Ultrasonic Drying And Presowing Treatment Of Seeds

1Ultrasonic Drying And Presowing TreatmentOf SeedsVladimir N. Khmelev, Senior Member, IEEE, Andrey N. Lebedev, Student Member, IEEE ,Maxim V. Khmelev, Student Member, IEEEBiysk Technological Institute (branch) of Altay State Technical University named after I.I. PolzunovBiysk, RussiaAbstract — The article is devoted to the applicationof ultrasonic technologies for agriculture needs.Application of high intensity ultrasonic oscillations forpresowing treatment of seeds with the purpose toincrease its germination and productivity is described.The ultrasonic dryer for drying grain, vegetables andfruit with high technical and operationalperformances is presented.Index Terms – Ultrasonic, drying, presowing.NI. INTRODUCTIONOW EXTENSIVE EVOLUTION of theagriculture practically is not possible inconnection with exhaustion of the free arablelands. Therefore, agricultural producers have aproblem with intensive using of available landresources. As an example, in Canada theproductivity from 1 hectare in some times higherthen in Russia at approximately equal natural andclimatic conditions. Intensive evolution is relatedwith not only using of various fertilizers, but alsowith using of new technologies of seeds sowing,cultivation and harvesting.II. PRESOWING TREATMENT OF SEEDSThe high-quality planting stock is necessary formaintenance of a heavy yield with a highgermination percentage. For this purpose a seed isprocessed before sowing (steeping, treatment, etc.).The presowing treatment of seeds allows to intensifythe process of germination, destroys harmfulmicroorganisms.The existing presowing treatment methods havea series of deficiencies: long time of steepingprocess, impossibility to separate viable seeds beforegermination. In this connection, major interestrepresents perfection and the further development ofexisting methods of a presowing treatment of seeds.In 30 - 40 - е years of the last century in SovietUnion the experiments on influence of ultrasonicoscillations on the plants development were carriedout [1, 2]. The experiments have shown, thatapplication of ultrasonic oscillations wholesomeaffects on process of seeds germination and thesubsequent development of plants.So the grains of barley treated with ultrasoundgive shoots for 2-3 days earlier, than controllandings, length of an ear and quantity of grains init are incremented by 30 %.Process of ultrasonic seeds treatment looks asfollows [3]:The batch of seeds is put in technologicalvolume with water, thus the volume of seeds shouldnot exceed 30 % of water volume.Necessary microelements are included.Ultrasonic treatment is carried out during 5-10minutes.Thus, the ultrasonic presowing treatment ofseeds is characterized with high efficiency.Moreover the ultrasonic presowing treatment ofseeds has one more conclusive advantage whichraises its value. After the presowing treatment ofseeds the empty and not viable seeds remain to floaton the liquid surface and viable seeds settle for thebottom. Thus, it is easy to separate not viable seedsfrom viable ones.Unfortunately, the mechanism of ultrasonicaction to grains and seeds is not finally clear. It isclear only that the ultrasound is capable to stimulatethe vital forces given by the nature to each crop [3].The experimental device has been designed onthe base of the ultrasonic technological apparatus «Volna - 0,4/22-М » (Figure 1). During experimentseeds of a melon, tomatoes, corn, wheat andbuckwheat were exposed to ultrasonic treatment.Experimental data is represented in table 1.

2TABLE IEXPERIMENTAL DATAForm Increasing productivity, %Melon 45Tomato 15Corn 35Wheat 25Buckwheat 30Fig. 1. Ultrasonic presowing treatment of seedsIII. ULTRASONIC DRYINGFor maintenance of the high germination thecorrect storage of seeds in a winter is necessary. Atthe wrong storage seeds can rot before landing. OneFig. 2. Ultrasonic dryer1 - the bottom half ellipse of the case, 2 - the overhead half ellipse of the case, 3- volume for an exsiccated material, 4 - emitter, 5 - air filter, 6 - pipes ofremoval of a moist air, 7 collecting channel the silencing pot, 8 - the suction fan,9 - the drive of the ventilating fan, 10-electronic block, 11 - bench board, 12 -racksreason of rotting is the moisture. The moisture canarise due to condensation of air or because ofinitiating dampness of yields. Therefore, afterharvesting it is necessary to dry the grain. Drying isnecessary also for production of dried mushrooms,berries and fruit.Usually, either natural or convectional drying isused. In the first case process is very long-term anddepends on climatic conditions. In the second caseprocess of drying is characterized with high energyconsumption and changing of products propertiesbecause of thermal action.Now in our country and abroad the ultrasonicdryers are wide-spread as they allow to carry outdrying without changes of product properties.With reference to agriculture product drying inour country the ultrasonic drying [4,5] designed andmade by the Electro-mechanical factory (Berdsk) isdeveloped and patented. This dryer representstechnological volume in length of 13 meters withthe gas-jet generator fed with special compressor.Such dryer provides drying up to 1000 kg ofmushrooms for 3-4 hours. Such dryer is veryexpensive and practically unavailable for countryand farmer facilities.For small peasant farms the small-sizedultrasonic dryer was designed with the laboratory ofultrasonic processes and devices. As a radiant ofpowerful ultrasound in a dryer the piezoelectric diskemitter [6] is used.The dryer consists of the chamber, a radiant ofultrasound, the electronic generator and system ofdelivery and a pumping-out of air (Fig. 2).The chamber is made in the form of thevolumetric figure having in section two equalellipses, traversed in such a manner that sectionscoincide on one of ellipses focuses. Inside of thechamber the technological volume for the products,having the shape of a toroid and disposed in thefield of the second focuses is placed. Owing togeometrical properties of an ellipse all ultrasonicenergy radiating from an emitter is concentrate inproducts technological volume. Such constructionwill allow to considerably reducing the powerconsumption and overall dimensions in comparisonwith traditional convectional drying and ultrasonicdrying where as a radiant of ultrasound gas-jetgenerators are used.Performance characteristics of the dryer arerepresented in table 2.TABLE IIPERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF ULTRASONIC DRYERPower consumption, kW·h 2Productivity, kg/h, not less 50Weight, kg, not more 50Overall dimensions, mm∅2000х1000Power supply, V 220Experimental results are show the handled grainis stored longer.REFERENCES[1] Istomina O., Ostrovskiy E. Effect of ultrasound on evolution ofplants. DAN USSR, New series 2, 155 1936(in Russian).

3[2] Davidov G.K. Act of ultrasound on seeds of a sugar beet. DANUSSR, 29, 491 - 493, 1940(in Russian).[3] V.N. Khmelev, O.V. Popova "Multifunctional ultrasonic devicesand their application in small production, agriculture and at home".Barnaul, AltSTU, 1997 (in Russian)[4] Glaznev V.N. The device for drying is capillary-porous loosematerials, Russian patent №2095707. (In Russian)[5] Glaznev V.N.; Glinskiy A.B. Way of acoustical drying of iscapillary-porous materials, Russian patent №2062416 (In Russian)[6] Vladimir N. Khmelev, Igor I. Savin, Sergey N. Tchyganok,Roman V. Barsukov, Alexey N.Slivin, Sergey V. Levin, Maxim V.Khmelev, Andrey N. Lebedev, System of ultrasonic drying based onpiezoelectric contactless // Measuring, automation and modeling inmachinery and science, under edition of G.V. Leonov, Biysk, 2005.(In Russian)Vladimir N. Khmelev— dean ofinformation technologies and automation facultyat Biysk technological institute, professor, Ph.D(ultrasound). Honored inventor of Russia.Laureate of Russian Government premium forachievements in science and engineering. Area ofscientific interests is application of ultrasound foran intensification of technological processes.IEEE member since 2000, IEEE Senior Membersince 2004. His biography published in 7 th issueof book “Who is who in scientific andengineering”Andrey N. Lebedev (S'03) was born inKiselevsk, Russia in 1983. He received degree oninformation measuring engineering andtechnologies from Biysk Technological Instituteof AltSTU. He is post-graduate student of BiyskTechnological Institute. His research interests isfinite-element modeling.Maxim V. Khmelev (S'03) was born inBiysk, Russia in 1982. He received degree oninformation measuring engineering andtechnologies from Biysk Technological Instituteof AltSTU. He is post-graduate student of BiyskTechnological Institute.