Sugar beet is an extensive crop of great agronomic value with significant productive and economic returns and Ukraine’s sugar beet accounts for about 5.1% of the overall world production. Sugar beets and the by-products resulting from its manufacturing transformation are a significant renewable energy resource. A new high-quality performance prototype of a sugar beet top harvester, front mounted on a tractor, was built by the authors in Ukraine. The aim of this study is to evaluate the main performance parameters related to the operation of this new machine. Field tests were carried out linking the prototype to a wheel tractor, whilst suitable sensors measured the significant kinematic and dynamic parameters, allowing experimental data collection to assess the machine’s performance parameters. The entire technological process of harvesting and transporting the beet tops to the beet top storage unit required power ranging from 6.42 to 17.65 kW. At the topmost tested forward speed, the required tractor traction force was less than 1.9 kN with the power required by the shaft that drives the screw conveyor ranging from 3.1 to 4.6 kW. This value was the lowest for a speed of the tractor–beet top harvesting machine aggregate ranging from 0.9 to 1.2 $\mathrm{m}·{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ .

One of the most delicate operations in the sugar beet harvesting process is removing the tops from the heads of the root crops without any mechanical damages. The aim of this study is to improve the design of the conveying and unloading system of the sugar beet topper machine. In this paper, a mathematical model of the motion of a cut beet tops particle M, along the conveying and unloading system, has been developed to support the evaluation of kinematic and design parameters, depending on the rotational speed of the thrower blade, the air flow speed, the required ejection speed of particle M, and the position of the trailer that moves alongside the harvester. It has been established that increasing the speed Va of the top particle M, which has left the end of the blade of the thrower, leads to an increase in the arc coordinate S(t) of its movement along the cylindrical section of the casing. Within the range of the speed change from 4 m·s^–1 to 8 m·s^–1, the value of the arc coordinate S(t) increases by 1.4 times during time t = 0.006 s. Moreover, a rapid decrease in speed V is observed with an increase in the length x of the discharge chute.

Harvesting sugar and fodder beet tops is a complex technological process that requires the use of special harvesting machines. Trailed harvesters of different rows, which together with aggregate tractors form symmetric or asymmetric machine-tractor units, the movement of which in the horizontal plane is not always stable, are widely used. The purpose of this study is to determine the parameters of stable plane-parallel motion of asymmetric harvester machine-tractor unit based on numerical computer simulation of the obtained analytical dependencies. According to the results of the analytical study, the values of the amplitude and phase-frequency characteristics of the turning angle tractor’s oscillations were obtained. They reflect the reproduction by the angle rotation fluctuations of the haulm harvester machine in the horizontal plane. Calculations have shown that reducing the value of the input resistance coefficient of pneumatic tires of the driving wheels of the aggregating tractor increases its sensitivity to the action of disturbing influences. The greater the sensitivity, the closer the wheels of the power tool are to the attachment point of the trailed haulm harvester. In qualitative terms, increasing the speed of the machine-tractor unit from 1.5 to 2.5 m∙s⁻¹ leads to an undesirable increase in the amplitude-frequency response and desired increase in the phase-frequency response when reproducing its external disturbing effects in the form of oscillations of the angle of rotation of the harvester.

The analysis of statistical data showed that a large amount of plant waste is generated annually in oil and fat production plants, which must be processed and reused. The paper analyzes the problems of reusing sunflower oil production waste, which is characterized by a relatively high energy value: 1 ton of plant waste is equivalent to 0.625 tons of conventional fuel. According to the mathematical estimation, the actual total amount of impurities is 7.29%, in which major impurities constitute 25.7%. Studies have shown a high probability of oil – containing impurities – 37.25%. Therefore, it is recommended to process such impurities into fuel briquettes and technical oil to increase the profitability of sunflower oil production. For example, at the annual load of technological equipment of the Melitopol Oil Extraction Plant, in 250 days, at a daily processing capacity of 550 t˙day ^-1 , an annual profit of 560,000 EUR is obtainable from the sunflower grain impurities processed into fuel and technical oil.

A new design of the haulm harvester with an improved loading mechanism has been developed, which is made in the form of a centrifugal thrower that receives the entire volume of the cut sugar beet tops, as well as an unloading pipe, the end of which is at the level of the vehicle, moving beside the haulm harvester. To substantiate the rational parameters of this loading device, a mathematical model of the movement of a particle along the thrower blade and its exit from the blade was developed in order to simulate further movement along the inner surface of the cylindrical part of the casing and its straight part before entering the vehicle. The resulting differential equation for the movement of a haulm particle along the thrower blade takes into account the influence of the airflow created by the rotation of the thrower, the blades of which capture and accelerate the air in the closed space of the cylindrical casing. The indicated differential equation includes the basic design, kinematic, and power parameters affecting the flow of the studied loading process of the tops. The solution of these differential equations on a PC made it possible to obtain graphic dependencies, with the help of which the rational parameters of the working bodies of the loading mechanism of the haulm harvester were substantiated. As calculations show, an increase in the angular velocity of rotation of the thrower and the length of its blade leads to an increase in the absolute velocity of the haulm particle $M$ from the end of the blade. Thus, by increasing the length of the thrower blade from 0.1 m to 0.35 m and its angular velocity from 10 s⁻¹ to 40 s⁻¹, the absolute velocity increases from 1.2 m s⁻¹ to 16 m s⁻¹. At an angular speed of rotation of the thrower equal to 10 s⁻¹, an increase in the airflow velocity from 5 to 35 m s⁻¹ leads to a smooth linear increase in the relative velocity of particle $M$, as it moves along the blade of 0.67 to 0.78 m s⁻¹. For a higher angular velocity of rotation of the thrower, equal to 20 s⁻¹, the growth curve of the relative velocity of particle $M$ is more intense at an airflow velocity in the range from 5 to 25 m s⁻¹, approaching the linear law at an airflow velocity of more than 25 m s⁻¹. In this case, the relative velocity varies from 0.9 to 1.4 m s⁻¹.