Cassava is one of the staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa (Duah et al., 2016). Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, about 59.5 million tons (FAOSTAT, 2019). Yellow cassava is a hybrid of cassava, whose flesh color is yellow and contains high carotenoid content (Vimala et al., 2011). The consumption of yellow cassava is highly encouraged in sub-Saharan Africa and some developing countries in order to tackle vitamin A deficiencies in the region (Talsma et al., 2016). Drying is a common method to preserve the shelf-life of yellow cassava after harvesting. However, convective drying due to elevated temperature and long drying duration has been found to negatively affect the textural, structural, and nutritional qualities of food
In cracking palm nuts by application of appropriate impact energy, one of the predominant factors that would enhance the release of either high percentage of whole or split kernels is the percentage level of moisture content in the nuts. The split kernels encourage rancidity of oil since the oily surface of the kernel is exposed to environmental influence. There is therefore need to study the absorption of water in dried palm nuts as a pointer to condition dried nuts to moisture content range that would enhance the production of whole kernels. In this study, dried Dura and Tenera palm nuts varieties were obtained from a palm oil processing mill, classified based on their minor diameter into three size ranges of small, medium and large sizes. These nuts were further dried to bone dry mass followed by immersion of each size range of nuts into different vessels containing water. The rate of water absorption was monitored at 3-hourly intervals. The data generated were analyzed. The result showed that the rate of water absorption per nut unit area had similar curves pattern as the drying curve established for palm nuts. Models for water absorption process involving the dried palm nut was developed based on basic underlying principles and data generated from experimental runs. The models were then validated; and found to be very useful in describing the water absorption process per nut unit area in a given time; and predicting moisture content of bone dry mass of nut soaked in water and kept at room temperature.
Fish feed pelletizing machine was designed and fabricated with the aim to improve on existing local pelletizers; encourage local technology and local fish farmers who may be faced with no power supply. It mainly consists of the hopper, pelletizing chamber, frame, bolts and nuts, screw conveyor, cutting mechanism, pelletizing die plate and power transmission unit with dual operation mode. Performance evaluations of the improved pelletizing machine as well as existing machine were carried out and the results showed that both machines were able to produce pellets with 8 mm average diameter and 10 mm average length. The overall mean values of pelleting capacity, specific energy consumption and efficiency of improved and the existing pelletizing machines were 1.20 kg/min, 0.010 kWh/kg and 97.09%; 0.89 kg/min, 0.014 kWh/kg and 75%, respectively. These imply that the improved pelletizing machine could produce a ton of feeds for a 14-hour daily operation and consume approximately 10 kWh of energy as compared to the existing pelletizing machine that would consume 14 kWh. The capacity of the improved pelletizing machine is quite better than the existing pelletizing machine. The improved pelletizing machine efficiency obtained is quite impressive as only about 2.91% of the feed mix might be lost as compared to 25% lost by the existing pelletizing machine. Therefore, the improved fish feed pelletizing machine is recommended for use by small-scale fish feed mill as the existing pelletizers have comparable higher losses couple with lower efficiency.
Increasing threat insecurity of food production in Nigeria is perceived in almost all parts and areas of the national food production. Food insecurity seems to be a global challenge that has a lot to do with surge in energy demand, population growth, climate change and competition for land, food and water. The rural settlements are more prone to irregular food supply, malnutrition, and low quality foods, high cost of food items and even widespread lack of food. This has created a serious concern towards national food security. However, the availability of agricultural and food products could mitigate this menace. So, in an attempt to arrest this situation, this paper presents a review of the development of some sustainable products from oil palm towards enhancing national food security. In a nutshell, it highlights the overview of oil palm tree, its classification, current and future mechanization, processing of oil palm fruit from the bunch to crude palm kernel oil extraction and other by-products, application of the products; and production capacity of palm oil from 2010 to 2020 in Nigeria. Besides, nutritional composition of palm oil and palm kernel oil, rationale for the use of oil palm and its derivatives in the development of sustainable food and allied products are also discussed. Furthermore, concept of sustainable palm oil, some food products made from palm oil and its functional attributes; and the development of some selected food products with palm oil as one of the major ingredients are also highlighted.
The rotor of a palm nut cracker must be designed in such a way as to overcome friction, wears, the collision of nuts, etc. during nut cracking. Thus, there is a need to find the efficiency (rotor operating factor) Kf of the rotor and then used it to obtain the actual operating rotor speed in revolution per minute (rpm) for effective operation. In this study, masses of palm nuts (ḿ), its exit velocity from the rotor disc (v), rotor radius (r), axial dimensions, and energy generated due to friction, sound, heat, etc. (Ef), palm nut translational kinetic the energy (KEtrans), energy released per unit nut (Q) and inverse of theoretical rotor speed (Nt-1) were used based on some existing models. Plots of r against Nt-1 to determine the slope and thereafter evaluate Kf were carried out. The effect of ḿ on Kf was assessed using Analysis of Variance at 5% level probability. The results showed that the mean Kf was 0.76 and was not affected by varying ḿ since the calculated probability was 0.002 and r-squared was 0.324. The actual rotor speed could be found as the product of Kf and Nt.
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