DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCENTRIC DRUMS PEELING MACHINE FOR COCOYAM (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) CORMEL

Abstract

Cocoyam is cultivated mainly for its edible cormels. In spite of its great potential as a cheap raw material, the processing operations are still largely performed manually. Some of the equipment already developed for mechanizing the postharvest operations require further modifications and performance optimization. This study therefore, aimed at developing and evaluating the performance of a cocoyam cormel peeling machine with a view to reducing the drudgery involved in manual peeling. A cocoyam cormel peeling machine was developed using locally available materials. The machine consists of the main frame, hopper and outlet gates, two abrasive concentric drums (one stationary and the other rotating) and blower. Performance of the machine in terms of capacity, peeling efficiency and peel-cormel weight proportion were evaluated for soaked and unsoaked cormels. The average machine capacities were 190 and 220 kg/h for soaked and unsoaked cormels, respectively. The peeling efficiencies ranged between 57.3 and 77.7% while the peel-cormel weight proportions ranged between 13.7 and 18.7%. The peeling efficiency was higher for soaked cormels than unsoaked ones. The developed cocoyam cormel peeling machine helped in reducing the drudgery associated with its peeling operation while soaking as a form of pretreatment was recommended before peeling the cormels for better performance.