Development and Performance Evaluation of a Pulverizer for Plantain Flour Process Plant

Abstract

Diabetes, adjudged a risk factor for coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19), can be managed through consumption of plantain and its associated products. Plantain is usually processed into flour and other storable/value-added products due to its very short shelf-life. To process unripe plantain pulps into flour, there is a need for size reduction after drying. This paper presents the development and performance evaluation of a size reduction unit for pulverizing, sieving and conveying material to the next processing stage in a plantain flour process plant. Its model was developed using solidworks application software. After design analysis, the model was simulated to establish its suitability/adequacy for fabrication. The pulverizer was fabricated using locally available materials. Its performance evaluation gave 400kg/h throughput, 96% crushing efficiency and 96% efficiency based on the required particle size. The average particle size of flour obtained was 236μm using 500μm screen. Effect of cyclone control-valve on the pulverizer’s overall efficiency was also investigated by allowing it to operate when the valve was completely closed, partially closed and fully opened. It was observed that the control-valve’s positions significantly influenced the machine’s performance/efficiency. It can thus be inferred that the position of cyclone control-valve has significant effect on a pulverizer’s efficiency/performance. Hence, leaving control-valve fully opened during operation would help a pulverizer perform with optimum efficiency, as the pulverizer was able to convey material, efficiently in that position, to the next processing stage during performance evaluation.

Establishment of Machine Signature for Pulverizing Machine

“…1 is a locally fabricated machine made from stainless steel for converting different dried food items such as plantain, cassava, maize etcetera into the production of flour. It consists of the structural base, bottom casing, top casing (pulverizing chamber), transmission shaft, hammers, hammer hangers, screen (particle sieve), transmission bearings, pulleys, toothed V-belt, electric motor (5 hp), inlet hopper, inlet regulatory device, pillow bearings, belt cover, bolts and nuts (Olutomilola et al, 2021). Pulverizing machine comprises one central shaft from which four rigid shafts carrying a series of exchangeable hammers have their attachment and enclosure within a metallic casing.…”

Development and Preliminary Testing of Rotary Dryer for Plantain Flour Processing Plant

“…In Nigeria, this study is a significant part of the development of a plantain flour processing plant, which will address the growing market demand for plantain due to the increasing understanding of its nutritional and health benefits and industrial/commercial qualities (Olutomilola et al, 2016(Olutomilola et al, , 2019(Olutomilola et al, , 2020. Plantain is affordable and its products (i.e., flour) was found to be effective for managing diabetesa risk factor for coronavirus infectious disease 2019 and one of the world's five leading causes of death and debilitating diseaseswith no adverse side effects (Oluwajuyitan and Ijarotimi, 2019;Adeyeri et al, 2020;Olutomilola, 2021a).…”

“…A study showed that, apart from sun-drying, cabinet drying is the most used method for drying plantain pulps after they have been sliced (Olutomilola, 2019). Thus, some researchers have developed a variety of cabinet dryers with varying capacities.…”

“…A cabinet dryer is found to be unsuitable for plantain processing plants because it disallows the continuous flow of materials; it prevents evaporated water or moisture to escape from the drying chamber; and the heated air is not uniformly circulated in the drying chamber resulting in inconsistency in product drying. Operating the equipment is highly laborious because it requires manual loading and unloading of sliced plantain pulps, which can adversely affect production capacity and the quality of flour produced (Olutomilola, 2019). It has been discovered that none of the existing plantain drying technologies is suitable for drying particulate plantain in 1 h in a plant that continuously processes plantain into flour (Olutomilola, 2019).…”

“…Operating the equipment is highly laborious because it requires manual loading and unloading of sliced plantain pulps, which can adversely affect production capacity and the quality of flour produced (Olutomilola, 2019). It has been discovered that none of the existing plantain drying technologies is suitable for drying particulate plantain in 1 h in a plant that continuously processes plantain into flour (Olutomilola, 2019). Hence, a rotary dryer for drying plantain pulps is required to avoid the problems outlined above that are linked to cabinet drying and other related processes.…”