The studies covered the branches: sugar industry, fruit-and-vegetable processing and potato processing plants. The analyses of water consumption and quantities of wastewater formed in 24 production plants were performed in the paper. A comparison of water and wastewater management in three branches showed that the highest water consumption is in fruit-and-vegetable processing. The data collected in the paper indicates the drop of water consumption in potato as well as fruit-and-vegetable industry. The values obtained for sugar industry indicate that it is the least diversified branch.
Marginal land is the area remaining in agricultural use, which is not suitable for food production because of its unfavorable ecological, anthropological, and economic conditions. A certain amount of such land exists in mountainous areas. An analysis was undertaken on the example of the Polish Sudeten mountain range of energy use. The study aimed to estimate the biomass potential for the efficient use of agricultural land in mountain areas. The characteristics of the Polish Sudeten Mountains mountain range were characterized using Geographic Information System (GIS) methods. The Polish Sudeten Mountains covers an area of 370,392 ha, 95,341 ha of which is arable land, 35,726 ha of which is class 5 bonitation land with a northern exposure of 19,030 ha and southern exposure of 16,696 ha. Depending on the sowing structure, we can obtain 331,639 tons/year of dry biomass (Miscanthus sacchariflorus on the southern and Helianthus tuberoses on northern exposure). Fertilization levels will significantly affect low yielding plants, and water stress significantly reduced yields in all cases. Due to the steep slope of the 5th-grade halves and intensive rainfall in the mountain region, the establishment of perennial plantations is recommended. The research shows that after the first year of cultivation, yields of 9.27 tons/ha of dry matter can be obtained with a low yield of trees, shrubs and perennials.
The negative effect of liquid and gaseous fuel combustion is toxic gases (i.e., carbon and nitrogen oxides NOx) and particulate matter (PM) formation. The content of harmful and toxic components of exhaust gases is strongly dependent on the quality and type of burnt fuel. Experimental research is required to verify the use of current technical and technological solutions for the production of electricity on farms, using various types of conventional fuels and biofuels. The aim of the current research was to comprehensively verify the use of commonly available fuels and biofuels without adapting the internal combustion engine. Gaseous fuels—propane-butane mixture (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and biogas (BG)—were added to liquid fuels—methyl esters of higher fatty acids (RME) and diesel fuel (DF)—in six different power configurations to evaluate the effect on the emission of toxic gases: carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), nitric dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM), and the efficiency of fuel conversion. The use of RME in various configurations with gaseous fuels increased the emission of oxides and reduced the emission of PM. Increasing the share of LPG and CNG significantly increased the level of NO emissions. The use of gaseous fuels reduced the efficiency of the generator, particularly in the case of co-firing with DF. For medium and high loads, the lowest decrease in efficiency was recorded for the RME configuration with BG. Taking into account the compromise between individual emissions and the configuration of RME with BG, the most advantageous approach is to use it in power generators.
The characteristics of Polish rural agglomerations indicate that only 32% of these areas are villages typified by compact buildings where the use of a collective sewage system is economically justified. In other areas, it is necessary to apply solutions that allow for the sewage utilization in place of their creation and safe discharge into the environment, e.g. in the form of home systems based on biological processes, e.g. in soil-plant systems. The purpose of the work was to determine the soil-plant efficiency of wastewater treatment with the use of so-called energy plants. The experiment was conducted in 2012–2014 in lysimeters at a depth of 130 cm and 100 cm in diameter. These were submerged in the ground, filled with sand clay and equipped with installations enabling the drain-age of gravity water in the form of lysimeter effluents. Two species of plants were used: Miscanthu giganteus and Sida hermaphrodita (L.) Rusby. They were irrigated with pre-treated domestic sewage (variant I – 1200 mm · year−1 and variant II – 1600 mm · year−1). For irrigation, sewage from a group of buildings inhabited by six families was used. Raw domestic sewage was discharged into the tank, consisting of four chambers, which constituted a relatively good level of pre-cleaning. For the irrigation of plants in the experiment, pre-treated sewage was used. In order to determine the effectiveness of wastewater treatment in the soil-plant environment, the concentrations of the following components were determined in the effluents: TSS, BOD5, COD, Ntot. The quantities of pollutants contained in the sewage were characterized by considerable variability, especially in relation to COD (390.6–1583.0 mg O2· dm−3) and Ntot (47.0–250.2 mg N · dm−3).
One of the problems of sustainable agricultural land management (SALM) is the competition between food production and biomass production. For this reason, marginal lands with unfavorable agrotechnical conditions have been proposed for non-food crops in recent years. To this end, a better understanding of the impact of environmental factors on crop development and yield is needed. The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of soil water availability on selected morphological, physiological and growth characteristics of four C4 grass species (Miscanthus × giganteus, Miscanthus sacchariflorus, Miscanthus sinensis and Spartina pectinate) growing under different water and fertilizer conditions. A pot experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions with four grass species, three different water rates (100, 85 and 70%) and three fertilizer rates (270, 180 and 90 kg NPK ha−1). The study showed that water stress, regardless of plant species, increased the chlorophyll content index without affecting the photosynthetic efficiency of the plants. Water stress significantly decreased plant fresh and dry mass, shoot number and length, and shoot/leaf ratio. The response to water deficit depended on the plant species. Miscanthus sinensis was the most sensitive to water deficit and Spartina pectinate the most tolerant (reduction in dry mass of 41.5% and 18%, respectively). Water stress (85% and 70%) reduced the number and the length of shoots without affecting the average diameter of shoots of the tested grasses, resulting in a significant reduction in biomass production of plants grown under optimal conditions with mineral NPK fertilization (180 kg NPK ha−1). Miscanthus sacchariflorus showed the highest dry matter under the worst growing conditions (70% and 90 NPK) and therefore could be recommended for cultivation on marginal lands with unfavorable agrotechnical conditions. It should be emphasized that the high yield of this species was not due to the photosynthetic efficiency, but better growth stem parameters (length and number). It appears that, for long-term agricultural land management, it is preferable to determine fertilizer rates for each crop species based on soil water availability. It should also be emphasized that increasing the yield of potential lignocellulosic crops for energy purposes while reducing environmental impact appears to be one of the viable answers to the difficulties of conventional energy production.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.