The effect of the land shape on the energy intensity of operation steps

Abstract

In the second half of the past century, technological progress changed dramatically the performance of agricultural machines. The consequences were both positive and negative. The positive aspect is the stable and abundant production of food, the negative aspect is a larger dependence on fossil fuels and a lower energy efficiency (GIAMPIETRO, PIMENTEL 1994). The consumption of fuels is the main part of all the consumed energy not only during crop production, but also in the entire agriculture sector. In the past time, the consumption of fossil fuels and energy ranks among the most closely monitored issues all over the world. The reason is that the economical development of each country depends to a certain degree on the level of fuel and power resources, the ability of continuous supplying, when these energy resources are limited and can only be obtained with increasing difficulties. The increasing disproportion between energy consumption and the possibility of its providing makes a current issue from the necessity to rationalize all forms of energy use. The solution of the problem of the rationalization of the diesel fuel consumption during crop production is the main part of the rationalization of the consumption of all the energy of an agricultural plant (ONDŘEJ 1985).Depending on the type of fuel and the amount of time a tractor or machine is used, fuel and lubricant costs will usually represent at least 16 percent to over 45 percent of the total machine costs (SIEMENS, BOWERS 1999). The maximization of the engine fuel efficiency, maximization of the efficiency of the traction mechanism and the selection of the optimum working speed of the traction set (GRISSO et al. 1999) effects the efficiency of tractors. Apart from the construction parameters of the engine used, the fuel consumption per hour depends on the degree of the use of the engine output and the fraction of the running time with respect to the overall operational time (PASTOREK et al. 2002). The energy intensity of individual operations depends not only on the technical parameters of the machine set used, method, depth and intensity of work, the manner of using the machine set, but depends to a considerable extent also on the variability of the physical and mechanical properties of the processed material, land size, its regularity, slope, fraction conditions and other parameters.In the Research Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Prague, the effect of the factors was analyzed that influence the implementation of operational steps, considered primarily from the point of achieved performances, rated energy consumption, primarily of diesel fuel and the unit direct costs. It is obvious that the greatest influence on performing operational steps from the point of view of exploitation, economical and energy criteria has the size and shape of land units (SYROVÝ et al. 2002). This influence is caused by the number of turns at the headland, when the operational capacity of the machine is not used. During agricultural operations, ABSTRACT:The goal of ...