ISTANBUL 7th International Conference on Research in Agricultural & Food Engineering: IRAFE-27

Call for Papers: IRAFE-27

Full Articles/ Reviews/ Shorts Papers/ Abstracts are welcomed in the following research fields:

Foundational & Independent Topics

These areas focus on the distinct engineering principles applied specifically to either the field (agriculture) or the processing plant (food manufacturing).

1. Agricultural Machinery, Power, and Robotics

The mechanical backbone of farming, focusing on automating and scaling field operations.

• Tractor and Power Systems: Internal combustion engines, electric powertrains, and hydraulic systems for farms.

• Tillage and Seeding Equipment: Design and dynamics of soil-engaging tools and precision planters.

• Harvesting Machinery: Mechanics of combines, fruit pickers, and root crop harvesters.

• Agricultural Robotics (AgBots): Autonomous weeding robots, drones for field scouting, and robotic fruit harvesters.

2. Soil and Water Engineering

The management of natural resources to optimize crop growth while preventing degradation.

• Irrigation System Design: Drip, sprinkler, surface, and subsurface irrigation engineering.

• Agricultural Drainage Systems: Surface drainage channels and subsurface tile drainage design.

• Soil Erosion Control: Terracing, windbreaks, and sediment transport modeling.

• Hydrology and Watershed Management: Runoff estimation, water harvesting, and groundwater recharge.

3. Food Process Engineering

The unit operations involved in transforming raw agricultural materials into consumer food products.

• Thermal Processing: Pasteurization, sterilization, commercial canning, and aseptic processing.

• Dehydration and Concentration: Spray drying, freeze drying (lyophilization), and membrane concentration.

• Mechanical Operations: Milling, size reduction, mixing, emulsification, and extrusion cooking.

• Non-Thermal Processing: High-pressure processing (HPP), pulsed electric fields (PEF), and UV irradiation.

Interrelated & Applied Topics

These fields represent the overlap where agricultural production meets food processing, sustainability, and data science.

1. Post-Harvest Technology and Cold Chain Management

Bridges the gap between field harvest and factory processing, focusing on keeping perishable foods alive and fresh.

• Crop Drying and Storage: Grain bin aeration, psychrometrics, and deep-bed drying kinetics.

• Controlled Atmosphere Storage (CAS): Regulating oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen to delay ripening.

• Refrigeration and Cold Chain Logistics: Cryogenic freezing, chilled transport, and real-time temperature tracking.

• Perishable Handling: Sorting, grading, washing, and physiological disease prevention.

2. Food Packaging and Shelf-Life Engineering

Combines materials science, chemistry, and food engineering to protect products from the factory to the fork.

• Active and Intelligent Packaging: Oxygen scavengers, antimicrobial films, and freshness indicators (QR/RFID).

• Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP): Gas flushing techniques to extend shelf life inside consumer bags.

• Biodegradable Packaging: Developing edible films and bioplastics from agricultural waste (e.g., starch, cellulose).

• Mass Transfer in Packaging: Water vapor and oxygen permeability modeling.

3. Precision Agriculture and Smart Food Manufacturing

The integration of data science, IoT, and automation across both field and factory.

• Geospatial Technologies: GPS/GNSS guidance, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and variable rate technology (VRT).

• Remote Sensing: Using satellite and drone imagery (NDVI indices) to assess crop health.

• Industry 4.0 in Food Plants: SCADA systems, IoT sensors for inline quality control, and digital twins of food processes.

• Traceability Systems: Blockchain and barcode architecture for farm-to-table food safety tracking.

4. Agricultural and Food Waste Valorization

The engineering of circular economies to turn production byproducts into valuable resources.

• Bioenergy and Biofuels: Anaerobic digestion for biogas, ethanol fermentation, and pyrolysis of biomass.

• Byproduct Extraction: Isolating proteins, pectin, or antioxidants from fruit peels, whey, or spent grains.

• Wastewater Treatment: Aerobic and anaerobic treatment of high-chemical oxygen demand (COD) food factory effluents.