International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

In connection with the observed dynamism of changes on the energy market regarding generation of energy from sources other than coal, more attention was paid to the use of "clean", low-emission technologies. Bearing in mind the need to search new, alternative energy sources, the aim of the study was to investigate and analyze the properties of grain biomass, such as rice and corn, as a fuel. To achieve the goal, the research problem has been formulated: how the fragmentation degree and the type of biomass affects such energy properties as heating value and heat of combustion. To resolve the problem, the properties of white rice, black rice, red rice and corn before and after grinding were analysed. The results show that white rice has the biggest value of heat of combustion before grinding, red rice – the lowest. White rice has the biggest heating value for whole grain, red rice – the lowest. The research allows to state that grinding operations result in increasing energetic properties of biomass. It can be also assumed that biomass is a good substitute of fossil fuel.

Rice, as the main food produced in Asia, requires more water than the other cereals. Flooded irrigation, the most common method of irrigation in rice, results high water losses and emits more greenhouse gases. Changes in climate, decrease in water resources and arable lands, necessitates the water productivity increasing strategies for rice. Soil matric potential based irrigation is such a strategy to irrigate rice under these conditions. This paper presents an experiment carried out inside a climate chamber to assess the water productivity of Bg300 rice variety using above approach. Three irrigation treatments; flooded treatment with a ponding water depth of 3cm and treatments with soil matric potentials at -150mbar and -300mbar were imposed in three large containers. Soil matric potentials were maintained using tensiometers installed at a depth of 20cm. Treatment at -150mbar showed best performance in terms of yield, water productivity and water savings. This strategy is transferable to a wide range of locations under different climates and reduces time for many field experiments.

Rice production on the irrigated lands of the Syr Darya river basin (the Aral Sea region) is a traditional specialization of the agricultural sector. If on the mildly saline soil rice yield reaches more than 5 t/ha, then on highly saline soil rice yield is below 2 t/ha, which makes its cultivation not profitable. Those lands degrade and eventually excluded from agricultural use. We studied the rice irrigation technology of saline lands, which enables to provide rice yield of 4 tons per hectare and above.