation cleared that fixed biogas plants have 1.27 times more costly than that of portable biogas plants. The developed biogas plant is favorable for its light in weight and low cost, and it can produce enough methane gas to fulfill the domestic requirements.

ОБРАБОТКА СОПРЯЖЕННЫХ ПОВЕРХНОСТЕЙ В ПЕРЕСЕКАЮЩИХСЯ КАНАЛАХ

The purpose of the work is the application of a non-profiled electrode-brush for mating surfaces machining including that in crossed channels. To achieve the goal set there were problems under solution: the development of essential equipment, electrode-tools, the selection of working environment, the optimization of combined machining modes. To solve the problems set there are used basis regulations of the theory: electric and combined methods of machining, the mathematical apparatus of probability theories and mathematical statistics. In the paper the developed and manufactured plants and electrode-tools are shown. The recommended machining conditions, working environment are shown. The equipment is presented with a small-size plant for high-speed machining with an electrode-brush and a portable plant fixed on a drill rod that with the use of operating fluid recommended allows reducing considerably the terms and cost of metal cutting equipment updating for machining with electric field imposition. In the paper there are considered standard parts: nozzles, ejector bodies, parts of piping hydro-systems. The results of machining parts with crossed channels are shown. The application of processing by an electrode-brush with high circumferential velocities with regard to the work-piece from 35 m/sec and higher allows manufacturing products with the set values. The application of an electrode-brush is efficient for mating surfaces combined machining.

Automated Gardening Portable Plant Using IoT

Automated Gardening Portable Plant Using IoT

Chlorophyll meter–based nitrogen fertilizer optimization algorithm and nitrogen nutrition index for in‐season fertilization of paddy rice

AbstractNitrogen fertilizer optimization algorithm (NFOA) and nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) have been developed to achieve higher yield and N use efficiency. This study was to improve NFOA and NNI strategies for managing rice N nutrition based on portable Soil and Plant Analyzer Development (SPAD) meter. Four field experiments were conducted in 2013–2014 to generate diverse N fertilizer rates in rice cultivars at three eco‐sites. Nitrogen indicators SPAD readings were measured to establish SPAD‐based management strategies. Two experiments were conducted to assess the effectiveness of developed NFOA and NNI algorithm for upward and downward adjustment of N‐fertilizer doses twice within the growing season in 2015. New N‐adjustment strategies optimized N topdressing by upward‐, fine‐, and downward‐ adjustment with an average N‐application rate of 264–272 kg N ha−1 in eastern China. Maximum grain yield (10.5 t ha−1) was obtained when 264 kg N ha−1 was applied. The recovery efficiency of N fertilizer was higher for NFOA and NNI (51–57%) than fixed‐time application of 270 kg N ha−1 (48%). The comparable high net profit (>$1080 ha−1) was achieved with lower N‐adjustment fertilizer input in 270 and 360 kg N ha−1 treatments. SPAD‐based NFOA and NNI methods are practical approaches for reducing excessive use of N fertilizer, achieving slight increase in yield, and net profit was decreased (360 kg N ha−1). More refinements are necessary to ensure that these strategies can be used for yield‐ and income‐enhancing production for farmers.

Cassava leaf NDVI - Artificial Neural Network (CaNDVI-ANN): A Low Cost, Portable and Non-Invasive Cassava Plant Health Monitoring Device

Cassava leaf NDVI - Artificial Neural Network (CaNDVI-ANN): A Low Cost, Portable and Non-Invasive Cassava Plant Health Monitoring Device

Leaf Scanner: A portable and low-cost multispectral corn leaf scanning device for precise phenotyping

During recent years, portable plant phenotyping instruments have become increasingly important to monitor conditions of plant health non-destructively in the greenhouse and field environments. These devices, such as the Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) meter, leverage indices that represent leaf chlorophyll content due to its strong correlation with leaf nitrogen (N) content. However, instruments such as SPAD meters are expensive and measure only individual, restricted leaf regions per data capture. In this publication, we developed a Leaf Scanner device to analyze the chlorophyll content distributions of whole leaves with greater efficiency and precision. The validating samples for this device were top-collared corn leaves grown under high and low N treatments in a greenhouse. For each region of a corn leaf, this device rapidly flashed visible and near infrared (NIR) LEDs to obtain the visible and NIR transmittance images of leaves. These images were summarized pixel-wisely into the Green NDVI index. A sufficient high framerate permitted continuous collection of regional index images. Using image registration techniques, these regional images were stitched together into a ‘leaf panorama’. The total pixel amount of each leaf panorama, thus, served as a substitute for leaf area. A Minolta SPAD-502Plus meter collected ground-truth measurements along the length of each leaf sample. The results showed that there was a strong correlation between the average Leaf Scanner’s measurements and averaged SPAD values (R2 = 0.92), and the Leaf Scanner was able to clearly detect differences between high and low fertilized samples in terms of chlorophyll content and leaf area. Furthermore, this Leaf Scanner device enabled us to study the chlorophyll content distributions on the plants under different treatments.

A photometric stereo-based 3D imaging system using computer vision and deep learning for tracking plant growth.

BackgroundTracking and predicting the growth performance of plants in different environments is critical for predicting the impact of global climate change. Automated approaches for image capture and analysis have allowed for substantial increases in the throughput of quantitative growth trait measurements compared with manual assessments. Recent work has focused on adopting computer vision and machine learning approaches to improve the accuracy of automated plant phenotyping. Here we present PS-Plant, a low-cost and portable 3D plant phenotyping platform based on an imaging technique novel to plant phenotyping called photometric stereo (PS).ResultsWe calibrated PS-Plant to track the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana throughout the day-night (diel) cycle and investigated growth architecture under a variety of conditions to illustrate the dramatic effect of the environment on plant phenotype. We developed bespoke computer vision algorithms and assessed available deep neural network architectures to automate the segmentation of rosettes and individual leaves, and extract basic and more advanced traits from PS-derived data, including the tracking of 3D plant growth and diel leaf hyponastic movement. Furthermore, we have produced the first PS training data set, which includes 221 manually annotated Arabidopsis rosettes that were used for training and data analysis (1,768 images in total). A full protocol is provided, including all software components and an additional test data set.ConclusionsPS-Plant is a powerful new phenotyping tool for plant research that provides robust data at high temporal and spatial resolutions. The system is well-suited for small- and large-scale research and will help to accelerate bridging of the phenotype-to-genotype gap.

Portable autonomous solar power plant for individual use

Development and design of low power mobile and inexpensive solar stations are important for farmers, individuals, geologists and trotters. The most important aspect is ensuring reliability of units in times of transportation, convenience and operational ease as well as minimum dimensions, low price. All the above will ensure large-scale implementation of solar stations in various applications and utilizations.

Techno-economic analysis of portable plant from waste cooking oil

Techno-economic analysis for portable biodiesel plant from waste cooking oil in Indonesia has been performed in this study. Analysis was performed by calculating the capital expenditures (CAPEX), operational expenditures (OPEX), and evaluation of economically aspects. Sensitivity of raw material cost, product price, and number of batch fluctuation have also been analyzed in this study. Overall process in this portable biodiesel plant has been simulated in the prior study and able to produce 128 L of biodiesel per batch production with 18 batch production per day. Based on calculation, the total of CAPEX and OPEX for this plant is IDR 5.354 billion and IDR 6.505 billion, respectively. Regarding to the economic evaluation, this plant will provide internal rate of return by 17.8%, net present value of IDR 7.196 billion, and payback period on the third year, with 20 years of plant lifetime with product price of USD 0.847/L. Hence, this plant is considered to be built and commercialized in order to enhance biodiesel production in Indonesia.

Design of portable biodiesel plant from waste cooking oil

The design of portable biodiesel plant from waste cooking oil has been done simultaneously based on biodiesel standard of SNI 7182: 2012. Design of biodiesel production involves several processes including esterification, transesterification, decantation, vacuum evaporation, and ultra-filtration. Production of biodiesel has been simulated using several software packages. Based on the simulation conducted, the esterification process was able to convert 92.8% of FFA into FAME by using sulfuric acid as the catalyst with 10% w/w of FFA. Transesterification showed the biodiesel yield of 90% by using NaOH as the catalyst with 1% w/w of triglyceride. Evaporation on vacuum system was able to obtain biodiesel with methanol content less than 0.5% with lower energy consumption. Purification of biodiesel using ultra-filtration requires considerable energy but it was able to produce the purity rate of biodiesel up to 99.8% with relatively shorter time.

SEASONAL CHANGES IN THE STAMINA OF THE EUROPEAN PERCH (PERCA FLUVIATILIS LINNAEUS, 1758)

The stamina of perches in the cold and warm seasons was studied in a portable experimental plant that allows measuring the maximum swimming force of fishes under mechanical and electrical stimulation. The field experiment was carried out in Lake Angozero (South Karelia) in March and August. The temperature of lake water was 2 and 15–17 ° C on the study days, respectively. Fish caught within one hour were one by one measured for the swimming force. This index for different stimulations varied on average from 1.1 to 14.1 g in March and from 15.7 to 42.0 g in August, with peaks of 21 and 113 g. All experimental specimens reacted actively to the electrical stimulation, whereas reaction to touch under low temperature was either sluggish or absent. The results of the statistical comparison of the samples indicate significant differences between seasons, refuting the widespread opinion about invariable stamina of the European perch around the year. Despite the common passivity of the fish in March, some showed quite high swimming power. It is possible that such selective reactivity creates the illusion of a lower, compared to other species, seasonal variability of the stamina in perch. The stamina is closely related to the individuals size – the larger the fish, the greater its swimming force. Simulation has shown that governing factors for the rate of increase in the swimming force with increasing fish size are the seasonal component and the threshold of excitability, which, due to subjective reasons, is higher and more variable under mechanical impact in comparison with anodic reaction.

All-in-one portable electric power plant using proton exchange membrane fuel cells for mobile applications

A portable electric power plant is developed using a NaBH4 (sodium borohydride)-based proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack. The power plant consists of a NaBH4-based hydrogen generator, a fuel cell stack, a DC-DC converter, a micro-processed controller and a data monitoring device. The hydrogen generator can produce 5.9 L/min pure hydrogen gas using catalytic hydrolysis of 20 wt% NaBH4 to feed a 500-W scale fuel cell stack. Thus, the Co/γ-Al2O3 and Co-P/Ni foam catalysts in the hydrogen generator play significant roles in promoting hydrogen production rates that are as fast as necessary by enhancing the slow response that is intrinsic to using only Co-P/Ni foam catalysts. Moreover, different hydrogen production rates can easily be achieved during the operation by controlling NaBH4 solution rates using a fuel pump so that the hydrogen storage efficiency can be improved by supplying required hydrogen gas in accordance with load demands. The specific energy density of the electric power plant was measured 211 Wh/kg. Therefore, the power plant described here can be a power source for mobile applications, such as cars and UAVs, as well as a stationary power supplier when electric energy is required.

Smooth Integration of Gansu Wind Farm into the Grid Using the Stator Flux-Oriented Vector Method and Fuzzy Logic Control

Gansu province wind energy potential in China is around 237 GW. According to the schedule, 20 GW wind energy is connected to the grid by 2020. However, there is a chance of instability in the presence of big intermittency. To integrate this huge generated wind power, a reliable control strategy is required. The proposed portable power plant (PPP) energy storage system is fully compatible with a smart grid and mitigates the dispatching complexity and provides better designing and implementation of Gansu wind farm in China. In a two-way power flow, when the generation is bigger than the load demand, the additional power is stored in the PPP for future use, and when the demand is higher than the total generation, the stored power is applied to feed the grid. Also the PPP can charge the grid during peak demand periods or when the local network is stressed. An intelligent controller is linked with PPP to monitor the power flow. The stator flux-oriented vector method is used for modeling the system. Then, a fuzzy controller is applied to adjust the modulation index of PWM inverter and also uses energy storage units to stabilize the output of the power plant. Real field data of the Gansu wind farm with 24-h horizon have been applied on the proposed system. The results show the high performance of the fuzzy-based PPP system in the presence of fluctuations and increase the efficiency of the power system by storing energy through PPP. With a large-scale plan for application of smart grid and renewable energy sources in China, this paper introduces an essential step of this vision to provide a feasible framework for future large-scale smart grid projects in China as well as stable operation of Gansu wind farm as the biggest wind farm in mainland when it is completed.

Design of plant growth information acquisition and management system based on WIFI

A portable plant growth information acquisition and management system based on WIFI was developed to monitor plant growth status by the non - picking leaves. It uses STM32 as main control chip. The chlorophyll characterization value SPAD and water characterization value WI were obtained with the transmittance of plant leaves under the light of 650, 940 and 1450nm, and the fluorescence images were obtained by 460nm excitation chlorophyll fluorescence to analyze the infection of the disease. The nitrogen content of the leaves can be retrieved with the fluorescence parameter R fd . The software of the upper computer, which adopts the B/S architecture, is designed to manage and display the data based on the JAVA language. The stability and reliability of the designed system are verified by field application.

Selective Flocculation of Iron Ore Slimes: Results of Successful Pilot Plant Trials at Tata Steel, Noamundi

A significant portion of currently mined iron ores, that is, 15–20% of run of mine ore, typically ends up as slimes—a slurry of fine particles (<45 micron) with relatively higher alumina contents (7–15% Al2O3). The only viable option currently is to dispose these slimes in tailing ponds for water recovery and future use. Due to increasing demand for steel and rapid consumption of high grade ores, processing and utilization of these slimes has become an urgent necessity. Traditional gravity and magnetic separation is not very effective in the ultrafine size range (less than 45 microns) and hence most of the flowsheets have a desliming step ahead of gravity and magnetic separation. Selective dispersion—flocculation is commercially proven technology to accomplish efficient separation in this size range, provided appropriate selective reagents are available. Our earlier work in TRDDC laboratories has demonstrated that selective flocculation with starch and guar gum is sufficiently selective for the reduction of alumina contents and thus this process should be scaled up for the processing of alumina rich Indian iron ore slimes. TRDDC has also designed a portable set-up which can be used to run pilot plant trials in a continuous mode onsite in the mines. The successful pilot plant trials of a selective flocculation separation process were completed by us at Noamundi mines recently. The results of these plant trials, using a portable pilot plant set up, designed by TRDDC, are summarized in this paper. The slimes sample for these plant trials, was withdrawn from one of the slimes stream at the Tata Steel’s iron ore beneficiation plant at Noamundi mines. Though there was considerable variation in the grade and pulp density of the slimes sample, it was possible to produce a concentrate of consistent quality in a continuous mode. It was for example demonstrated that one can produce a concentrate assaying 65.3% Fe and 2.5% alumina with a yield of 80.4% from a relatively richer grade slime sample containing 60.3% Fe and 4.8% alumina. More importantly, the corresponding tails contained less than 39.7% Fe. For a leaner grade slime sample assaying 53.4% Fe and 7.3% alumina, the corresponding concentrate grade was 63.5% Fe and 3.1% alumina, tailings grade 35.7% Fe and the yield achieved during the plant trials was 63.5%.