DEVELOPMENT OF A GINGER SPLITTING MACHINE
DEVELOPMENT OF A GINGER SPLITTING MACHINE
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Date
2008-06
Authors
NGULUWA, GUWO AYUBA
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Abstract
A ginger splitting machine was developed based on the physical and mechanical
property data of two ginger varieties namely, Tafin Giwa (yellow ginger) and
Yatsun Biri (black ginger). The effects of moisture content, cutting speed (impeller
speed) and crop variety were investigated on splitting efficiency, percentage of
bruised and broken ginger rhizomes, material loss and throughput capacity of the
machine. Three levels of moisture contents (wet basis), five levels of impeller speed
and two ginger varieties were used for the study. Data for the performance
evaluation were subjected to the analysis of variance for test of significance of the
experimental factors and their interactions. The results showed that splitting
efficiency decreased with increase in impeller speed and with decrease in moisture
content for the speed and moisture content ranges studied. Highest splitting
efficiency of 82.1 and 67.9% were obtained at impeller speed of 240rpm and at
84.35% moisture content for Tafin Giwa and Yatun Biri ginger varieties
respectively. A higher splitting efficiency was obtained for Tafin Giwa variety
compared with the Yatsun Biri variety. The Percentage of bruised and broken
ginger rhizomes increased with an increase in impeller speed and with a decrease
in moisture content for the two ginger varieties. The lowest percentage of bruised
and broken ginger rhizomes of 17.93 and 32.05% at 240rpm and 84.4% were
obtained for the two ginger varieties. Yatsun Biri ginger variety had higher
percentage of bruised and broken rhizomes than Tafin Giwa ginger varieties at all
moisture contents and speed ranges studied. Material loss of the two ginger
varieties was in the range of 4.0 to 5.82% for all the moisture contents studied. At
critical speed of the machine, a throughput capacity of 67.95 and 55.76kg/h were
obtained for Tafin Giwa and Yatsun Biri varieties respectively.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POST GRADUATE
SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA
NIGERIA.
JUNE, 2008
Keywords
DEVELOPMENT,, GINGER SPLITTING, MACHINE