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Abstract: Proper fresh air ventilation is one of the important cultural requirements for a high yield of quality mushrooms. Research on automatic controlled systems of air ventilation based on the level of metabolic gasses was begun at the Mushroom Test Demonstration Facility (MTDF) of The Pennsylvania State University in 1969. The first metabolic gas investigated was carbon dioxide, and is the basis of this report. The MTDF which involves a systems approach to mushroom growing was an mterdiciphnary research project involving the following four departments 1) Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, 2) Plant Pathology, 3) Entomology, and 4) Agricultural Engineering. The MTDF has a flow type design which allows the introduction of the composting material at one end and removal of the harvested mushrooms at the other end The facility is divided into three sections or areas. The first is the Phase I composting section where the compost piles are formed and the trays are filled The second section consists of the automatic materials handling system, the Phase II composting room, the spawn growing room, and a central control room containing the environmental control equipment. The third section has the production rooms with space for mechanical operations. The operation of dumping spent compost is performed in the area immediately outside this third section. Automatic controls tor the entire facility are located in panels in the central control room. The first panel includes recorders, controllers, and programmers for the four production rooms to control temperature and relative humidity. The second panel includes instrumentation which was developed for automatic Phase II composting and spawn growing The third panel contains the controller-recorders, and analyzer for the metabolic gas analysis system used to automatically control ventilation.
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