Design, development and performance evaluation of a mobile solar powered maize dehusker cum sheller
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Date
2019
Authors
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Publisher
Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar
Abstract
Maize (Zea mays) is grown throughout the year in India. Maize is one of the most
widely cultivated crop grows in both tropical and warm temperate latitudes. Maize in India
ranks third in total production and productivity and fifth in total area. Since last one decade,
maize cultivation area is continuously increasing to meet the raising demand in the world.
Solar power is ideally used in India due to location factor and also gives the benefit to the
environment as renewable energy. Solar power operated mobile maize dehusker cum sheller
gives a significance in many rural locations of most developing countries where grid
connected electricity is either unavailable or unreliable so using energy from source is
beneficial. It also gives a significance in a saving of cost on fuel, electrical energy and also it
is a more useful in areas where availability electricity is a major problem.
The present research was undertaken with the objectives of design & development of
mobile maize dehusker cum sheller & study of performance evaluation of develop machine
with cost estimation. Also a present study has been conducted to investigate the physical
properties of variety (OMH 14-27) grown in Odisha for the designing of various components
of machine. The basic considerations for development of a mobile maize dehusker cum
sheller were taken into account and the conceptual model of the mobile maize dehusker cum
sheller was developed using CATIA V5 software. The principle of dehusking and shelling
actions were shearing & tearing by rubber type dehusking elements and friction by taper
section with cuts on both side of section given for shelling purpose in a top cover of machine.
In present study, the small sized DC motor (0.5 hp) operated mobile maize dehusker
cum sheller was developed for selected operational parameters, viz. moisture content (11.23,
13.07, 15.36 %), feed rate (20, 40, 60 kg/h) and rotational speed (415,460,510 rpm). The
machine performance parameters resulted that, the maximum dehusking (98.79 %) and
shelling (96.84 %) was found to be at 20 kg/h feed rate, 510 rpm and 11.23 % moisture
content. The total losses of grains were found to be maximum (7.08 %) while it was minimum
(4.31%) on 11.23 % of moisture content, 510 rpm of rotational speed & 40 kg/h of feed rate.
The maximum output capacity (36.14 kg/h) was obtained for 60 kg/h feed rate.
The mobile unit (OMSPAM) performance revels that generally OMSPAM takes 7 to
8 hours for full charging of battery & the full charge battery holds for 5-6 hours in working
condition. The vehicle travels at a speed of 35km/h (25 km/h fully laden) & range of distance
travelled is 120-130 km with solar panel (on sunny day). The total production cost of the
mobile maize dehusker cum sheller was found to be Rs. 1, 78,000 and the operating cost per
hour as 169.22 Rs/h.
Renewable energy, Mobile unit, Maize, Dehusking, Shelling
Description
Th-5625
Keywords
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