• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2010

Since SRC (Short-term Rotation Coppice) such as poplar and willow can be harvested in three years, they are known to be a potential forest biomass as fuel for a power plant. The production system including transplanting and harvesting is, however, necessary to be mechanized because such a biomass should be handled in a massive volumetric size. A pull-type stem-cutting transplanter was developed in the research as the first step to realize the production of SRC. A needle-like transplanting device pushes a stem-cutting into the prepared soil bed by a pneumatic cylinder, and another device firms soil around a stem-cutting transplanted. Since this is an intermittent operation, it was necessary to develop a zero horizontal velocity mechanism which enabled only the transplanting needle part to continue a zero horizontal movement relative to the ground during the transplanting operation even when the tractor kept moving forward. The 2-row transplanter can transplant stem-cuttings at the rate of 6.5 seconds per row without missing a single attempt. The planting depth and distance were well maintained and controlled. Their CVs were between 2.1~3.4% and 0.87~1.7% for the depth and the distance, respectively. Although, the transplanted stem-cuttings tended to lean outward from the back-view and forward from the side view, they were planted within the range of $3^{\circ}$ from the upright position.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.297-309
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• 1990

Ginseng is renowned for both its medicinal and herbal uses and successful cultivation of Panax ginseng in Asia and Panax Vtiinvtiefolilim in North America has until recently taken place in the native geographical ranges of the plants. As a consequence of the potential high capital return and anticipated increases in consumer consumption, commercial cultivation of American ginseng now occurs well outside the native range of the plant in North America. In fact, the region of greatest expansion of cultivation is in the semi-arid interior region of British Columbia, Canada. Linked with this expansion is the potential domination of the ginseng industry by agricultural corporations. In the interior of British Columbia, the native decidous forest environment of eastern North America is simulated with elevated polypropylene shade and a sllrface covering of straw mulch. The architecture of these environments is designed to permit maximillm machinery useage and to minimize labour requirements. Further, with only a four-year growth cycle, plant densities in the gardens are high. In this hot, semiarid environment, producers believe they have a competitive advantage over other regions in North America because of the low precipitation rates. This helps to minimize atmospheric humidity such that the conditions for fungal disease development are reduced. If soil moisture levels become limited, supplemental water can be provided by irrigation. The nature of the radiation and energy balance regimes of the shade and much environment promotes high soil moistilre levels. Also, the modified environment reduces soil heating. This can result in an aerial environment for the plant that is stressful and a rooting zone environment that is sub-optimal. The challenge of further refining the man modified environment for enhanced plant growth and health still remains.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.43-51
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• 2009

Paper mill sludges are discharged around 870,000 M/T annually. Only 30% of the paper mill sludge have been recycled and the rest has been disposed by land fill, incineration, ocean abandonment and other ways. Because of overall prohibition of sludge disposal by London Dumping Convention in 2012, a urgent counter measure for paper mill sludge must be provided. In this paper, some basic experiments were carried out to develop a tray cell pot using paper mill sludge for increasing the recycling potential of the wasted sludge. To establish the manufacturing parameters, the tray cell pots were made with three types of materials including virgin pulp, old news paper and corrugated board mixed in a blend tank of a molding machine. The bending force and moisture content of the produced tray cell pots was measured to confirm the application capability. The tray cell pot could be manufactured under the condition of over 20% of virgin pulp, 40% of old news paper added. However, the corrugated board could not be used because of the glutinous substance included. The produced tray cell pot absorbed water very easily and the bending force decreased rapidly. The waterproof material must be used to applicate the produced tray cell pot in plant growing fields.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.404-410
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• 2009

This study was carried out to develop a self-propelled type explosive subsoiler for improving the root zone soil conditions in orchard and other forest fields. Prototype was designed to be able to inject air and other soil improving material such as lime into soil at the same time, and thus improve the air permeability and drainage of orchard soils to promote the root growth of tree for high quality fruit production. Soil penetration device of explosive subsoiler is composed of air hammer, penetration rob and air injection nozzle. To support the soil penetration device of explosive subsoiler to penetrate vertically, modified Scott-Russel mechanism was used. Timing control device for simultaneous injection of soil improving material with air was attached to the out side wall of air cylinder and as the cylinder move, the soil improving material was injected into soil at the same time. Turning radius of prototype was 2.2-2.3 m with good mobility in sloped land. It took approximately 1 minute for lime injection system to reach the optimum pressure of 9.9 kg/$cm^2$, average 10-20 seconds were required to rupture soil with the depth of 50 cm and 2-3 seconds were required for explosion, so all in all about 1 minute and 20 seconds were required for one cycle of explosion. Maximum soil rupture depth and diameter were 50 cm and 3-4 m respectively depending on the soil type and soil moisture content. For final design of explosive subsoiler inclination angle of lime hopper was increased from 60 degree to 70 degree and the shape of hopper was changed from rectangular cone to circular cone to solve the clogging problem of lime at out let. Agitating system operated by compressed air was attached to the metering device of the prototype, thus more than 90 cc of lime was discharged per cycle from metering device without clogging problems.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.12-19
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• 2010

This study was carried out to explore the availability of seedling pots made from paper mill sludge using red pepper species called Nokkwang. The seedling pots were made by several conditions such as different mixing ratios between sludge and old newspaper (ONP), sterilizing treatment and latex coating. After 30 day cultivation in a green house, the growth condition of the red peppers was evaluated by comparison with those raised in the plastics seedling pots. The red peppers in the plastics pot showed a better growth than those in the sludge pots. Sterilizing treatment, latex coating and different mixing ratios between paper sludges and ONP did rarely affect a growth rate of the plant and the contents of inorganic elements. However, latex coating contributed to protection of physical structure of the sludge pots in spite of constant water feeding. Even though some inorganic elements from the sludge pots migrated into the bed soils, electronic conductivity of the bed soils was within the proper range for the plant growth. Finally it was confirmed that the seedling pots made from paper mill sludges could be used to cultivate horticultural plants as the alternative to the plastics pots.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1171-1176
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• 2012

The selective patterning of a carbon nanotube (CNT) forest on a Si substrate has been performed using a femtosecond laser. The high shock wave generated by the femtosecond laser effectively removed the CNTs without damage to the Si substrate. This process has many advantages because it is performed without chemicals and can be easily applied to large-area patterning. The CNTs grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) have a catalyst cap at the end of the nanotube owing to the tip-growth mode mechanism. For the application of an electron emission and biosensor probe, the catalyst cap is usually removed chemically, which damages the surface of the CNT wall. Precise control of the femtosecond laser power and focal position could solve this problem. Furthermore, selective CNT cutting using a femtosecond laser is also possible without any phase change in the CNTs, which is usually observed in the focused ion beam irradiation of CNTs.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2004

The chestnut is a well-blown and important forest product in Korea. The annual production of chestnut is about 95,000 tons and its cultivating area is 80,000 ha. However, the peeling process of outer and inner skins of chestnut is very difficult due to hardness and adhesiveness of chestnut skin. The purpose of this study was to develop a prediction model for flame peeling characteristics of domestic chestnuts, and to evaluate an optimization model to determine the operation conditions of the chestnut flame peeling system. The results of this study were summarized as follows. It was found that the flame peeling characteristics of domestic chestnuts were by the flame temperature, and the flame time. The peeling ratio and the heating depth were increased as the flame temperature and the flame time were increased. The peeling ratio and the heating depth were increased linearly when those were less than 85 % and 2 mm respectively. As the hardness of chestnut shell was decreased, the peeling ratio was increased. A simulation model was developed to predict the peeling ratio and the heating depth based on the hardness of the chestnut shell, the flame temperature, and the flame time of the peeling system. The model was evaluated by comparing the measurement and the prediction of the peeling ratios and heating depths, and showed the good relationship.