INVESTIGATION OF PROCESS FACTORS AFFECTING THE ANCE INDICES OF AN EXISTING PALM KERNEL AND SHELL INCLINED DRAPER SEPARATOR
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2025-11-15
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Submitted to the Department of Agricultural and Bio-Resources ing, College of Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture,
Abeokuta in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Doctor of Philosophy of Engineering in Agricultural Power and Machinery Engineering
ABSTRACT
Separating kernels from shells after cracking palm kernel nuts had been a maJor challenge to processors in need of highly demanded palm kernel oil (PKO) and palm kernel cake (PKC). This study investigated the effects of process factors and varieties on the performance indices of an existing palm kernel and shell inclined draper separator. The process factors are moisture content, canvas material, machine speed, angle of inclination, cracking method and palm kernel variety. The moisture contents studied were 9, 13 and 17 (%w.b.). canvas material (cloth tarpaulin, .fibre and local fabriL: ), rnachine pee<l (0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 ms-1), angie of inclination (20, 25, 30 and 35°C), cracking method (manual and mechanical methods) and variety (durn and tenera). The moisture content of pahn kernel and shell of the varieties were detern1ined according to the ASAE standards ( 1998) for oil seeds. Performance indices of the inclined draper separator evaluated were the throughput capacity (TC), kernel recovery (KR), shell recovery (SR), separation efficiency (SE), kernel purity (KP) and shell purity (SP) using a 3 x6x3x4x2x2 factorial experiment with three replicates. The results showed the perfonnance indices for the evaluation of the inclined draper separator of two varieties of palm kernel and shell on the two faces of the canvas materials for kernel recovery, shell recovery, separation efficiency, kernel purity, shell purity and throughput capacity ranged from 19.16 - 100%, 0.24 - I 00%, 0.24 - 91.83%, 43.15 -
100%, 8.55 - 100% and 10.97 - 67.48 kghr-1, respectively. The highest values of separation efficiency and throughput •::apacity were obtained on both faces of the canvas material at 25° and 35° for angle of inclination; 17% and 13% for moisture content; 0.5 ms-1 and 0.9 ms-1 for machine speed; manual and manual for cracking method; tenera and dura for variety; and cloth tarp,•ulin and.fibre for canvas material, respectively. The angle of inclination had significant effect (p<0.05) on all the performance indices while
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canvas material and variety had significant effect (p<0.05) on all the performance indices except KP and SP, respectively. The machine speed had significant effect (p<0.05) on KR and TC while the cracking method had significant effect (p<0.05) on SR, !(.P and SE. The optimum factor levels were ! 5.09% for moisture content, machine speed of0.69 ms-1 at a machine angle of inclination of20° with cloth tarpaulin as canvas material using the dura variety that is mechanically cracked. The existing palm kernel and shell inclined draper separator has the highest separation efficiency of 91.83% as a dry method of separation as compared with wet method and other dry methods. Therefore, the process factors of palm kernel and shell significantly affect the performance indices of the existing draper separator.