The main aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of growing basil under three soilless systems (aeroponic, hydroponic and peatmoss slab systems). A model was developed to predict the nutrients consumption by basil plants. Shoot and root height, fresh and dry mass of whole plant, nutrients uptake, and oil content were studied during the growth period (after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting). The results indicated that the shoot lengths of basil plants were 71.67 ± 2.89, 65.67 ± 1.15 and 62.33 ± 2.31 cm at the end of growth period for aeroponic, hydroponic and peatmoss slabs, respectively. The highest value of root height of basil plants was 37.67 ± 6.66 cm for aeroponic system. The dry mass of shoot of basil plants ranged from 28.48 ± 0.91 to 44.77 ± 0.97 and 72.98 ± 0.83 to 117.93 ± 1.40 g plant−1 after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting, respectively. The highest values of the N, P, K, Ca and Mg uptakes were 753.99 ± 5.65, 224.88 ± 3.05, 449.75 ± 4.59, 529.12 ± 6.63 and 112.44 ± 1.67 mg plant−1 at the end of experimental period, respectively. The basil oil content ranged from 1.129 (1.11%) to 2.520 (1.80%) and 2.664 (1.42%) to 6.318 (1.44%) g plant−1 after 4 and 7 weeks from transplanting, respectively at the same pervious order. The production costs of basil plant were 2.93, 5.27 and 6.24 EGP kg−1 of plant. The model results were in a reasonable agreement with the experimental ones.
An uncapping machine was designed and fabricated to uncap both two sides of honeycomb leading to remove the thin wax layer that seals the honey cells. The developed uncapping machine is tested at the Agric. Eng. Res. Inst (2019) under four feeding chain speeds (10, 15, 20 and 25 rpm), four spiral knife speeds (150, 200, 250 and 300 rpm) and four levels of heating temperature for the uncapping device (without heating, 35 , 40 and 45 0 C). The interaction effect between different parameters for the uncapping device resulted in 192 tests. Measurements were taken for the machine productivity, uncapping efficiency and power requirement. The obtained results concluded that the uncapping machine can be operated successfully at the optimum operating parameters of 10 rpm feeding chain speed, 300 rpm spiral knife speed and 40 °C of spiral knife temperature. These operating conditions cause an uncapping efficiency of 95.2 %, productivity of 240 frames / h, consumed specific energy of 8.9×10-3 kW.h/frame. The uncapping machine reduced the estimated cost by 3 times than the manual knife uncapping. Therefore, the developed uncapping honeycombs machine is considered an effective solution for precise controlling of uncapping honeycomb invade Egyptian beekeepers and it gives continuous satisfactory uncapping.
An onion peeling machine was designed, manufactured, developed and evaluated to suit the small and medium processing units. The onion peeling machine consists of seven parts, main frame, peeling drum, inlet and outlet openings, collection basin, water and air supplying systems, and power transmission. The machine was evaluated using different onion bulb sizes (small, medium & large). A mixed sample of different sizes was also tested. The evaluation process was conducted under three different drum rotational speeds (30, 40 and 50 rpm), three different peeling residence times (1, 2 and 3mins) and three different batch loads (18, 24 and 30kg). The optimum peeling efficiency of 74.9, 65.24, 80.08 and 85.45% were obtained at 24kg batch load (0.36 ton/h.), 2min peeling residence time and 40 rpm for small, medium, mixed and large sizes respectively. Water pump and air compressor were added to the peeler to improve the peeling efficiency, and it was tested under the previous conditions. The corresponding values of peeling efficiency for the machine with pump water at water pressure of 400kPa were 76.
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