Development and Performance Evaluation of Kokum Seed Sheller
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Date
2012
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Publisher
MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
Some studies on mechanical dehulling of kokum seeds (Garcinia indica Choicy)
was made to exploit it as a source of oil which solidifies into butter at room
temperature. Some selected physical and mechanical properties of kokum seeds
related to dehullling were studied as a function of moisture content. It was found
that moisture content affected these properties significantly. A kokum seed sheller
was designed and developed which had a hopper, shelling unit and a winnowing
unit as its main components to serve the purpose of dehulling of kokum seeds and
also separation of hulls from kernels. The shelling unit comprised of breaker arms
and macerators to provide impact force on kokum seeds for their dehulling,
followed by shearing/ compression between the macerators and concave. The
effect of parameters such as feed rate, moisture content and sheller shaft speed on
a performance of sheller was studied. Moisture contents 7.35, 10.82, 16.15, 20.75,
25.79 % (db); feed rates 25, 50, 66, 100 kg/h and shaft speeds 180, 240, 360, 480,
720 rpm were used in the study. It was found that these factors affected the
performance of the sheller significantly. These parameters were optimized for
dehulling of seeds with respect of dehulling efficiency, percentage broken,
dehulling index and winnowing efficiency of sheller. Seed moisture of 7.50%
(db), feed rate 50 kg/h and shaft speed of 480 rpm were the optimum values of
parameters which gave a maximum dehulling index of 0.92. Effect of
hydrothermal treatments such as steaming time and drying temperature were also
studied on dehulling of kokum seeds. For this a tangential abrasive dehulling
device was developed. Effect of hydrothermal treatment on dehulling of kokum
seed was found non-significant. Oil was expressed from the kernel obtained after
mechanical dehulling of kokum seeds. Qualitywise, oil expressed from the
mechanically dehulled kokum seed was found comparable to commercially
available oil as extracted from kokum seeds dehulled by traditional method. The
kokum butter obtained from kokum seed dehulled mechanically was whitish in
colour as compared to commercially available kokum butter.
Description
Development and Performance Evaluation of Kokum Seed Sheller
Keywords
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Citation
Pralhad and Sharma, 2012