The effectiveness of giant cane [Arundinaria gigantea(Walt.) Muhl.] as riparian buffer vegetation has been demonstrated through research and has gained interest from state and federal agencies to support restoration efforts. Unfortunately, little is known about the physical and chemical properties of the soils below canebrakes and how soil characteristics influence aboveground and belowground biomass production. To determine what physical attributes of the plant influence its success as riparian buffer vegetation and also to determine the interactions with underlying soils, fourteen canebrakes were sampled throughout Southern Illinois. Objective one was to develop an allometric equation to quantify belowground biomass based on aboveground parameters of canebrakes. Previous research found that successful propagation was dependent on rhizome length, the number of internodes and the number of rhizome buds present, but no data exists regarding the yield of rhizomes for a given area. By harvesting all aboveground biomass (culms and leaves) and belowground biomass (roots and rhizomes) to a depth of 25 cm from a 1-m2 plot at each site, morphometric characteristics were quantified and biomass allocation throughout the plant was determined. A significant linear relationship between total aboveground biomass (live and dead) and belowground biomass in giant cane was evident (R=0.865, p<0.001). Although this is a strong relationship, it may be impractical for a manager to harvest, process, and weigh all of the aboveground biomass to speculate the biomass below ground. Therefore, metrics were explored for predicting the length of rhizome, number of rhizome internodes and number of rhizome buds an area will yield using multiple regression and models were developed that estimate these parameters. Using the equation that predicts the number of rhizome buds for a given area, the yield of propagules can then be estimated. Although this equation does not account for all variation of belowground characteristics, it will provide a general guideline for land managers restoring giant cane. The second objective was to estimate biomass allocation of giant cane roots/rhizomes beneath canebrakes by depth (i.e., at 25-cm increments to a depth of 150 cm). Results showed that 67% of giant cane's belowground biomass was within the top 25 cm of the soil profile and accounted for 65% of all belowground biomass encountered at that depth. Giant cane rhizomes were documented to a depth of 51-75 cm deep while cane roots existed in the deepest cores at a depth of 126-150 cm with an average density of 0.08 kg m-3. Giant cane belowground biomass declined with increasing depth, but was still the dominant species at 26-50 cm, comprising 61% of all biomass encountered at that depth. These results support the utility of giant cane as an effective riparian buffer species by increasing the soil porosity and promoting infiltration while contributing a significant source of carbon to the soil profile. Chemical and physical soil properties were measured to determine if they related to canebrake characteristics. Significant correlations were found between various soil properties and canebrake characteristics, implying there is an interaction between giant cane and the underlying soil. Results from this research will improve our understanding of the dynamics of giant cane and supplement existing information to help guide restoration efforts.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

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No description available.

Giant cane [Arundinaria gigantea (Walter) Muhl.] is a native bamboo species that was once widely distributed within bottomland forests and as extensive monotypic stands (canebrakes) along waterways of the southeastern United States. Land conversion to agriculture greatly decreased the distribution of canebrakes. Limited to less than two percent of its historic range, canebrakes are now considered an endangered ecosystem. A 0.24 hectare low maintenance experimental nursery of giant cane was established at Southern Illinois University to examine the effect of planting stock type, soil amendments, and four collection sources on cane survival and growth (number of culms, height and diameter of the tallest culm, spread between furthest two culms) after two growing seasons. All treatments, plus interactions of source by soil, and source by stock, were significantly affected by survival. Collection source significantly affected all growth measurements. Stock type affected the number of culms, height, and spread. Soil amendments did not significantly influence any growth measurement but affected soil chemical properties. The interactions between source and stock affected the number of culms, height, and spread. The interaction between stock and soil significantly affected spread, but no other interactions significantly affected any growth measurements. Of all treatment combinations, the Cypress Creek West source, when grown in containers, tended to have the greatest survival and overall growth after two years, regardless of soil amendments. This study highlights factors that are important in establishing a giant cane restoration nursery. This nursery will also generate growing stock for future canebrake restoration and rehabilitation projects.

Orientador: Oscar Antonio Braunbeck / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agricola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T08:03:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Michelazzo_MarcioBeraldo_M.pdf: 766633 bytes, checksum: c822032d0a6d200120086d977866cf38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: A biomassa é uma fonte de energia renovável, disponível e alternativa. Quando a colheita é feita sem realização de queimada, a biomassa da cana-de-açúcar, na forma de palhiço, é uma das fontes de energia renovável com enorme potencial no Brasil. Todavia, o aproveitamento desses resíduos em larga escala é dificultado pelo alto custo de seu recolhimento, principalmente no que diz respeito ao recolhimento, adensamento e transporte. Este trabalho analisou tecnicamente algumas características envolvidas no recolhimento do palhiço, tais como massa específica final do palhiço e complexidade das máquinas envolvidas, juntamente com uma análise econômica, por meio de um modelo de cálculo de custo, por meio de simulação de eficiências e capacidades operacionais que compõem cada sistema de recolhimento do palhiço. De acordo com os resultados, o sistema colheita integral apresentou o menor custo de recolhimento do palhiço, tanto para distância pequenas como para grandes distâncias. Seguido pelos sistemas picado a granel, fardo cilíndrico, fardo algodoeiro, peletização e briquetagem / Abstract: Sugarcane is one of the energy sources most readily available in Brazil, mainly due to residues such as trash (tops, dry and green leaves). However, large scale use of these residues still faces high recovery costs related to gathering, baling, transportation, chopping and technology for residue utilization. An analysis was done of the mechanical principles involved in the packing processes. A model was defined to estimate the cost of trash recovery simulating the field capacity, oil consumption, depreciation, repair and maintenance and labor required for the field and transport operations. Six recovery systems were studied both from the technical and economical points of view. The results showed that handling billets and trash together, described as ¿Integral harvest¿, has the lowest cost for trash recovery, both for short and long distances, followed by bulk handling of chopped trash, the round bale, the giant bale and finally the pellet and briquette systems / Mestrado / Maquinas Agricolas / Mestre em Engenharia Agrícola

A research report submitted to the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History 04 May 2015 / This report analyzes the reasons behind the adoption of out growing schemes (sistemas canavieiros) by two Mozambican sugar companies, namely the Companhia do Buzi and the Açucareira de Moçambique as well as the impacts of the companies’ decision on the mills as well as on local communities. Analyzing the adoption of out growing schemes is relevant due to the fact that the Companhia do Buzi and the Açucareira de Moçambique were the only two out of ten Mozambican sugar companies to collaborate with out growers. All the out growers were Portuguese citizens or ‘civilized’ Africans. The report also analyses the reasons and the impacts of the collapse of those schemes in the early post-colonial period. The report argues that the mills adopted out growing schemes to face the long term shortage and increasing costs of African agricultural labour. This strategy solved their problems but left the out growers indebted and frustrated and local communities dispossessed. On the collapse of the out growing schemes, the report argues that it resulted from the increasing lack of economic feasibility of sugar cane growing, which was a result of economic crisis and the authorities’ hostility towards the out growers.

O trabalho apresenta a fuligem proveniente de queima de bagaço de cana-de-açúcar como um adsorvente e como matéria-prima alternativa na produção de adsorvente descorante. Atualmente, todas as industrias açucareiras, várias refinarias de açúcar e algumas industrias utilizam o bagaço de cana-de-açúcar como combustível de caldeira. Originando, nessa queima, uma quantidade razoável de um resíduo sólido, que e a fuligem. Foi obtido em escala de laboratório, uma fuligem suportada em uma matriz inorgânica de diatomito, bentônica e acido fosfórico. O sólido obtido foi ativado termicamente. Adsorventes foram caracterizados por: rendimento, ph, massa especifica, composição química elementar, porosidade e teor de umidade, cinzas, solúveis, insolúveis, voláteis. Foi também realizada uma avaliação de desempenho do adsorvente, por batelada (dispersão) e por processo continuo (coluna). Os resultados mostram que e viável a obtenção de um adsorvente de fuligem. Sendo o mesmo, similar ao carvão de ossos, em trabalhos de descoloramento de caldas de açúcar. A fuligem também apresenta um excelente poder de adsorção para fenol. / The work presents the fly ash from sugar cane bagasse burning as na adsorbent and alternative material to the production of colour-materials adsorbent. Nowadays, all the sugar industries, many sugar refineries and some other industries use the sugar cane bagasse as a boiler fuel. From this burning an available amount of solid waste, called fly ash as produced. We obtained in laboratory scale, fly-ash supported in a diatomite, bentonite and phosphoric acid inorganic matrix. The solid obtained, was thermal activated. Adsorbents were characterized by: yield; pH; specific weight density; chemical elementar composition; porosity; humidity; ash; solubles; insoluble and volatiles content. It was also carried out on adsorbent performance evaluation by batch (dispersion) and continuous (column) processes. The results showed that it is possible to obtain a fly-ash adsorbent which works as similar as bone-chair, in discolouring sugar liquors. Fly-ash is also an excellent adsorbent for phenol.

Orientador: José Anchieta Gomes Neto / Banca: Massao Ionashiro / Banca: Fernando Gustavo Tonin / Banca: Marcia Andréia Mesquita Silva da Veiga / Banca: Ana Rita de Araújo Nogueira / Resumo: A influência da composição de diferentes fertilizantes foliares, designados por tertemunha (T1), fosfito(T2), micronutrientes(T3), fosfito+micronutrientes (T4), bioestimulantes(T5), fosfito+bioestimulante (T6), micronutrientes+bioestimulantne(T7), fosfito+micronutrientes+bioestimulante(T8), foi avaliada na nutrição e produtividade da cana-de açúcar da sfra de 2007/2008. Foram desenvolvidas novas metodologias analítica para determinações multielementares de Cu, Fe, MN e Zn em extrato de solo e Cu, Fe, Mn, Sn, Ca, K e Mg em folhas de cana-de-açúcar por espectrometria de absorção atômica em chama como rfo9nte contínua e de alta resolulção (HR-CS FAAs). A produtividade da caqna-de açucar foi avaliada por meio da análise do grau Brix, açucares totais recuperáveis (ATR), teor de sacarose, massa de colmos, e massa de colmos x ATR. As determinações de micronutrientes em solo foram feitas empregando as linhas atômicas principais de Cu (324,754nm), MN(279,482nm), Zn (213,857nm) e a secundária (252,744nm)e adjacente (248,325nm) do Fe. Exatidão e precisão foram avaliados pela análise de dois materiais de referência do Instituto Agronômico de Campipnas (IAC) e os... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The influence of the composition of differents foliar fertilizers referred by testify (T1), phosphite (T2), micronutrients (T3), phosphite + micronutrients (T4), biostimulant (T5), phosphite +biostimulant (T6), micronutrients+biostimulant (T7), phosphite +biostimulant +micronutrients (T8) was evaluated on nutrition and yield of 2007/2008 sugarcane crop. New analytical methodologies were developed for multielement determinations of Cu, Fe, Mn and Sn in soil extract and Cu, Fe, Mn, Sn, Ca, K and Mg in sugarcane leaves by high-resolution continuum source flame atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS FAAs). The sdugarcane yield was evelluated by anaysis of Brix degree, total recoverabel sugars (TRS), sucros content and total stalk weight (TSW). The determination of micronutrients in soil were carried out using the main lines for Cu (324,754nm), MN(279,482nm), Zn (213,857nm) and the secondary (252,744nm) and adjacent (248,325nm) for Fe. Accuracy and precision were evalueted by analysis of two reference materials of the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC) and the results were in agreement at a 95% confidence level. The... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

The research concerns the design and implementation of mechatronic systems to assist in the operation and control of a sugar cane harvester. Two functions were chosen for attention, the primary separation system, and the ‘topper’ that discards the leafy crown. Although these operations are given low priority by the operator of the harvester, their optimisation is of particular significance to the industry. Optimum separation requires a fine balance between discarding ‘trash’ that would contaminate the quality of the cane billets and losing good sugar-bearing material through over cleaning. Poor control of the topper can create extra load for the separation system and cause it to operate at a low efficiency with high loss. Alternatively it can cause a length of sugar-bearing cane stalk to be lost before it even enters the harvester system at all. A variety of mechatronic techniques were explored, that addressed the problem of providing useful data directly from the harvester functions and the electronic instrumentation to allow the data to be collected in a useful form in real-time. Computer control issues were also investigated, to make best use of the data stream. Novel acoustic transducers were introduced to the sensory separation system to provide a signal that indicated material striking the fan blades. A rotary transformer was required to allow transmission of the signal, and a signal interface system was implemented to record the returned data. Many real-time time-series analyses were conducted, and from these a suitable algorithm to extract an impact signal was developed. This system was assessed under harvesting conditions with results that confirmed its ability to quantify the amount of cane lost from the harvest. An investigation was conducted to detect the optimum topping height on a sugar cane stalk. The techniques considered both the internal and external attributes of the stalk, and a method was selected to measure the sugar concentration with a chemical sensor. An important design parameter was that the sensor must operate on the harvester in real time. The novel refractometer worked well in laboratory conditions, yielding repeatable and accurate results. The field environment complicated the application of this system, however this was partly overcome with introduction of a custom sample-crushing mechanism. This device provided the necessary juice sample from a selection of the topped cane stalks. The complete sampling and measuring mechanism operated well on cane stalks, and returned encouraging results. Both sets of data returned useful information regarding the operation of the particular harvester operations. The control of either the separation system or the topper requires careful balancing, and novel control techniques that consider the ergonomics for the operator are discussed. These include visual indication devices through to automatic control algorithms. With the integration of mechatronic techniques into the functioning of the sugar cane harvester, the overall efficiency of many of its functions may be improved, and the operator’s task may be greatly simplified. The ultimate objective is to maximise the yield with an improved level of harvested and separated cane.