Development and Evaluation of a Motorized Peanut Shelling Machine

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VI, Issue VI, June 2019 | ISSN 2321–2705

Development and Evaluation of a Motorized Peanut Shelling Machine

Hammanadama Faruk Abubakar¹, Suleiman Samaila¹

¹Department of Agric. & Bio-Environmental Engineering, Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola. Nigeria.

Abstract: – This research was carried out to design, construction and evaluate a peanut shelling machine. The machine comprised of feeding hopper, shelling cylinder, chaff discharge chute, blower fan, frame and 2.5 kw electric motor. A sensitive Electric balance of 30Kg by 5g(Model no: ACS-J2C) was used to measure the weight of the peanut sample. A Digital Tachometer of Contact/Surface Speed (Model no: DT-2235B) Was used to measure the speed of the blower speed of the machine which was 155rpm. The shelling machine developed was tested with a three (3) different samples of peanut of 6.5 Kg each. The samples were soaked at room temperature for 2hrs, filtered and dried on concrete floor for 3hrs and returns to bags for 20hrs, 21hrs and 22hrs and then shelled. A multi-level factorial experiment was used to analyzed the data generated. It was found that the machine has 98% shelling efficiency, 5.3% mechanical damage, 89% cleaning efficiency and a throughput capacity of 160kg/hr.

Keywords: Peanut, Development, Evaluation, Shelling efficiency and Mechanical damage.

I. INTRODUCTION

Groundnut, or peanut, is commonly called the poor man’s nut, is an important oilseed and food crop. This plant is native to South America and has never been found uncultivated[1]. Groundnut, (Arachis hypogaea Linn.), is derived from two Greek words, Arachis meaning a legume and hypogaea meaning below ground, referring to the formation of its pods in the soil. Groundnut or Peanut is an upright or prostrate annual plant. It is generally cultivated in the tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate zones. China and India together are the world’s leading groundnut producers accounting for nearly60 percent of the production and 52 percent of the crop area[1]. India cultivates about 7.74million hectares and produces 7.61 million tones of groundnut with the productivity level of 991.8 kg ha-1. South Africa is the major producer in Africa, while in Latin America almost one half of the total groundnut produced in that region may be credited to Argentina[2]
In most of the developing countries, the productivity levels are lower than in the United States of America, mainly due to a number of production constraints outlined as follow:

Read More