Functional performance of a vertical-shaft centrifugal palm nut cracker

M.C. Ndukwu and S.N. Asoegwu
Additional contact information
M.C. Ndukwu: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umuahia, Nigeria
S.N. Asoegwu: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria

Research in Agricultural Engineering, 2010, vol. 56, issue 2, 77-83

Abstract: A vertical-shaft centrifugal palm nut cracker was presented and evaluated. The cracker efficiency and kernel breakage ratio are some of the most important parameters for evaluating the cracker performance. From the result of this work, the two parameters are function of cracking speed, moisture content and feed rate. The result showed that for the lowest speed of 1,650 r/min, and the highest feed rate of 880 kg/h and for all moisture contents, the cracking efficiency was not up to 65%, therefore the efficiency increases with an increase in machine speed and a decrease in feed rate. The kernel breakage ratio ranged from 0-0.18 (0-18%) for all feed rates and moisture contents. It increased with moisture content and cracking speed, but decreased with feed rate. All the parameters determined have a linear relationship with moisture content.

Keywords: kernel; cracking efficiency; feed rate; throughput capacity; shaft speed; kernel breakage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/28/2009-RAE.html (text/html)
http://rae.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/28/2009-RAE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlrae:v:56:y:2010:i:2:id:28-2009-rae

DOI: 10.17221/28/2009-RAE

Access Statistics for this article

Research in Agricultural Engineering is currently edited by Bc. Michaela Polcarová

More articles in Research in Agricultural Engineering from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().