Effect of shelling speed, moisture content and number of beaters on the cleaning and recovery efficiency of a mechanized centrifugal Melon shelling machine
1 Department of Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
2 Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.
3 Department of Agricultural and Bioenvironmental Engineering Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Niger State, Nigeria.
4 Department of Bioresources Engineering, McGill University, Canada.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 10(03), 239–245
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2021.10.3.0229
Publication history:
Received on 04 May 2021; revised on 10 June 2021; accepted on 13 June 2021
Abstract:
A response surface methodology (RSM) has been utilized for investigating the effects of the speed of shelling, melon seed moisture content and the number of beaters of a developed mechanized centrifugal melon shelling and cleaning machine. The machine shells the melon and then cleans the shelled seed from the shells and other impurities. The experiment was based on a central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The results of the experiments revealed that the highest shelling efficiency of 88.5% was obtained from a combination of a speed of 2300 rpm, moisture content of 15% (w.b) and 20 beaters, while the least efficiency of 25.11% was obtained from an interaction between a speed of 959 rpm, moisture content of 20% (w.b) and 18 beaters. Numerical optimization carried out with the goal of maximizing the shelling efficiency revealed optimum values of speed of 2200 rpm, moisture content of 12% (w.b) and 19 beaters for shelling efficiency of 88.80%. The result of this study provided standard input parameters capable of yielding high cleaning and recovery efficiency.
Keywords:
Beaters; Melon; Seed; Shelling; Speed
Full text article in PDF:
Copyright information:
Copyright © 2021 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0