Development and testing of a Jatropha fruit shelling process for shell-free kernel recovery in biodiesel production

作者:Lim Bo Yuan*; Shamsudin Rosnah; Yunus Robiah
来源:Biosystems Engineering, 2014, 121: 46-55.
DOI:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2014.02.004

摘要

Achieving shell-free kernel recovery from Jatropha fruits is important to improve oil yield and oil quality during oil extraction in biodiesel production. A shelling process with two stages of cracking and separation to remove the shells completely and husks partially was designed. Both stages used double-level cracking rollers and a blower with ducting as a separation unit. For the first, the performance was evaluated using five different roller clearances (9.5 mm, 10.0 mm, 10.5 mm, 11.0 mm and 11.5 mm) with a combination of five blower air speeds (8.5 +/- 0.5 m s(-1), 9.0 +/- 0.6 m s(-1), 9.5 +/- 0.5 m s(-1), 10.0 +/- 0.4 m s(-1) and 10.5 +/- 0.5 m s(-1)). A roller clearance of 10.5 mm and air speed of 10.0 +/- 0.4 m s(-1) were selected as the optimal conditions with the highest separation efficiency between kernels and shells at 94.59%. The shells and husks achieved 95.88% and 12.20% removal respectively while kernel recovery achieved 98.65%. For the second stage, the performance was evaluated using five different roller clearances (5.0 mm, 5.5 mm, 6.0 mm, 6.5 mm and 7.0 mm) with a combination of five blower air speeds (6.5 +/- 0.4 m s(-1), 7.0 +/- 0.2 m s(-1), 7.5 +/- 0.4 m s(-1), 8.0 +/- 0.2 m s(-1) and 8.5 +/- 0.5 m s(-1)). At the optimal conditions, with a roller clearance of 6.0 mm and air speed of 7.5 +/- 0.4 m s(-1), the maximum separation efficiency was 97.69%. Total shell and husk removal achieved for the stages were 100.00% and 45.46% respectively. A total of 2.40% kernels were lost.

  • 出版日期2014-5