Biofilter Research Ammonia Jitendra Joshi is currently operating three biofilters. It is removing all of the ammonia fed to it, and confirming that packed with inert material it can be washed to remove the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate which accumulates on it and subsequently return to operable condition. Nitrogen results were consistent with those from the 3 liter reactor.
Microbial testing is currently underway.
Results confirmed that the 12 liter perlite packed reactors are capable of removing ethylene from air down to concentrations below concentration of 20 ppb, and maintain this level of performance for 10-12 days. Maximum removals of 4 ppb and 10 ppb, respectively. This has forced us to include mass transfer limitations in the model and thus prompted a change in the numerical solution technique used from Euler to a Crank-Nicholson. Project 1 lead by Dr. Peter Ling continued their effort in developing machine vision technology for plant monitoring and control. Dr. George Wulster led the effort of Project 3 in developing an decision support tool for single truss tomato production with future application to other ALS crops.