Soil Steam Disinfestation
March 15, 2015
The purpose of this collaborative engineering project is to research and develop a soil
steaming fumigation method in order to disinfect farmer’s soil from insects, weeds, diseases, and
other unwanted abnormalities. Precision Combustion Incorporated, along with assistance from
the Fairfield University School of Engineering will work together to build and remodel a
prototype soil steaming machine. Various farms across the United States, most of which based in
California, will assist in testing.
The main objective given to the Fairfield University School of Engineering is to develop
a working computational fluid dynamics model of the soil steaming process. In addition,
prototype testing will be conducted at Precision Combustion Incorporated at their facility in
North Haven, CT. The prototype testing will be compared against the results gathered from the
computational fluid dynamics model. Changes for the computational fluid dynamics model will
be made accordingly based off of testing.
The solution the Fairfield University School of Engineering team has created is to
develop a working computational fluid dynamics model using the engineering software ANSYS
Fluent. This model will feature four phases of the computational fluid dynamics portion of the
project, which will be elapsed over the course of the Spring 2015 semester. In addition, a soil
steaming fumigation testing rig has been built at Precision Combustion’s North Haven, CT
facility that will encapsulate all major aspects of the computational fluid dynamics model.
The implications of our solution have the capability to alter the farming industry’s
approach to disinfecting crops for the foreseeable future. The results we have gathered so far
include the completion of phase three of the computational fluid dynamics and the construction
of the soil steaming fumigation testing rig.