Search results for "MECCANICA AGRARIA"
showing 10 items of 335 documents
Investigation of a tunnel pasteurizer for “Nocellara del Belice” table olives processed according to the “Castelvetrano method”
2014
The influence of pasteurization temperature and time of treatment on the flesh firmness and the evolution of microbial communities was studied for table olives Cv. Nocellara del Belice, packed in glass jars and processed with a tunnel pasteurizer. The experiment was first carried out on the laboratory level in order to select the optimal combination of pasteurization time/temperature so as to obtain the proper balance between the consistency of the pulp and the microbiological quality of the final product. Pasteurization at industrial scale was then carried out in a tunnel pasteurizer applying the treatment at 75 °C for 8 min in the thermal center of the jars. Besides flesh firmness and mic…
TURF-BOX: an active lighting multispectral imaging system with led VIS-NIR sources for monitoring of vegetated surfaces
2021
A microcontroller driven system suitable to monitor soil and low vegetation is described. A radiometrically pre-calibrated imaging camera driven by a microcontroller is contained in a light-tight box aiming at an actively illuminated target surface area of 50×38 cm, using LED sources with different emission wavelengths (blue, green, red and infrared). The adopted arrangement allows measurements independent from local lighting conditions and from the in situ, per-session calibrations necessary with the conventional instrumentation adopted for field measurements. Sequential lighting of the target surface with the monochromatic LED sources allows capturing multispectral images at a relatively …
Biogas yield from Sicilian kitchen waste and cheese whey
2013
The aim of this study is to determine the chemical composition of kitchen waste and cheese whey, as well as the biogas yield obtained from the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) tests of these two raw materials. Since the separated waste collection is performed in the town of Marineo (Palermo), a sample of kitchen waste, different from food industry one and included in the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW), was collected from the mass stored at the households of this town. Moreover, a sample of cheese whey was collected in a Sicilian mini dairy plant, where sheep milk is processed. This investigation was carried out inside laboratory digesters of Aleksandras Stulginskis University (Li…
Application of Precision Agriculture for the Sustainable Management of Fertilization in Olive Groves
2023
Olive tree growing (Olea europaea L.) has considerably increased in the last decades, as has the consumption of extra virgin olive oil in the world. Precision agriculture is increasingly being applied in olive orchards as a new method to manage agronomic variability with the aim of providing individual plants with the right input amount, limiting waste or excess. The objective of this study was to develop a methodology on a GIS platform using GEOBIA algorithms in order to build prescription maps for variable rate (VRT) nitrogen fertilizers application in an olive orchard. The fertilization plan was determined for each tree by applying its own nitrogen balance, taking into account the variab…
Evaluation of hand-arm vibrations during the use of portable olives harvesters
2013
The use of portable shakers in olives harvesting is becoming increasingly, especially in Sicily, both to reduce the costs of production and to assure the oil quality. Nevertheless, it’s well known that the use of such tools may involve risk of exposure to hand-transmitted vibration. Such exposure to vibrations is a potential cause of muscular/skeletal pains in hand–arm system, and specific pathologies such as Vibration-Induced White Finger (VWF) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), Hand–Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS). The aim of this study was to assess the level of exposure to hand-arm vibration of the operators during the use of portable shakers for olives harvesting. Two different commonly u…
First tests of mechanical harvest of Origanum vulgare L.
2003
In Italy Origanum vulgare L. is cultivated only in few areas and its production does not even satisfy the national market demand. Until now the interest on this crop has been very low because of the high cost of manual harvest and bunch binding. The aim of this work is to evaluate the use of a reaper-binder (made for harvesting cereal crops) for harvesting and bunch binding Origanum vulgare L. The tests were carried out in Sicily, in the summer of 2001. The mechanical harvest was carried out using the reaper-binder unmodified, but the results were not satisfactory. The machine was then modified reducing its forward speed and cutting height, in order to improve its working productivity and h…
Italian Potential Biogas and Biomethane Production from OFMSW
2015
This work is aimed at predicting the potential biogas and biomethane production, using the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW), in Italy, where 1388 Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants (power of 7.4 TWh, equal to 640.4 ktep) are nowadays available. In order to compute the potential biogas and biomethane production in the 20 Italian regions, the data about OFMSW production in 2010-2013 period have been evaluated. The Italian production of OFMSW, that was 5.2 million tons in 2013 (18% of MSW), could be used inside bioreactors for producing biogas and digestate, that must be aerobically composted into a biofertiliser. In 2013, the Italian potential biogas production from OFMSW was 73…
Response of Origanum vulgare L. to different plant densities and first results of mechanical harvest
2003
Tests for evaluating the agronomical response of Origanum to four plant densities were carried out from 1998 to 2001, on a local biotype of Origanum collected at Monreale (Palermo), in an area having the typical soil and climatic conditions of the Sicilian environment. Data about plant biometric characteristics (height at different growth phases, number of branches per plant, fresh weight yield) and the proportions among inflorescences, leaves and stems were monitored. Moreover, essential oil analyses were carried out for each plant density. The results showed that the plant density influenced the yield but not the plant height. The best results were obtained in the second year, when the hi…
Life Cycle Impact Assessment applied to cactus pear crop production for generating bioenergy and biofertiliser
2020
Among the potential uses of cactus pear, the generation of bioenergy (biogas) and biofertiliser (digestate), from the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) of cladodes and fruits, is surveyed in this paper. Data for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) was drawn from a farm located in Roccapalumba (Palermo, Sicily, Italy), where three cultivars were cultivated: 1) yellow pulp cultivar; 2) red pulp cultivar; 3) white pulp cultivar. LCIA was applied to six scenarios: 1) current dry crop; 2) current irrigated crop; 3) dry crop for fruit and bioenergy production; 4) irrigated crop for fruit and bioenergy production; 5) dry crop for bioenergy production; 6) irrigated crop for bioenergy production. According t…
Effects of Vermicompost, Compost and Digestate as Commercial Alternative Peat-Based Substrates on Qualitative Parameters of Salvia officinalis
2021
Peat is a common substrate used for the cultivation of potted plants. However, the use of peat in horticulture has recently been questioned from an environmental standpoint, since it is a non-renewable resource and plays a major role in atmospheric CO2 sequestration. The aim of this work was to assess the potentialities of substrates obtained from vermicompost, compost and anaerobic digestion processes to partially substitute peat for sage (Salvia officinalis L.) cultivation. Therefore, we planned an experiment to assess the effect of these substrates on essential oil (EO) yield and composition, as well as on leaf nutrients concentration of sage plants. The three substrates were mixed with …