Design and construction of a locally designed fish smoking kiln powered by bio-gas

Abstract

The origin of fish smoking dates back to antiquity. It is thought that the process was started by hanging the fish product over a fire which was used to reduce the moisture content of the product. Further advancement was made traditionally by the erection of mud, bricks or corrugated iron angle bar. The gas smoking kiln has been developed using locally available materials in the study area towards improving the existing fish smoking kiln techniques. The objective of this work is to improve the quality of smoked fish in Kainji Lake Basin in Nigeria at minimum production cost. The preliminary test performance of the kiln has been conducted using Clarias gariepinus. The result obtained shows that the kiln is less labour intensive and can handle different sizes of fish faster with better appearance of the end product than the conventional smoking methods.