‘제주대 참여 부패감귤연구’ 정부 최우수 선정

Research on rotten tangerines awarded first prize by nat’l government

Drying using plasma helps utilize rotten tangerines

Jeju National University announced Friday (Dec. 31) that the study of the technological development for processing and utilization of rotten tangerines through plasma drying was selected as the nation’s best case in the 2020 Resident-Friendly Problem-Solving Project Evaluation. The evaluation was conducted by the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Science and ICT.

This study was recognized for its excellence in responses from residents and plans for shared performances. With the selection, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province will receive an institutional commendation from the national government.

The Resident-Friendly Problem-Solving Project is a regional innovation project in which scientists and local residents use science and technology to solve local problems together. After going through two stages of fierce competition and strict screening which started in 2019, a total of 10 tasks were finally selected nationwide in 2020.

Among the selected tasks, the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KIFE) and Jeju National University together proposed a plasma technology to solve the problem of decay tangerines. The Jeju province has achieved excellent results by leading communication between residents and experts while operating the Self-Solving Group (Living Lab)” consisting of provincial residents.

In Jeju, nearly 10,000 tons of rotten tangerines occur every year intensively during the harvest season. However, due to the saturation of the landfill, complaints have continuously been raised due to the odor caused by the delay in processing the tangerine waste and environmental pollution. The mass occurrence of corrupt tangerines affects the price of the fruit and farmers’ income following the change in consumer sentiment.

Jeju National University conducted a computerized interpretation of plasma reactors and supported the operation of on-site facilities. In May, the paper “Numerical Simulation of Thermal Flow Characteristics for Rotten Citrus Fruit Drying” was published as a cover paper in an international journal. This paper predicts the high temperature environment inside the plasma reactor for treating decayed citrus through computer simulation and suggests optimal conditions for manufacturing and operating the equipment.