ABSTRACT

Palm kernel production potentials of several countries are far from been fully exploited. At present, many countries are operating below expected capacity. The motive ofthe project work is based on fabrication and modification of a palm kernel cracker and separator, so as to help farmers improve the efficiency’ of output based on time, reduce stress and injuries they incur in the process of cracking palm kernel and separating the kernel seed from the shells manually. The major principles of operation ofthe machine are; rotation, impact and translator motion. The cracking chamber works with the principles ofrotation and impact, rotation ofthe fan and impact against the cracking chamber wall, the rotating fan throws the palm kernel against the cracking chamber wall, thereby causing it to crack open. The cracked kernel gets into the separating unit, in which the cracked shell drop to the ground due to the to and fro motion of the separating mesh, thereby separating the shell from the seed. The major source of power is through a 3Hp electric motor. The major design considerations are the physical and mechanical properties of palm kernel like the size ofthe palm kernel (ranges from 6 mm — 26 mm), angle of repose of the kernel seed and kernel shell (which are found to be 14.7° and 26.6°respectively) and the force require to crack the palm kernel (30 N). The performance of the machine was evaluated in terms ofefficiency' ofthe cracker and separator which were found to be 96% and 80.03% respectively. These were evaluated base on the number of cracked palm kernels, recovered kernel seeds and level ofshell separation results. The result shows that the separation technique is viable for effective separation ofthe dry' palm kernel and shell mixture. Thus, the performance of palm kernel cracker and separator machine is largely dependent on the physical state of the palm kernel such as size of the kernel. Effective separation of palm kernel from shell is an important downstream industrial utilization ofthe constituents