Palm Nut Dimensional Relationship Relevant to its Primary Processing | Chapter 03 | Advances in Applied Science and Technology Vol. 6
This chapter attempts to solve the
problem associated with separation of cracked nut mixture to obtain high purity
kernels. Palm nuts used were obtained from Ideas Oil mill, Ibesikpo, Akwa Ibom
State, Nigeria. The nuts were treated as appropriate and experimental data
generated. Various models based on the relationship between nut dimensions
(minor diameter d1, intermediate diameter d2, major
diameter d3 and shell thickness ts) were developed for
the Dura and Tenera palm nut varieties. The models were aimed to tackle the
following challenges: design of silo for palm kernels and nuts storage;
conditioning of nuts to have optimum moisture to enhance the cracking of nuts
to release whole kernels, energy and power requirements to effectively cracked
nuts to have little or no objectionable damage to the kernels; the separation
techniques and methods to obtain shell fragments that could be easier for
separation to obtain kernels of high purity. These models developed were tested
and validated. The models could be used to aid in the following: design of
storage facilities for kernels and nuts respectively; application of energy that
would crack nuts to yield high
percentage of whole kernel; determination of optimum moisture content that
would enhance cracking of nuts to release whole kernels; application of
appropriate operating conditions to enhance the separation of cracked nut
mixture to yield kernels of high purity through appropriate techniques/methods
coupled with production of small shell fragments that are of comparable sizes
with kernels.
Author(s) Details
Orua Antia
Department of Agricultural
and Food Engineering, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
William Olosunde
Department of Agricultural
and Food Engineering, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
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