CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A LOCAL UNIT FOR SEPARATING SUNFLOWER SEEDS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

The present study aimed to develop a local unit for separating sunflower seeds by using both centrifugal and gravitational forces. The separation process was carried out without crushing sunflower heads subsequently decrease the power consumption. Also, to obtain the minimum rate of environmental pollution with little separating cost. The study was conducted by using different beaters types with (spike-tooth, angle-bar and knives) inner cone speeds (7.24, 9.11, 12.9 and 15.4 m/s) seed moisture content of (26.9, 21.2, 15.7 and 9.8 %), separating clearance was kept constant between 4 and 2 cm between the top and end of inner cone with outer cone. It is recommended to use spike-tooth as beaters, operating at seed moisture content ranging from 21.2 to 15.7 % w.b. at 12.9 m/s inner cone speed.