Microwave And Radio Frequency Technologies In Agriculture

Humanity’s ability to produce enough food is mostly due to adoption of new methods and technologies by the agricultural industries as they became available. New information, communication and high speed processing and precision agriculture technologies have the potential to transform the agricultural industry. These technologies incorporate radio-frequency and microwave radiation into their systems. This book presents an overview of how these technologies are being used in agricultural systems. The main purpose of the book is to provide a glimpse of what is possible and encourage practitioners in the engineering and agricultural industries to explore how radio-frequency and microwave systems might further enhance the agricultural industry. The authors have extensive experience in agricultural and microwave engineering, instrumentation and communication systems.

Humanity's ability to produce enough food is mostly due to adoption of new methods and technologies by the agricultural industries as they became available. New information, communication and high speed processing and precision agriculture technologies have the potential to transform the agricultural industry. These technologies incorporate radio-frequency and microwave radiation into their systems. This book presents an overview of how these technologies are being used in agricultural systems. The main purpose of the book is to provide a glimpse of what is possible and encourage practitioners in the engineering and agricultural industries to explore how radio-frequency and microwave systems might further enhance the agricultural industry. The authors have extensive experience in agricultural and microwave engineering, instrumentation and communication systems.

Precision agriculture integrates new technologies with the agronomic experience to intelligently manage the high spatial variability of all agricultural variables and the time scales at which these variables change. The right application of this approach increases the size and quality of the agricultural production; saves resources; improves environmental quality; helps to achieve self-sufficiency, food security, and agricultural sustainability; increases exports; and more. Precision Agriculture Technologies for Food Security and Sustainability is an essential reference source that compiles a comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of current research in the field of precision agriculture. It also discusses cutting-edge tools and models that can help facilitate and improve the systems implementation. Featuring coverage of a wide range of topics including agronomy, public policy, and internet of things, this book is ideally designed for agriculturalists, government officials, economists, environmentalists, academicians, researchers, students, and engineers in the fields of electronics, ICT, and agriculture.

This book describes innovative agricultural methods using thermal and non-thermal microwave or plasma energies. Humans that were nomadic in the past can now stably obtain food by developing agriculture. Cities were formed as a result of remarkable development. Later, chemicals were introduced to agriculture to stabilize the food supply further. Natural products were initially used, but various artificial compounds have been developed for agriculture since the 1900s. To further improve crop productivity and diversification, gene recombination (genetic engineering) using biotechnology has progressed in recent years and continues to develop further. However, these technologies contain pesticide residues and pose safety risks. The innovative new agriculture explained in this book is based on the use of microwaves and plasma that do not rely on chemicals and genetic modification. This is one of the first books focusing on the agricultural usage of microwaves. In addition, it is a technical book that incorporates plasma into agriculture from this perspective. The book covers microwaves and plasmas, which are completely different fields. Thus, it will be attractive to many readers who want to acquaint themselves with these alternative technologies and implement them. This book will be useful to a broad audience including researchers and technicians at Universities and practitioners in industries. It is made accessible to readers across different fields by including abundant figures and by limiting the use of equations to the possible extent.

Electromagnetic materials can be widely found in daily life, especially in electronic devices. The high-frequency properties (permittivity or permeability) of these materials strongly depend on structure, composition, shape, and orientation. Therefore, this book intends to present readers with advances not only in materials science (including metamaterials), but also in measurements and novel functional applications that demand the special properties of electromagnetic materials.

I want to express my sincere thanks to all authors who submitted research papers to support the Third IFIP International Conference on Computer and Computing Te- nologies in Agriculture and the Third Symposium on Development of Rural Infor- tion (CCTA 2009) held in China, during October 14–17, 2009. This conference was hosted by the CICTA (EU-China Centre for Information & Communication Technologies, China Agricultural University), China National En- neering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, Asian Conf- ence on Precision Agriculture, International Federation for Information Processing, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, Beijing Society for Information Te- nology in Agriculture, and the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery. The pla- num sponsor includes the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Ministry of Agriculture of China, Ministry of Education of China, among others. The CICTA (EU-China Centre for Information & Communication Technologies, China Agricultural University) focuses on research and development of advanced and practical technologies applied in agriculture and on promoting international communi- tion and cooperation. It has successfully held three International Conferences on C- puter and Computing Technologies in Agriculture, namely CCTA 2007, CCTA 2008 and CCTA 2009. Sustainable agriculture is the focus of the whole world currently, and therefore the application of information technology in agriculture is becoming more and more - portant. ‘Informatized agriculture’ has been sought by many countries recently in order to scientifically manage agriculture to achieve low costs and high incomes.

Rapid expansion of research on the development of novel food processes in the past decade has resulted in novel processes drawn from fields outside the traditional parameters of food processing. Providing a wealth of new knowledge, Novel Food Processing: Effects on Rheological and Functional Properties covers structural and functional changes at the micro level, and their implications at the macro level, in food exposed to new and emerging technologies. Contributions from an international panel with academic and professional credentials form the backbone of this work. They focus on the functional, rheological, and micro-structural changes that occur in foods when using emerging technologies such as high pressure processing, Ohmic heating, pulse electric fields, and ultraviolet radiation. The book examines new and innovative applications and presents the impact of these research findings on the nutritional aspects of protein and carbohydrate containing foods. It also considers the synergic effects of protein-starch components. Each chapter provides an in-depth analysis of a novel technology and its effect on food structure and function. New directions in food processing will continue to be influenced by diverse fields and used to respond to consumer concerns about food safety, quality, sensory attributes, and nutrition. Combining coverage of technological applications with the chemistry of food and biomaterials, this book illustrates in a very clear and concise fashion the structure-functionality relationship and how it is affected by newly developed and increasingly popular processing technologies.

Voltage-Enhanced Processing of Biomass and Biochar A detailed introduction to voltage-enhanced processing of carbonaceous materials While there are many well-established biomass processing techniques that are suitable for a variety of different situations, the utilization of voltage-driven techniques for the processing of biomass and biochar has been shown to have advantages for certain applications. Specifically, the field of thermal plasma gasification—where plasma provides the conversion energy—is relied upon in certain commercial equipment that is already available on the market. Crucially, however, the field of non-thermal plasma pyrolysis and gasification—chemical reactions are intensified by the presence of the plasma discharge—is still a developing subject with a great scope for innovation in research and development. A timely book considering its potential applications in a greener market, Voltage-Enhanced Processing of Biomass and Biochar helpfully provides a detailed description of voltage-enhanced processing of carbonaceous materials. The book explains aspects of this processing method in thermal and non-thermal plasmas, as well as describing the effects of Joule heating as part of the temperature distribution and conversion rate. In many ways, this book presents a detailed description of different processes and plasma discharges currently available, with the provision of experimental and simulation results gathered over years of research and development. Importantly, it also offers many methods by which we can be environmentally friendly when working with biomass and biochar. Voltage-Enhanced Processing of Biomass and Biochar readers will also find: Simulation results of Joule heating of biomass, biochar, and pyrolytic graphite Descriptions of thermal plasma torches currently available in the market Accounts of the experimental results of conversion utilizing steam plasma Comparison of results against provided numerical models that predict synthesis gas composition under the presence of thermal plasma discharge Voltage-Enhanced Processing of Biomass and Biochar is a useful reference for researchers and practitioners working on applications of plasma for the conversion of biomass and biochar, as well as graduate students studying mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering.