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.
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 10(03), 239–245
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2021.10.3.0229
DOI url: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2021.10.3.0229
Received on 04 May 2021; revised on 10 June 2021; accepted on 13 June 2021
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.
Beaters; Melon; Seed; Shelling; Speed
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Oluwabukola Belinda Aturu, Joshua Olanrewaju Olaoye, Agidi Gbabo, Ibrahim Mohammed Gana, Ndudi Efomah Andrew and Jacob Tizhe Liberty. Effect of shelling speed, moisture content and number of beaters on the cleaning and recovery efficiency of a mechanized centrifugal Melon shelling machine. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 10(03), 239–245. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2021.10.3.0229
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