Design and Manufacture of Palm Nut/Fibre Separator

Abstract

Sorting of palm nuts from palm fruit cake, a byproduct obtained after palm oil has been extracted from the batch of digested palm fruit, is burdensome especially to small-scale entrepreneurs involved in palm oil processing business in Africa. This paper has triumphed over the perceived difficulties by using the knowledge of processing engineering to design pilot nut/fibre separator that can efficiently and speedily sort out nuts from nut/fibre mesh. Basic design considerations necessary to achieve reliability of the machine are discussed. Performance evaluation data from the machine obtained were related to its industrial correlate and, in particular, the van der Waerden Normal Scores test carried out inclined us to accept, at a p-value of 0.941, the null hypothesis of no significant difference in processing time between the pilot nut/fibre separator and its industrial counterpart.

Design of a separator machine for oil palm fruit mesocarp and nut using computer‐aided design and linear finite element analysis

“…By removing nuts from the mesh (fiber) prior digestion and oil extraction process, the issue of nut breakage will be completely omitted, and thus the pressure can be further increased to maximize oil yield. Nut fracturing can be eliminated by removing nuts from the mesh (fiber) prior to digestion and oil extraction, allowing for increased pressure to maximize oil yield (Akubuo & Eje, 2002; Lgboanugo & Ovuworie, 2009; Olasumboye & Koya, 2014). As Malaysia is responsible for producing around 40% of the world's palm oil, increasing oil extraction yield would significantly impact the country's overall income (Ahmad Parveez et al, 2020; Din et al, 2019).…”