A Look at Engineering Based Approaches to Developing Harvest, Processing and Controlled

Environments for Essential Oil Production

Murray Hunter Centre for Communication & Entrepreneurship

University Malaysia Perlis

Paper presented to the National Conference on Agricultural and Food Mechanization 2012, 10-12 January at Pullman, Kuching, Sarawak

The ideal engineer is a composite…He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he

may use the knowledge and techniques of any of these disciplines in solving engineering problems.

(N.W. Dougherty, 1955

Over the time that humankind has existed upon the earth and society progressed from

hunter-gatherers to cultivators, we have encroached upon the Earth’s natural terrestrial

ecosystems with our agricultural systems.

In fact we do not really understand the true interrelationships between the

variables influencing the results of our agricultural activities, as most often they

are not direct cause and effect relationships (Lovelock 2005).

Production Processes

Farm size & layout

Organisation & methods

Propagation

Cultivation

Processing

Marketing

Climate

Weather Rainfall Wind

Sunshine UV radiation Temperature

Humidity

Conducive weather Or

Floods, droughts, etc

Physical Environment

Soil Topography Atmosphere

Natural flora & fauna habitat Urbanisation

Suitability of conditions Pollution (air, land & water)

Labour sources Water resources

(create hinterland where farm part of)

Human Habitisation

Knowledge Suppliers & contractors

Pollution Attitudes and concerns

Resource inputs, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, machinery, research capabilities

Positive Inputs Water

Sunshine Nitrogen

Agricultural inputs Fertilizers etc Knowledge

Labour

Negative Inputs

Adverse physical conditions

Pests & diseases Pollution

Heavy metals

Business Environment

Markets Finance

Trade environment

Customers Financing &

various kinds of capital

Competition Low prices

Changing demand patterns

Government Infrastructure Regulation Taxes & subsidies

Trade environment

Research

Negative Outputs

Runoffs, wastes, carbon

Some recycling back to system

Positive Outputs

Products

Revenue flow back to system

An Agricultural Enterprise as a System

Complex algorithms are not linear – too complex to calculate – so we need to be guided by heuristical thinking which is in turn guided by “trial & error”

We think only in the short term

We do not truly understand the interrelationships between the variables

influencing an action

We discover through trial and error but can hypothesize

Yield and Chemical

Constituents of the

Essential Oil

Location

Topography

Slope & drainage

Climate

Sunshine hours

Seasons

Rainfall

Humidity

Temperature

UV radiation

Genetic Material

Collection

Purchase

Plant physiology

Propagation characteristics

Soil

Nutrients

pH

Drainage & water holding qualities

Humus

Compactness

Mineral residuals

Agronomic Practices

Soil type

Irrigation

Pest & weed control

Plant densities

Harvest & Extraction Practices

Time & method of harvest

Pre-harvest handling & preparation

Method of extraction Extraction time

1.What are the specific technical goals and objectives?2.What are the major technology, infrastructure and climatic constraints (boundaries)?3.What are the areas where innovations will develop quick improvements?4.What is the probability of successful outcomes?, and5.How do we choose between successful outcomes?

?

Effectuation

Effectuation is like going to the kitchen cabinet and seeing what ingredients you have and then deciding what you can make up for a meal. This is very different

from causation where you have a specific menu in mind and then search out the ingredients to make up the meal.

A Redeployment of Technology

that there “is also the tendency for Asian countries, including Malaysia, to deal with the issue of values in development by Importing many technologies and systems wholesale from

abroad without going through the process of mental transformation necessary to master them fully. Although

Malaysia is going through rapid transformation, our growth is one without development in the context of knowledge

contribution to science, engineering and technology. As long as we are consumers and operators of

sophisticated techniques, plants and technologies imported wholesale from abroad, we are to a certain

extent undergoing a technology-less form of industrialization. This transformation of values and attitudes is a key issue

in the nation’s development agenda”[i] .[i] Asma, A., Going Glocal: Cultural Dimensions in Malaysian Management, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Management, 1995, P. 179.

Essential Oil Crop Harvesting

Selected method often restricted by type of crop

Most herbaceous crops can be mowed

Many flowers must be hand picked

Innovative systems can be designed and developed

A Basic Harvest to Distillation Flowchart for

Peppermint Oil

Determination of Harvest time (Sampling)

Mowing and leaving to wilt on field

10 tonne fresh herb per Ha. Fresh herb contains 80% moisture

Wilting Must wilt to 50% moisture level where ‘crisp and brittle’

Pick up with forage harvester Collect 6 tonne of dry herb

Deliver to Distillation system Must insure that herb is not bruised. Use cartridge or box to avoid too much handling

Distillation

Volume of 4 m2 per tonne of herb. If single charge, yield 15kg oil If distillate ratio is 0.062/1 (oil/water), then 241.8 litres water required for distillation.

Assume 35 minutes distillation time, 10 minutes change over, 6.90 litres/minute steam rate per minute. 9 hours will handle 12 tonnes of dried herb in a vat of 4m3.

Effectuation in Tea Tree (Melaleuca alterniafolia) Harvester

Development

Harvester must make a clean cut here

Harvester must damage the stumps To promote coppice growth

RM 4,200,000

RM 200,000

How we really develop new pieces of equipment utilized for complex tasks

Effectuation in Distillation Development

Distillation Principals: Latent Heat

• Molecule speed and energy dependent upon temperature

•Change from liquid to gas state requires energy

•Due to motion of molecules, all compounds with determinable boiling points will emit vapours from their surafaces, if area closed this will insert pressure upon the molecule, termed vapour pressure

•These vapours will saturate the molecule and take up additional molecules

•This saturated vapour will carry other molecules

Amount of heat required to vapourise a unit mass of liquid, without raising the temperature of the vapour above that of the liquid is called LATENT HEAT of vapourisation

Heat and relative pressures are important in distillation

Distillation Principlas Mixed Vapours

Molecules of water vapour a

Molecules of water vapour b

Liquid water a

Liquid oil bLiquid water

a

Liquid oil

b

Molecules of water and gas vapour

The composition of mixed vapours from immiscible liquids

Eg. Water 99.6c Eg linalyl acetate 226c

Together at 99.6c

Releasing Oil from Plant Materials

In steam distillation water condenses of plant surfaces and latent heat surrounds the material and raises volatile materials to boiling point

Releasing Oil from Plant Materials

Herb surface

Water liquid mixed liquids oil liquids water liquids

Vapour phase98c saturated mixed

vapour

General vapour space 99c

Region of oil vapour

elution

Method of Oil Release through Putative Impression from Leaves

Wild Collection & Distillation

Tea TreeAustralia

Small Holder (Patchouli Indonesia)

Cambodia (Lemongrass, Cajuput)

Influencing Factors Compound

characteristics (volatility/mol. Weight) Surrounding Material

Distillation

Historical

Solvent Extraction

Cold Pressing

Highly volatile terpenes

Compounds mixed with waxes, also lactones, esters etc.

Low/medium volatility/stable

Influencing Factors Price vis. Market

Volume Plant cell structures

Field size Topography

Soil/field characteristics Part of plant (i.e.,

rhizome/leaf) Coppice

Automated harvest and distillation

system

Harvest and later load system

Manual harvesting

due to scale,

material, investment

Extensive large scale

farming High --- Low

Value

Specialties Distillation

Hydro

Steam

Destructive

Material Characteristics

Material Characteristics

Solubility in water

CO2 ‘Finer’

composition spectrum

Fractional Distillation

Individual aroma

compounds

Phase One Experimentation

Phase two Scale up

Vapour Outlet Running into Corrugated Tank

Lid with Clamps Counterweight

Brick Compartment

Distillation Vat Welded Steel Mesh Bottom

Water

Corrugated Iron Condenser Tank Vapour Outlet Running into Corrugated Tank

Oil

“T” Pipe for Pressure

Equalisation

Separator Constant Level Tank

“Firebox” for wood fire

Steam in

Mixed Vapour Out

Re-condensation

Re-condensation

Re-condensation

Re-condensation

Re-condensation

Re-vapourisation

Re-vapourisation

Re-vapourisation

Re-vapourisation

Re-vapourisation Critical to understand this behaviour to scale

up

Boiler

Condensers

Separators

Box No. 1.

Box No. 2.

Boxes driven in by tractor and coupled up to steam

inlet and condenser.

Each box can be distilled on rotation or both together, governed by boiler

capacity.

Conclusion

Technical and social disciplines are undergoing convergence which can be

seen in the way many industries are merging together into one. Convergence

is creeping into the research and development process where trans-

disciplinary approaches are required to solve problems. Being an engineer is not

good enough in isolation. In order to create, an engineer must have knowledge

across a number of disciplines so that knowledge can be synergized into some meaningful expressions in the form of

new applications and inventions.

Our current Knowledge

Agriculture

Deep Insight

Insight Expressed

New Forms of Expression

Application & Invention

Chemistry Biochemistry

Physics

Biology

Microbiology

Trans-disciplinary synergy of knowledge

Other disciplines of knowledge

“Issues facing society to be solved”

Engineering

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000

Vietnam

Thailand

Singapore

Philippines

New Zealand

Malaysia

Republic Korea

Dem. Rep. Korea

Japan

India

Indonesia

China

Brunei

Australia

9

12

402

15

316

54

5935

4

26906

627

6

3910

3

2139

Number of International Patents Filed by ResidentsSource: WIPO Statistics

This phenomenon can be seen at a national level if one looks at the number of resident patents filed per million population in each country.

Knowledge without application is useless in creating tangible benefits to society,

but hopefully this paper has shed light that it is not knowledge in itself that is important rather the ability to apply it. And the ability to apply it doesn’t rely upon formulae, theory or algorithm, but rather emergent thinking and the

heuristics have developed. This is a neglected part of engineering education and this is also the

quality that makes a good engineer stand out from the rest of the pack.

Thank You