Development of Moringa Oleifera Seed Shelling Machine
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Trans Tech Publication Ltd., Switzerland
Abstract
The rising awareness of the importance of moringa seeds has geared interest in its mass
production. A major step in making the seed available for it vast usage is shelling. Most rural
farmers of moringa seed use the traditional methods of shelling. These methods are tedious, time
consuming with attendance low outputs that produce unhygienic products. The need to develop
appropriate machines and equipment for processing of moringa seeds become necessary. This work
developed a moringa seed shelling machine using available local materials. The development of the
shelling machine was based on engineering mechanics of impact and shearing forces. The machine
consists of a hopper, shelling unit, shafts, cleaning unit, sieve, discharge unit, power transmission
unit and frame. The machine was evaluated based on variation in speed and feedrate to obtain the
shelling efficiency, throughput capacity and percentage seed damage at 14% (d.b) moisture content
powered by a 0.75 kW electric motor. The results obtained show that the machine has the highest
shelling efficiency of 72.72% at 60 g/min feedrate with a throughput capacity of 8.31 kg/hr and the
minimum percentage seed breakage of 2.22%. Machine speed of 250 rpm favoured the smooth
operation and performance of the machine. The machine is very useful for rural people, farmers and
small scale industries for post-harvest processing of moringa seeds since it cost and operational
principle is within their technical know-how and capability.
Description
Keywords
moringa seeds, rural farmers, performance evaluation, machine speed, feedrate