RU2822757C1 - Chamber with controlled microclimate for sampling greenhouse gases obtained as result of insect activity - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to devices for extraction of greenhouse gases. Disclosed is a device with a controlled microclimate for sampling greenhouse gases obtained as a result of insect vital activity, including a main chamber for tested insects, equipped with inlet and outlet tubes with rubberized membranes for removal of emissions and a tubular connection for air mixing, and a pre-chamber, hermetically installed on the main chamber with possibility of periodic opening, wherein at the end of the inlet tube there is an automatic valve which controls the volume of air supplied to the pre-chamber to the fan with a potentiometer and uniformly scattered by a diffuser attached to the bottom of the pre-chamber at angle of 45°, in addition, under the bottom of the main chamber there is a heater, and inside there is a mist-forming sprayer of water supplied by a pump from a container attached from the outside to the wall of the main chamber, action of which is controlled by a control unit with a built-in thermostat depending on the readings of the thermometer-hygrometer, providing stable, optimal microclimate conditions.

EFFECT: invention enables to obtain representative samples of greenhouse gases, extracted by investigated populations of insects, which are in optimal temperature and humidity, stable environmental conditions for subsequent analysis of emissions.

1 cl, 1 dwg

Description

The use of insects in food and biotechnology as an alternative source of proteins, fats and chitosan is gaining great popularity in the world due to the increase in the planet's population and the growing negative impact of the agriculture, food production and processing industries on the environment. According to various estimates, 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions are created during food production. Of these, 31% of greenhouse gases are emitted by livestock and fishing farms. In this regard, scientific research assessing the life cycle and carbon footprint of the production of a unit of protein in technologies for breeding and processing edible insects in comparison with traditional animal husbandry is of particular relevance.

An analysis of known solutions showed that the technical problem in this area is the need to expand the arsenal of means for sampling greenhouse gases released as a result of the metabolism of insects.

Installations for growing insects (incubators, cages, molars, insectariums) are known for the purpose of their use in systems of biological protection of agricultural crops, pollination of plants and processing of organic waste, but these installations do not provide for the study of the balance of greenhouse gases as a result of insect activity (Installation for growing insects, patent RU No. 131572 U1; Molarium, patent RU No. 164529 U1; Insectarium for breeding insects, patent RU No. 103442 U1; insectarium for growing bumblebees, as well as insects and mites for protecting plants from pests, patent RU No. 136683 U1).

There are devices for determining the emission of greenhouse gases, but they are intended for studying the parameters of respiration of soil and plants and are not suitable for studying insects (Device for measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from soil and plants, patent RU No. 2518979 C1 dated 2012.10.17; Automatic chamber for measuring fluxes of greenhouse gases at the soil-atmosphere interface, patent RU No. 169373 U1 dated 2016.06.27).

These devices do not involve the sampling of greenhouse gases resulting from the life of insects, in addition, many of the known installations for rearing insects are designed for a specific species of insects with the impossibility of adjusting the optimal range of temperature and humidity for other species and controlling the stability of the microclimate.

The closest to the proposed invention in terms of the totality of essential features is a device for sampling greenhouse gases obtained as a result of the activity of insects (see patent RU No. 2798297). This device includes a main breathing chamber for test insects with adjustable air inflow and exhaust and microclimate control sensors, equipped with inlet and outlet tubes, on the outer part of which there are holes for air sampling, and a pre-chamber hermetically installed on the main chamber with the possibility of periodic opening.

The main disadvantage of the known solution is the instability of the optimal humidity range inside the main chamber for the normal development and functioning of insects.

The technical result of the proposed technical solution is to obtain representative samples of greenhouse gases emitted by the studied populations of insects located in environmental conditions that are consistently optimal in terms of humidity for subsequent analysis of emissions.

To solve this problem and obtain the stated technical result, a device is proposed for sampling greenhouse gases obtained as a result of the vital activity of insects, including a breathing chamber with adjustable air inflow and outlet and microclimate control sensors, while the device is designed as the main chamber for the tested insects, equipped with inlet and outlet tubes, on the outer part of which there are rubberized holes for air sampling, and a pre-chamber, hermetically installed on the main chamber with the possibility of periodic opening; in addition, an automatic valve is mounted at the end of the inlet tube, regulating the volume of air supplied to the pre-chamber to the fan with a potentiometer and a uniformly diffused diffuser attached to the bottom of the pre-chamber at an angle of 45°, in addition, a heater is placed under the bottom of the main chamber, and a fog-forming water sprayer is mounted inside, supplied by a pump from a container attached externally to the wall of the main chamber, the action of which is regulated by the control unit with a built-in thermostat depending on the readings of the thermometer-hygrometer, providing stable, optimal microclimate conditions in the chambers and preventing stress on the micropopulation of insects.

The device is illustrated by the presented drawing. Figure 1 shows a general diagram of the main chamber and prechamber.

The breathing chamber device for sampling greenhouse gases emitted by insects consists of two main parts (Fig. 1): the main chamber 1 for housing insects and the antechamber 2, connected by a piping system 6. The main chamber 1 and the anterior chamber 2 are installed in such a way that ideally adjacent to each other, between them there is an airtight seal made of silicone sealant. The main chamber 1 and pre-chamber 2 are secured around the perimeter using metal clamps 3, which ensure the tightness of the system. The main chamber 1 and the pre-chamber 2 have an inlet 4 and an outlet 5 tube, which are used respectively to take in fresh air and exhaust air saturated with animal metabolic products. There is also a tubular connection 6 between the main chamber 1 and the pre-chamber 2 for air mixing. On tubes 4 and 5 there are rubberized membranes 7 and 8, where needles for sampling air are located. An automatic valve 9 is mounted at the end of the inlet tube 4 to regulate the amount of air supplied to the main chamber 1. A fan 10 with a potentiometer for regulating the rotation speed is mounted in the prechamber 2, a heater 11 is placed under the bottom of the main chamber 1, and a thermometer-hygrometer 12 is placed inside the main chamber 1.

To prevent direct contact of insects with the directed air flow from fan 10, a plastic diffuser 13 is attached to the bottom of the antechamber 2 under the fan 10, evenly dispersing the air flow throughout the entire space of the main chamber 1. One edge of the diffuser 13 is attached to the bottom of the antechamber with 2 short screws, the other edge of the diffuser 13 - with long screws or hangers, so that the diffuser 13 forms an angle of 45° with respect to the bottom of the antechamber 2. Outside, a container 14 for water with a volume of 6 liters is attached to the wall of the main chamber 1, in which there is a silicone tube 15. One end of the tube 15, lowered into the container 14, is equipped with a pump 16, to which a voltage of 12 V is supplied from the battery for forced water supply, the other the end of the tube 15 passes through the hole in the wall of the main chamber 1 and is supplied to the fog-forming sprayer 17.

The device is equipped with a control unit with a thermostat built into it (not shown in the drawing), which regulates the operation of the automatic valve 9, fan 10, fog-forming sprayer 17 and heater depending on the readings of the thermometer-hygrometer 12.

The device works as follows. A tray with food for the insects being studied is placed in the main chamber 1. Prechamber 2 is installed on top of the main chamber 1 and secured with metal clamps 3. Inlet 4, outlet 5 tubes and tubular connection 6 are connected to the resulting structure. Water is poured into container 14. They include a control unit that is programmed to maintain optimal temperature and air humidity for a specific type of insect inside the main chamber 1. The temperature and humidity level in the main chamber 1 is controlled by a thermometer-hygrometer 12. In the event that the humidity level in the main chamber 1 is below the optimal range , the control unit automatically reduces the gap for air supply in the valve 9, reduces the rotation speed of the fan 10, supplies water from the container 14 through the silicone tube 15 by the pump 16 to the sprayer 17, which sprays water in the form of fog into the main chamber 1 until the humidity level in main chamber 1 will not reach the optimal value. If the humidity level is above the optimal range, the control unit automatically increases the gap for air supply in valve 9, increases the rotation speed of fan 10, and turns on heater 11 until the humidity level in the main chamber 1 reaches the optimal value.

Zero air samples are taken at the inlet and outlet of the chambers using syringes through rubberized membranes 7 and 8.

After taking zero samples, prechamber 2 is disassembled and placed in the main insect chamber 1, then the device is assembled according to the diagram given above. After a certain time (specific to each type of insect), air sampling is carried out similarly to zero sampling. Next, the selected air samples are introduced either directly into a gas chromatograph or into vials for subsequent analysis. The number of samples taken and sampling frequency vary depending on the purpose of the study and the insect species.

The results of the studies showed that, in comparison with the prototype, the proposed device provides the ability to select greenhouse gases, maintain optimal environmental conditions, especially humidity for experimental insects, which makes it possible to obtain representative data for studying the carbon footprint of insects raised to compensate for the deficiency in animal protein while reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Claims (1)

A device with a controlled microclimate for sampling greenhouse gases obtained as a result of insect activity, including a main chamber for test insects, equipped with inlet and outlet tubes with rubberized membranes for sampling emissions and a tubular connection for mixing air, and a prechamber hermetically installed on the main chamber with the possibility of periodic opening, characterized in that an automatic valve is mounted at the end of the inlet tube, regulating the volume of air supplied to the prechamber to a fan with a potentiometer and evenly dispersed by a diffuser attached to the bottom of the prechamber at an angle of 45°; in addition, a heater is placed under the bottom of the main chamber , and inside there is a fog-forming water sprayer supplied by a pump from a container attached externally to the wall of the main chamber, the action of which is regulated by a control unit with a built-in thermostat depending on the readings of the thermometer-hygrometer, providing stable, optimal microclimate conditions.