https://doi.org/10.4081/jae.2020.1093

Rapid assessment of fertilizers manufacturing methods by means of a novel waveguide vector spectrometer

Vol. 51 No. 4 (2020)
Published: 13 October 2020
Chemometrics, classification, physical properties, rapid electrical technique.
Abstract Views: 1577
PDF: 525
HTML: 50
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Eleonora Iaccheri
eleonora.iaccheri4@unibo.it
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4204-7822
Interdepartmental Centre for Agri-Food Industrial Research, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena (FC), Italy.
Annachiara Berardinelli
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, and Centre Agriculture Food Environment, University of Trento, Italy.
Claudio Ciavatta
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7914-4394
Interdepartmental Centre for Agri-Food Industrial Research, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena (FC); Department of Agricultural and Food Science, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena (FC), Italy.
Luigi Ragni
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2648-2955
Interdepartmental Centre for Agri-Food Industrial Research, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena (FC); Department of Agricultural and Food Science, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Cesena (FC), Italy.

This study aims to test the suitability of a waveguide spectrometer, as a rapid and cheap tool to discriminate between different fertilizers according to two different manufacturing methods, such as granulation and blending. The tested instrument is a waveguide vector spectrometer, patented in 2016, that operates in the range 1.6-2.7 GHz, giving both spectral phase and gain measurements. Granulated and blended fertilizers were dehydrated and pulverized to avoid possible interferences due to the water content and the geometry of the sample. The spectral data were analysed by multivariate statistical analysis [principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA)] in order to obtain a discrimination tool considering the whole hidden spectral information. PC1 (95% of the explained variance) and PC2 (4% of the explained variance) are shown to explain most of the spectral variability. A tendency to group samples according to the different production methods can be seen, even if the discrimination is influenced by the different chemical compositions of fertilizers. However, PLS-DA models correctly classified 100% of the samples into granulated and blended classes using spectra obtained by waveguide spectroscopy. Despite being preliminary, the tests carried out on a small number of samples show how the technique coupled with PLS-DA models could be able to discriminate between the analysed fertilizers by means of their spectral signature and according to the manufacturing method, if the chemical composition is kept constant. Further tests are necessary to validate the model, also considering the possibility of grouping fertilizers on the basis of their similar composition.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Barnes, R.J., Dhanoa, M.S and. Lister, S.J. (1993). Correction to the Description of Standard Normal Variate (SNV) and De-Trend (DT) Transformations in Practical Spectroscopy with Applications in Food and Beverage Analysis—2nd Edition. J. Near Infrared Spectrosc. 1, 185-186. https://www.osapublishing.org/jnirs/abstract.cfm?URI=jnirs-1-3-185.
Beghi, R., Giovenzana, V., Brancadoro, L., & Guidetti, R. (2017). Rapid evaluation of grape phytosanitary status directly at the check point station entering the winery by using visible/near infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Food Engineering, 204, 46-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2017.02.012
Castro-Giráldeza, M., Botella, P., Toldrà F. and Fito P. (2010). Low-frequency dielectric spectrum to determine pork meat quality. Innov. Food. Sci. Emerg. Technol. Vol. 11, Issue 2, 376-386. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifset.2010.01.011
Cevoli, C., Ragni, L., Iaccheri, E., Gori, A., Caboni, M. F., Guarnieri, A., & Berardinelli, A. (2015). Estimation of the main compositional features of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese by a simple capacitive technique. J. Food Eng., 149, 181-187, DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.10.006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.10.006
Dalacort, R., & Stevan, S. L. (2018). Mobile Helical Capacitive Sensor for the Dynamic Identification of Obstructions in the Distribution of Solid Mineral Fertilizers. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 18(11). DOI: 10.3390/s18113991 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s18113991
Iaccheri, E., Laghi, L., Cevoli, C., Berardinelli, A., Ragni, L., Romani, S., & Rocculi, P. (2015). Different analytical approaches for the study of water features in green and roasted coffee beans. J. Food Eng., 146. DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.08.016 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.08.016
Iaccheri, E., Ragni, L., Cevoli, C., Romani, S., Dalla Rosa, M., & Rocculi, P. (2019). Glass transition of green and roasted coffee investigated by calorimetric and dielectric techniques. Food Chem., 301(February), 125187. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.125187 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.125187
Legislative Decree April 29, 2010 n. 75. Reorganization and revision of the rules on fertilizers, in accordance with article 13 of the law July 7, 2009, n. 88. Italian Official Gazette n. 126, May 26, 2010.
Nelson O. Stuart (1991). Dielectric Properties of Agricultural Products. Measurements and Applications. IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation. Vol. 26, No. 5, October 1991.
Ragni, L., Berardinelli, A., Cevoli, C., Filippi, M., Iaccheri, E., & Romani, A. (2017). Assessment of food compositional parameters by means of a Waveguide Vector Spectrometer. J. Food Eng., 205. DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2017.02.016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2017.02.016
Ragni, L., Cevoli, C., & Berardinelli, A. (2010). A waveguide technique for non-destructive determination of egg quality parameters. J. Food Eng., 100(2), 343–348. DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2010.04.020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2010.04.020
Ragni, L., Iaccheri, E., Cevoli, C., Berardinelli, A., Bendini, A., & Toschi, T. G. (2013). A capacitive technique to assess water content in extra virgin olive oils. J Food Eng., 116(1). DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2012.10.031 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2012.10.031
Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 laying down rules on the making available on the market of EU fertilizing products and amending Regulations (EC) No 1069/2009 and (EC) No 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003. 25.6.2019 EN OJ, L 170/1.
Rosipal Roman (2010). Nonlinear Partial Least Squares. An Overview. Chemoinformatics and Advanced Machine Learning Perspectives: Complex Computational Methods and Collaborative Techniques, 21. DOI: DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-911-8.ch009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61520-911-8.ch009
Wu, L., & Liu, M. (2008). Preparation and properties of chitosan-coated NPK compound fertilizer with controlled-release and water-retention. Carbohyd. Polym., 72(2), 240–247. DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2007.08.020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2007.08.020

How to Cite

Iaccheri, E. (2020) “Rapid assessment of fertilizers manufacturing methods by means of a novel waveguide vector spectrometer”, Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 51(4), pp. 192–199. doi: 10.4081/jae.2020.1093.

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.


Similar Articles

<< < 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.