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Item Evaluation of Different Techniques to Control Hydrogen Sulfide and Greenhouse Gases from Animal Production Systems(North Dakota State University, 2015) Gautam, Dhan PrasadThe livestock manure management sector is one of the prime sources for the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other pollutant gases such as ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which may affect the human health, animal welfare, and the environment. So, worldwide investigations are going on to mitigate these gaseous emissions. The overall objective of this research was to investigate different approaches (dietary manipulation and nanotechnology) for mitigating the gaseous emissions from livestock manure system. A field study was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels of dietary proteins (12 and 16%) and fat levels (3 to 5.5%) fed to beef cattle on gaseous emission (methane-CH4, nitrous oxide-N2O, carbon dioxide-CO2 and hydrogen sulfide-H2S) from the pen surface. To evaluate the effects of different nanoparticles (zinc oxide-nZnO; and zirconium-nZrO2) on these gaseous emissions from livestock manure stored under anaerobic conditions, laboratory studies were conducted with different treatments (control, bare NPs, NPs entrapped alginate beads applying freely and keeping in bags, and used NPs entrapped alginate beads). Field studies showed no significant differences in the GHG and H2S emissions from the manure pen surface. Between nZnO and nZrO2, nZnO outperformed the nZrO2 in terms of gases production and concentration reduction from both swine and dairy liquid manure. Application of nZnO at a rate of 3 g L-1 showed up to 82, 78, 40 and 99% reduction on total gas production, CH4, CO2 and H2S concentrations, respectively. The effectiveness of nZnO entrapped alginate (alginate-nZnO) beads was statistically lower than the bare nZnO, but both of them were very effective in reducing gas production and concentrations. These gaseous reductions were likely due to combination of microbial inhibition of microorganisms and chemical conversion during the treatment, which was confirmed by microbial plate count, SEM-EDS, and XPS analysis. However, further research are needed to understand the reduction mechanism and to transfer the technology in a real life application.Item Agricultural Field Applications of Digital Image Processing Using an Open Source ImageJ Platform(North Dakota State University, 2019) Shajahan, SunojDigital image processing is one of the potential technologies used in precision agriculture to gather information, such as seed emergence, plant health, and phenology from the digital images. Despite its potential, the rate of adoption is slow due to limited accessibility, unsuitability to specific issues, unaffordability, and high technical knowledge requirement from the clientele. Therefore, the development of open source image processing applications that are task-specific, easy-to-use, requiring fewer inputs, and rich with features will be beneficial to the users/farmers for adoption. The Fiji software, an open source free image processing ImageJ platform, was used in this application development study. A collection of four different agricultural field applications were selected to address the existing issues and develop image processing tools by applying novel approaches and simple mathematical principles. First, an automated application, using a digital image and “pixel-march” method, performed multiple radial measurements of sunflower floral components. At least 32 measurements for ray florets and eight for the disc were required statistically for accurate dimensions. Second, the color calibration of digital images addressed the light intensity variations of images using standard calibration chart and derived color calibration matrix from selected color patches. Calibration using just three-color patches: red, green, and blue was sufficient to obtain images of uniform intensity. Third, plant stand count and their spatial distribution from UAS images were determined with an accuracy of ≈96 %, through pixel-profile identification method and plant cluster segmentation. Fourth, the soybean phenological stages from the PhenoCam time-lapse imagery were analyzed and they matched with the manual visual observation. The green leaf index produced the minimum variations from its smoothed curve. The time of image capture and PhenoCam distances had significant effects on the vegetation indices analyzed. A simplified approach using kymograph was developed, which was quick and efficient for phenological observations. Based on the study, these tools can be equally applied to other scenarios, or new user-coded, user-friendly, image processing tools can be developed to address specific requirements. In conclusion, these successful results demonstrated the suitability and possibility of task-specific, open source, digital image processing tools development for agricultural field applications.Item Pilot Scale Production, Characterization, and Optimization of Epoxidized Vegetable Oil-Based Resin(North Dakota State University, 2015) Monono, Ewumbua MenyoliNovel epoxidized sucrose soyate (ESS) resins perform much better than other vegetable oil-based resins; thus, they are of current interest for commercial scale production and for a wide range of applications in coatings and polymeric materials. However, no work has been published that successfully scaled-up the reaction above a 1 kg batch size. To achieve this goal, canola oil was first epoxidized at a 300 g scale to study the epoxidation rate and thermal profile at different hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) addition rates, bath temperatures, and reaction times. At least 83% conversion of double bonds to oxirane was achieved by 2.5 h, and the reaction temperature was 8-15 oC higher than the water bath temperature within the first 30-40 min of epoxidation. A 38 L stainless steel kettle was modified as a reactor to produce 10 kg of ESS. Twenty 7-10 kg batches of ESS were produced with an overall 87.5% resin yield and > 98% conversion after batch three. The conversion and resin quality were consistent across the batches due to the modifications on the reaction that improved mixing and reaction temperature control within 55-65 oC. The total production time was reduced from 8 to 4 days due to the fabrication of a 40 L separatory funnel for both washing and filtration. A math model was developed to optimize the epoxidation process. This was done by using the Box-Behnken design to model the conversion at various acetic acid, H2O2, and Amberlite ratios and at various reaction temperatures and times. The model had an adjusted R2 of 97.6% and predicted R2 of 96.8%. The model showed that reagent amounts and time can be reduced by 18% without compromising the desired conversion value and quality.Item Advanced Evapotranspiration Measurement for Crop Water Management in the Red River Valley(North Dakota State University, 2019) Niaghi, Ali RashidAs the main component of terrestrial energy and water balance, evapotranspiration (ET) moves a large amount of water and energy in the form of latent heat flux from bare soil and vegetated surfaces into the atmosphere. Despite the development of many methods and equations through past decades, accurate ET estimation is still a challenging task, especially for the Red River Valley of the North (RRV) that has limited updated information on ET either for landscape or agricultural water management. The overall objective of first study was to evaluate the ASCE-EWRI reference ET (ETo) method by developing an accurate crop coefficient (Kc) using an eddy covariance (EC) system over an unirrigated turfgrass site. The results showed that with mean ETgrass/ETo ratio as 0.96 for the entire growing seasons of turfgrass, the ASCE-EWRI ETo method is valid for guiding the turfgrass irrigation management in cold climate conditions. In a Controlled drainage with subirrigation (CD+SI) field, an EC system was used to measure and quantify energy flux components along with soil water content (SWC) and water table depth (WTD) measurements during four corn growing. This study showed that the subsurface drainage along with the CD + SI system can be used for optimal water management with an improvement of 26.7% and 6.6% of corn yield during wet and dry year, respectively. For the final task, ET was measured using EC, Bowen ratio system (BREB), and soil water balance (SWB) method during the corn growing season. The comparison of the EC and the BREB system illustrated the advantages of using the residual method to close the energy balance closure of EC. Among the different time approaches for SWB method, ET by the SWB method using the average soil water contents between 24:00 to 2:00 time period showed non-significant differences (alpha = 0.05) compared to the BREB system during the observation periods.Item Treatment of Industrial Wastewater Derived Organic Pollutants Using Electrochemical Methods Through Optimization of Operation Parameters.(North Dakota State University, 2019) Sharma, SwatiIndustrial operations produce a notable amount of wastewaters with high concentration of chemical oxygen demand (COD), mostly consisting of organic carbon compounds. The treatment performance of electrochemical methods for organic removal and the effects of process parameters are the subject of this research. Three research tasks were performed. The first task was the removal of organic pollutants from three different industrial wastewaters using two different electrochemical methods; combined electrocoagulation + electrooxidation (EC+EO) and b) electrochemical peroxidation (ECP). Using only EC process was found to be significantly successful in removing suspended and colloidal pollutants and could remove more than 90% COD and 80% of TOC. The study showed that combined EC+EO process had better removal capability compared to ECP when operated under similar process conditions. The second task was to study the effect of the process parameters; pH, H2O2 dosage, current density, and operation time; and to optimize and estimate the best treatment conditions for the methods using Box-Behnken Design (BBD). For sugar beet wastewater, the results showed that EO could remove 75% of organics at optimum conditions of pH 5.3; current density of 48.5 mA/cm2; and operation time of 393 min. The canola oil refinery wastewater achieved more than 90% pollutant removal when the conditions were optimized at pH 5.8 – 6 with applied current density of 9.2 mA cm-2¬ run for nearly 300 min. The rate of degradation of the wastewater derived organic pollutants followed a first order kinetics for all the wastewaters investigated and the models were validated for goodness of fit with high R2. The final task was to compare treatment efficiency between the electrochemical processes. Based on the energy consumed and the performance efficiency to remove COD, sCOD, TOC and DOC in the three different wastewaters studied, EC+EO process was found suitable for the treatment of canola and sunflower oil wastewater. On the other hand, from the model prediction and the experiments conducted, EO resulted in better removal capability compared to ECP. Also, the consumption of energy by ECP was comparatively higher than EO process while taking longer time of operation for significant removal.Item Hull Fiber from DDGS and Corn Grain as Alternative Fillers in Polymer Composites with High Density Polyethylene(North Dakota State University, 2018) Pandey, PankajThe steady increase in corn based ethanol production has resulted in a dramatic rise in the supply of its co-product known as distillers’ dried grain with solubles (DDGS). Currently, the main outlet for DDGS is the animal feed industry, but the presence of fibers makes them indigestible by non-ruminants such as swine and poultry. Separation of fiber from DDGS would increase the nutritional value of DDGS with higher protein and fat contents and reduced fiber content. The fiber from DDGS can be separated through a physical separation process known as elusieve. The DDGS fiber has the potential to be used as a fiber filler in thermoplastic composites. This research project evaluates DDGS fiber as a filler in thermoplastic composites. The fibers from corn hull and DDGS have been used as fillers at 30% and 50% fiber loading in high density polyethylene (HDPE) composites and compared against a standard oak fiber filler composites at a lab scale. DDGS and corn fiber composites showed comparable mechanical properties as the oak wood fiber HDPE composites. Further evaluation was completed on the performance of composite samples at commercial scale with six combinations of oak fiber, corn hull fiber and DDGS fiber with fiber loading maintained at 50%, and then samples were exposed to UV accelerated weathering for 2000 h. The UV weathering decreased the mechanical properties of all the exposed samples compared to the unexposed samples. Also, UV weathering resulted in a severe chain scission of the HDPE polymer, increasing their crystallinity. The performance of mercerized or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treated DDGS fiber as filler was investigated by characterizing the effects of treated and untreated DDGS fibers on physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of HDPE composites. The NaOH treated DDGS fiber at 25% loading showed consistent improvement in flexural and tensile modulus of elasticities of the composites compared to the neat HDPE.Item Sugarbeet Model Development for Soil and Water Quality Assessment(North Dakota State University, 2018) Anar, Mohammad JahidulSugarbeet (Beta vulgaris) is considered as one of the most viable alternatives to corn for biofuel production as it may be qualified as “advanced” biofuel feedstocks under the ‘EISA 2007’. Production of deep rooted sugarbeet may play a significant role in enhancing utilization of deeper layer soil water and nutrients, and thus may significantly affect soil health and water quality through recycling of water and nutrients. A model can be useful in predicting the sugarbeet growth, and its effect on soil and water quality. A sugarbeet model was developed by adopting and modifying the Crop Environment and Resource Synthesis-Beet (CERES-Beet) model. It was linked to the Cropping System Model (CSM) of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology (DSSAT) and was termed as CSM-CERES-Beet. The CSM-CERES-Beet model was then linked to the plant growth module of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) to simulate crop growth, soil water and NO3-N transport in crop fields. For both DSSAT and RZWQM2, parameter estimation (PEST) software was used for model calibration, evaluation, predictive uncertainty analysis, sensitivity, and identifiability. The DSSAT model was evaluated with two sets of experimental data collected in two different regions and under different environmental conditions, one in Bucharest, Romania and the other in Carrington, ND, USA, while RZWQM2 was evaluated for only Carrington, ND experimental data. Both DSSAT and RZWQM2 performed well in simulating leaf area index, leaf or top weight, and root weight for the datasets used (d-statistic = 0.783-0.993, rRMSE = 0.006-1.014). RZWQM2 was also used to evaluate soil water and NO3-N contents and did well (d-statistic = 0.709-0.992, rRMSE = 0.066-1.211). The RZWQM2 was applied for simulating the effects of crop rotation and tillage operations on sugarbeet production. Hypothetical crop rotation and tillage operation scenarios identified wheat as the most suitable previous year crop for sugarbeet and moldboard plow as the most suitable tillage operation method. Both DSSAT and RZWQM2 enhanced with CSM-CERES-Beet may be used to simulate sugarbeet production under different management scenarios for different soils and under different climatic conditions in the Red River Valley.Item Rangeland Forage Growth Prediction, Logistics, Energy, and Economics Analysis and Tool Development Using Open-Source Software(North Dakota State University, 2022) Navaneetha Srinivasagan, SubhashreeForage availability was crucial for livestock production across the United States. Rangelands occupied vast areas 31 % of land and were the primary source of forage for livestock. However, extreme climatic conditions such as drought affect rangeland forage production and pose a serious threat to the rangeland enterprise. This increases the need to monitor forage in vast rangelands and adapt to other measures such as cultivating or buying forage to balance demand and supply. Despite this need, resources (studies and tools) on rangeland forage monitoring and existing forage production, handling, and economics were scattered and scarce. Therefore, a comprehensive systematic literature review was performed to gather the current understanding of the technology and resources used for monitoring and economics of forage production. Remote sensing technologies were widely used in recent research for their ability to scout vast areas frequently and machine learning (ML) in successfully comprehending complex relationships. Forage production economics was predominantly available for alfalfa forage crop, but other crops and bale collection logistics during production were ignored. Bale collection using conventional tractor carrying 1 and 2 bales/trip (BPT) and automatic bale picker (8-23 BPT) was simulated mathematically and analyzed with open-source R software using realistic equipment turning scenarios. Fuel consumption based on aggregation distance for ABP decreased on average by 72 % and 53 % compared to the tractor with 1 and 2 BPT. A web-based calculator tool was developed using open-source HTML, CSS, and JavaScript software for forage economic analysis including more than 10 varieties of forage crops involving the economics of bale collection (tractor and ABP). Pasture biomass yield prediction was performed with R software using vegetation index (VI) and climate data through ML approaches. Recursive feature selection (RFE) and random forest (RF) model for forage yield emerged as the best methodology based on accuracy. A web-based interactive tool was developed using the Shiny package in R to accommodate “field-specific,” pasture-scale inputs for predicting biomass yield. In conclusion, these successful results demonstrate the possibility of using open-source software for simulating logistics, developing models, and building tools for forage monitoring and analyzing the economics of forage production.Item Quality Evaluation of Coated Extra-Large Hulled Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) Kernels for Precision Planting(North Dakota State University, 2018) Sidhu, HarjotDomestic and export demand for extra-large (XL) in-shell confectionary sunflower seeds (Helianthus Annuus) growing; however, a significant proportion of the hybrid seed for planting goes to the snack food market because the extra-large seed is not acceptable to farmers. The extra-large hybrid seed has poor emergence in the field and is not compatible with precision planters. Therefore, the option of coating the hulled sunflower kernels for improved germination and plantability is investigated in this dissertation. Twenty types of kernel coatings have been tested, through collaboration with five seed coating companies and development of our own in-house seed coating capabilities. Coated kernels were tested for germination, seedling vigor, and other indicators of kernel viability. Coated kernels were also tested for plantability using a precision planter test stand. The top-performing coated kernels achieved singulation and post-singulation germination comparable to large planting seed used by farmers. A field trial was conducted in 2017 at Prosper, ND with eight types of coated kernel treatments having zeolite, lime, Polymer A, and Polymer B In-house coating materials each at 30% and 35% build-up levels. Coated kernels produced grain yields up to 55% greater than from XL seeds, and up to 25% greater than large seeds. Live seed emergence of all the coated kernels (93 – 99%) was significantly higher than the XL seeds (88%) and similar or higher than the large seeds (94%). Another small-scale field trial was conducted at Minot, ND, where moisture stressed conditions were observed. Coated kernels showed similar trends to the Prosper location both in terms of live seed emergence and grain yield as compared to XL seeds. Further, an automated image processing method was developed form the RGB images taken with an unmanned aerial vehicle which predicted the emergence counts and a number of multiples in every row of the sunflower field trial at Prosper with R2 of 0.94 and 0.92. Overall, coated kernels showed significant improvements in achieving plant stand uniformity compared to XL seeds.Item Application of Nanoparticles in Livestock Manure for Understanding Hydrogen Sulfide and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Mechanism(North Dakota State University, 2018) Sarker, Niloy ChandraThe agricultural sector is one of the sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, especially methane (CH4), and contributing approximately 250 million metric ton carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emission per year. Almost 70% of CH4 emission from this sector is enteric fermentation, while 26% is from the livestock manure management. Both rumen and animal manure are the impending sources of carbon (C), sulfur (S), and water (H2O) and microbial populations utilize these constituents to produce GHGs, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Nanoparticles (NPs) application in manure is a promising treatment option for mitigating GHG and H2S gases, but limited information is available on how the reduction mechanism occurs. In this study, zinc silica nanogel (ZnSNL), copper silica nanogel (CuSNL), and nano acetyl cysteine (NACL) coated zinc oxide quantum dots (Qdots), zinc oxide (nZnO), and silver (nAg) NPs were tested in manure stored under anaerobic conditions to understand the reduction mechanism of GHG and H2S resulting from NPs application. Additionally, in vitro study with nZnO and two types of feed (alfalfa and corn silage) were conducted to investigate the efficacy of nZnO in mitigating ruminal gas emission. Methane and CO2 concentrations were measured using an SRI-8610 gas chromatograph and H2S was measured using a Jerome 631X meter. Microbial populations were characterized using both plate counts and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Application of NPs reduced gas volumes ranging 16 to 99%, and concentrations reduced by 49 to ~100% for H2S, and 20.24 to ~100% for GHGs. Application of NPs reduced 38.49 to 94.32% aerobic- and 7.43% to 82.04% anaerobic-microbial populations. Furthermore, the qRT-PCR analysis showed that reduction of gases was due to the inhibition of gas specific microbial population. Overall, nZnO based treatments reduced 8.80 to 55.64% methyl coenzyme M reductase (mcrA) gene copies and 0.74 to 25.16% dissimilatory sulfide reductase (DSR). Contrariwise, compared to the control treatment, in vitro study demonstrated 4.89 to 53.65% H2S and GHGs concentration reduction with the applied nZnO inclusion rates. Additionally, alfalfa as feed exhibited 37 to 45% cumulative gas reduction than corn silage but increased GHGs generation 2.17 to 23.17% and ~60% H2S concentration.