DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUTION OF PALM KERNEL CRACKING AND SEPARATING MACHINE

Abstract

There is continuous increase in the demand for palm oil because of its domestic and industrial applications. The lack of appropriate technology for palm fruit processing is one of the major problems militating against oil palm agro-industrial development. This study has developed and evaluates the performance of palm kernel cracking and separating machine. The materials used for the fabrication was selected based on available literatures and local market availability. The machine consists of hopper, cracking chamber, horizontal shaft with beaters, discharge outlet, main frame and prime mover. Randomized block design was used for analyzing the results obtained, the treatment were three that is small, medium and larger  and they were replicated three times while three federate 500, 1000, 1500 g/min were considered as the block. The throughput capacity and cracking efficiency were determined to evaluate the performance. The optimum cracking efficiency obtained was 98.7%  this was posible with larger palm kernel sizes and feedrate of 1000 g/min.