Merus Ring, a New Approach for Reducing Sediment in Drip Irrigation System

The main problem with trickle irrigation is the emitter’s clogging. Using Merus ring is a new method for reducing sedimentation. The effect of Merus ring is based on molecular oscillations of salts in water and the performance of this device is not based on magnetic field. This study was performed in a field located at Isfahan University of Technology to investigate the effect of Merus ring on emitter’s clogging. Two main treatments of irrigation water, one with Merus ring and another without Merus ring, and three sub-treatments of irrigation water salts were used. The experiment was run for three months and each treatment was irrigated for three hours every day. The results showed that the irrigation water treatment (irrigation with Merus ring and without Merus ring) had significant effect on average emitter’s discharge (qav) at 1% level and on distribution uniformity of emitters (EU) at 5% level. The average emitter’s discharge and distribution uniformity of emitters were higher for the treatment of with Merus ring as compared to the treatment of without Merus ring. For both irrigation water treatments, qav and EU decreased with time during the experiment, but the decrease was higher for the treatment of without using Merus ring. The results showed that the use of Merus ring causes lower emitter clogging and better irrigation performance.