Design, Construction and Assessment of African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) Dehuller and Seperator

Abstract

This work was aimed at the design, construction and assessment of African locust bean dehuller and separator. The two units (dehuller and separator) were incorporated in a single machine in order to remove the drudgery and constraints associated with the traditional dehulling and separating method of the African locust bean seed before it is processed into food condiment and flavouring agent. The machine consists of a hopper, dehulling cylinder, dehulling shaft, driving mechanism, two cylinders, stirrer, bevel gear and a chain/sprocket drive. The performance evaluation of the machine was evaluated following the boiling time of the beans and optimum operating conditions of the length of the dehulling head, the speed of rotation of the dehulling shaft and the stirrer of the separator. Based on the above conditions, the machines worked optimally at a rate of 240kg/hr. The results showed that the performance of the machine was 63.335 for the dehuller and 55.04% for the separator. This was obtained at 8hours of boiling of the locust bean, a dehulling head of 800mm 500rpm and 80rpm as the speed of rotation of the dehulling shaft and stirrer of the separator respectively.