Article

Development of a Motorized Groundnut Roasting Machine

Abstract

A motorized groundnut roasting machine was designed to ease the drudgery operations encountered by small and medium scale groundnut oil processors during roasting of shelled groundnut. The machine basically consists of a roasting chamber, a heating chamber, and a blower chamber and power transmission unit with an electric motor. A shaft carrying three set of paddles for stirring of groundnut seeds is situated inside a cylindrical shaped drum. An electrical axial fan was incorporated in the blower chamber to supply air to the burning charcoal in order to maintain even distribution of heat in the roasting chamber. The roaster was evaluated to determine the machine output capacity using shelled groundnut seeds as test crop. Collected data were analyzed using Statistical Analysis Software. The effects of variation of the independent factors were verified using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 1% and 5% levels of significant. Mean separation was carried out on significant factors using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The results obtained indicate that the machine output capacity was in the range of 58.8 to 130.2 kg/hr.

Keywords: Groundnut, Roasting, Charcoal, machine, output capacity.