Development of a highly efficient plant for separating the peel from the pulp of melons

Abstract

The object of study is the development of an installation for separating the peel of melon crops (watermelon, pumpkin) for their further processing. The peel of melons contains important compounds such as minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, tocopherols, polyphenols, carotenoids and phytosterols. The peel of watermelon and pumpkin make up a fairly significant proportion of the fruit, varying in watermelon from 15 % to 40 %, pumpkin 5‒20 %, of the total mass of various commercial varieties, which are usually discarded as by-products after commercial processing. Thus, the peel remains a massive by-product, the most important among agri-food waste, due to the content of natural antioxidants and various other nutrients in them. However, the industrial use of watermelon and pumpkin peel is complicated by the lack of an effective technique for separating melon crops from the peel. Therefore, research on the development of an installation for separating the peel of melons (watermelon, pumpkin) is relevant. The developed installations for separating the pulp from the peel of melons have a number of disadvantages, Therefore, it seems relevant to develop an installation for separating the peel of melons. The developed installation has a number of advantages in comparison with analogues. For example, low knife wear is ensured due to the fact that when cutting the fruit, the cutting force is distributed along the entire length of the knife. The simplicity of the design and reduced loads on the cutting tool, as well as the effective design of the knife in the form of a hemisphere ensures maximum removal of pulp from the peel