Abstract
In view of the poor effectiveness of existing potato cleaning methods in China and reflecting the findings of a research analysis of basic sizes and types of impurities on potato tubers, a gradient cleaning method for potato based on a multi-step dry-cleaning and wet cleaning operation was proposed. The method mainly consists of dry-cleaning and wet cleaning. The dry-cleaning stage, which combines vibration and brushing, could effectively remove impurities such as residual rhizomes, peeled potato skin, and large pieces of soil and crushed stone from the surface of potato tubers. The wet cleaning stage adopts the gradient cleaning method of pre-cleaning, rough cleaning and fine cleaning, which could further remove soil and crushed stone attached to the surface and hidden in the sprout eyes of potato tubers. The optimal parameter combination for the gradient cleaning method was determined as follows. The potato feeding amount was 3 t/h, the speed of the rubber chain rod mechanism was 25 r/min, the speed of the first and third brush roller was 40 r/min, the speed of the second and fourth brush roller was 56 r/min, the moving speed of the immersion mechanism conveying net chain was 0.04 m/s, the speed of the brush roller in the high pressure spray and brush roller combination mechanism was 40 r/min, the ultrasonic power was 1200 W, the ultrasonic frequency was 33 kHz, the bubble intensity was 300 L/min, and the moving speed of the conveying net chain in the ultrasonic and bubble combination mechanism was 0.05 m/s. Taking the impurity removal rate and damage rate of potato tuber as the test indexes, a potato cleaning performance test was carried out under the optimal parameters combination. The results showed that the average impurity removal rate and damage rate of potato tubers were 99.05% and 2.48%, respectively. Additionally, the operational performance fully met the requirements for potato cleaning. This study provides a new method for potato cleaning in China and can also provide a reference for cleaning other root and tuber crops.
Highlights
IntroductionPotato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important crop worldwide and is widely cultivated in China because of its rich nutritional value [1]
In view of the above problems, and to provide new technologies and methods that support the potato cleaning and production industry, this study proposes a gradient cleaning method for potato based on a multi-step operation of dry-cleaning and wet cleaning that first performs preliminary cleaning through dry-cleaning and performs fine cleaning through multi-step wet cleaning
Through multi-step cleaning, the wet cleaning link is used to remove the impurities attached to the surface and hidden in the sprout eyes which are uncleaned by dry-cleaning [7]
Summary
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important crop worldwide and is widely cultivated in China because of its rich nutritional value [1]. According to statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in 2019, China’s potato harvest area was 4.91 million hectares, and the total output was 91.88 million tons, accounting for. 28.34% and 24.80% of the world’s potato harvest area and total output, respectively, ranking first in the world. China is a large potato producer, the level of post-harvest processing mechanization is low, which seriously restricts the development of China’s potato industry [2]. Against the background of the implementation of
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