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Natural substrates used in horticultural practice quickly degrade during plant cultivation. Methods to extend their service life are sought using natural materials, the acquisition and disposal of which do not burden the natural environment. The paper presents a sustainable method for modifying the coconut fiber substrate by impregnation with a wood-based isolate activated for polymerization and the addition of biochar pellets with retention-increasing properties. The modifications applied to the substrates were shown to have an impact on some of their physical properties, which directly impacted their usefulness in the horticultural production of dessert raspberries. It was found that after a year of operation, the modified substrates showed significantly lower levels of degradation markers. The shrinkage of the impregnated substrate was ~50% lower than that of the control sample, while the substrate with the addition of biochar pellets resulted in similar shrinkage and the lowest plant root mass (25.47%). The usefulness of these substrates was also verified by measuring the physiological parameters of the plants, which determined the ability to photosynthesize and build biomass, as well as susceptibility to stress potentially caused by substrate modifications. The recorded values of these parameters indicate, in most cases, that there is no disturbance of the homeostasis of raspberry plants grown using these substrates. However, plant productivity (measured by the yield of harvested raspberry fruit) indicates that the use of impregnated coconut fiber substrate with the addition of biochar pellets allows for obtaining the highest fruit yields (fruit yield—2.43 kg plant−1). The yields obtained in combination with the extended durability of the modified substrates during operation recommend this solution for use in horticultural practice and make the production more sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve energy and environmental security in urban environments and in accordance with the requirements of the EU, the task of sustainable developing agriculture in urban agglomerations and monitoring it using satellite images becomes relevant. The aim of the work is the development of methods and means for determining stable islands of thermal energy to substantiate the optimal locations for plant growing practices in the metropolis. The research was conducted in Kyiv, the largest metropolis of Ukraine. Data from the Landsat 8 and 9 satellites were used because of the free data and they have better spatial resolution and an available archive of observation results. It was established that the temperature map of the city of Kyiv shows differences in temperature between different parts of the city, probably due to the presence of different sources of heat radiation. It is obvious that the standard deviation of the temperature in the plots depends on many factors, in particular, the season and the type of land use. It is necessary to find alternative solutions for the development of crop production in this area, taking into account the characteristics of thermal emissions. Based on software products from free satellite monitoring providers, EO Browser, a specialized software solution (web application) has been created for monitoring agricultural plantations in an urban environment. A collection of LANDSAT 8 satellite images was used. Areas with stable heat emissions were found, which are due to the operation of a modern shopping and entertainment center, and non-traditional crops for landscaping adapted to its design are proposed. As a result of research, strong heat emissions were recorded for some objects, for them the temperature exceeds the surrounding area by 4 °C, while the minimum standard deviation in January is 0.5 °C, the maximum in July is 2.8 °C, in April and October—1.7 °C and 1.2 °C, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When we design the automated systems of unloading materials from the tankers, especially when we construct the automated tool for planting an energy willow, there is a need to create the movement model and to study its characteristics. The combination of cuttings, unloaded from the tanker, can be represented as the flow of a two-phase pseudo liquid. Then the process of unloading itself can be modelled on the basis of methods of hydrodynamic multiphase systems. The main characteristics that affect the process of unloading are highlighted in the deduced equation. The effective coefficient of vibro-viscosity and the calculation algorithm for the dynamic coefficient of vibro-viscosity in terms of cuttings oscillatory motion influenced by gravity field and harmonic vibrations is given in the study.

A method is presented for justifying the construction of a mathematical model of the process of supplying consumers from local sources, taking into account deterministic input information. The target function of the mathematical model is to minimize financial investments in the construction and operation of the local energy supply system using renewable energy sources. Presented activities are aimed at assessing the efficiency of use of fuel and energy resources by local power supply systems, determining the conditions for a positive economic effect, substantiating the composition and main technical parameters of power plants and devices of the local power supply system. At the same time, the conditions of competitiveness of the local power supply system relative to the centralized one should be observed. Sources of local power supply systems should be built on the basis of biogas plants that are capable of producing biogas with long-term storage in gas storages and at the same time are energy storage batteries for other renewable sources. The presented analysis of the energy balance of a biogas plant, taking into account the synergistic effects of interaction between centralized and local energy systems, will make it possible to make optimal decisions for creating a bioenergy complex.

Modern decision support systems have many applications, including assistance in scheduling tasks. Biosystems engineering combines engineering sciences and physical sciences in order to understand and improve biological systems in agriculture, food production, environment, etc. The work reviews the decision support systems in the aspect of scheduling tasks in the field of biosystems engineering. The analysis was based on documents (articles and proceedings paper) indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS-CC) database from 1945-2018. The search has been limited to the category of WoS-CC related to agriculture, water resources, food processing, horticulture and forestry. The main research topics, areas of application and methods used were determined. In the analyzed documents, task scheduling was mainly used in irrigation and harvest scheduling. Simple and advanced optimization tools were used.

Methods that use robust optimization are aimed at finding robustness to decision uncertainty. Uncertainty may affect the input parameters (problem) and the final solution. Robust optimization is applicable in many areas, such as: operational research, IT, energy, production engineering and others. The aim of the work was to indicate the main methods and examples of applications of robust optimization in the area of production engineering. Documents (articles and proceedings paper) indexed in the Web of Science - Core Collection database (WoSCC) from 2014-2018 were used for analysis. The search has been limited to the WoS-CC category: Engineering Industrial and Engineering Manufacturing. The main areas of application were: the scheduling of projects and tasks, production planning, and risk management. The most common methods were: linear programming, evolutionary algorithms, mixed integer programming, dynamic programming and many others.

Raspberry fruits are a valuable source of bioactive compounds. The study used the modification of the substrate (coconut fibre), consisting of the use of various organic and mineral additives, in the soilless cultivation of raspberries. The additives influenced the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds in the raspberry fruits by modifying the sorption properties and the abundance of the substrate. The influence of the additives on the content of polyphenols was determined as well as their profile (UPLC-MS), antioxidant potential (ABTS), vitamin C content, and the activity of selected enzymes that are markers of stress and resistance to abiotic factors. In the study, a significant effect of these additives was observed on the biosynthesis of polyphenols in raspberry fruit. The highest increase in the content of these compounds in relation to the control sample (substrate—100% coconut fibre), namely 37.7%, was recorded in the case of fruit produced on coconut substrate enriched with sheep wool. These fruits were also characterised by a significantly different profile of these compounds. These changes were caused by readily available ammonium nitrogen and free amino acids in the decomposition of proteins contained in the sheep wool. This was confirmed by the recorded content of chlorophyll SPAD in the plant leaves and the activity of selected enzymes, which proves a low level of stress and good condition of the plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper presents a concept of the mobile line for the production of granulated fertilizer from digestates and ash mixtures. The main assumption of the designed line is its mobility which allows line work in the place of production of digestate. The premise for developing such model of line was the fact that the transport of highly hydrated digestate, as well as its dried form, is not advisable for economic reasons. More advantageous solution is to collect the digestate at the place of its production and it is processed into a fertilizer. Loose components, characterized by high bulk density, can be delivered to the place of production and the same means of transport can be used to transport the produced fertilizer to warehouse. This production model allows to process the digestate produced in several biogas plants, using one production line and reducing the cost of production. of fertilizer granules and the mobile line is transported to the next post-fermentation production point. Based on an analysis of the raw material characteristics and preliminary research on the raw materials mixture granulation process it was assumed that the stage of 3 hrs mixture stabilization time is required in the line.

Paper presents design process of the prototype line, dedicated for production of fertilizer pellets from digestate-ash mixture. For enrichment of the nutritional characteristics of the final product additives were also used, like urea, elemental sulphur or phosphorite, and special fungal strains from Trichoderma spieces. During this process raw material will be dried (raw digestated), mixed, granulated and packed in one technological line. Presented concept, shows that there is possible to produce high quality fertilizer, from waste materials derrived form Green energy production, what should be one of very interesting ways to develop digestate and ash from biomass combustion.

The objective of the conducted study was to evaluate the impact of the pressure agglomeration process of peppermint herb on the mechanical properties of the obtained product. The separated fractions of peppermint with 0.5-2.5 and 2.5-5 mm particles were compacted using a hydraulic press Fritz Heckert EU 20, with pressure 50, 100, 150 and 200 MPa. A closed matrix with the compression chamber diameter of 15.6 mm was used. Every time, a 2-g herb sample (corresponding to the weight of tea used for the production of tea bags) was poured into the matrix. Thus, compacted herb in the form of a straight cylinder was obtained. When producing the agglomerate compaction work was determined. Strength tests of the obtained agglomerate were conducted using the MTS Insight 2 testing machine. The density of the produced agglomerate, its compaction level and strength in the Brazilian test was calculated. The obtained results indicate that the values of the tested parameters increase with the increase of pressure in the tested range, yet differences occur between the tested herb fractions. Typically, the agglomerate produced from 0.5-2.5 mm fraction is characterized by a greater density, and the higher level of agglomerate compaction is obtained using 2.5-5 mm herb fraction. The highest strength determined using Brazilian test was determined for agglomerate produced from 0.5-5 mm peppermint herb fraction at 200 MPa pressure and 0.5-2.5 mm fraction using 150 and 200 MPa pressure.

The paper presents the results of research aimed at determining the influence of the composition of the fertilizer mixtures and the compaction pressure on the specific density and density index of fertilizer granules. Investigated mixtures were prepared from fly ash from power plant fuelled by biomass and digestate from biogas plant. The urea, sulfur and phosphorite were also added as enhancing additives. For granule samples made on a strength machine, their specific density was determined on a quasifluid-pycnometer. To determine the effect of agglomerate pressure on the compaction process, the absolute density of the materials was omitted. In such case it was needed to introduce a density index AI. Such a presentation of the results obtained has made it possible to clearly determine how the density of the test mixture results in the applied agglomeration pressure. The specific density of the resulting granules was in the range of 0.85-1.27 g/cm3. The determined density index for the given pressure was in the following ranges: 0.44-0.49 g/cm3 (pressure 100MPa), 0.47-0.51 g/cm3 (pressure 150MPa) 0.51 - 0.59 g/cm3 (200MPa pressure). This means that, regardless of the contribution of components to the mixture at the given pressure, a similar degree of compaction was obtained.

The search restrictions energy consumption in horticultural production there are in progress continually. They concern on the one hand reduce heat loss and, second, better use of available energy. Greenhouse efect in the greenhouse forced ventilation process especially in the surplus heat. The paper presents the manner of management of excess heat in the stone battery. Its structure included four segments with a volume of 13.1 m3 each. Segments of the battery were fed a stream of air in an independent manner. This enabled the work of individual segments or a few at a time. The battery can work in two stages: charging and discharging. Selecting the stage took place automatically according to the developed algorithm. This decision was dependent on the parameters of air flowing through the bed and the thermal state of the battery. During the process of charging and discharging monitored changes in air enthalpy at the inlet and outlet of the battery, and the temperature and relative humidity of air in the bed of battery. For different bed volumes increases its temperature, heat storage capacity and the ability to absorb water vapoure was determined.

This work presents the results of research connected with the flow of air through a stone battery. The research was carried out in a foil tunnel with a four-section stone battery. The battery deposit consisted of porphyry stone of 30 – 63mm granulation. The process of inlet from the inside of a tunnel to a battery (manager using an algorithm) enabled the unbundling of heat storing cycle and the cycle of delivering the stored heat to the inside of the tunnel. The amount of heat and exchanged mass was described (in relation to the unitary surface and a particular cycle). Correlational equations were formed for the found values and they enable the calculation of a unitary heat stream and the masses of stone battery exchanged cycles.