Design of a Pulper and Presser for African Star Apple (Agbalumo)

In Nigeria and many other African countries, fruit juice is almost becoming a luxury found only on the table of the rich. Processing of raw fruits or juice concentrate into juice is done by large-scale industries, resulting in high and unaffordable prices for the low-income earners in developing countries. The African star apple (Agbalumo) has not had such attention that attracts the extraction of its juice on a large scale. This design project, therefore, highlights the numerous nutritional benefits of Abgalumo and focuses on the development of an equipment that would effectively extract the liquid content from the fruit as a compromise between cost, quality, and size. While having in mind to create a simple equipment to carry out the pressing operation, attention is also given to making it effective, enough to help local processors juice it on a small scale. The equipment carried out the juicing operation in two processes – Pulping and Pressing. Pulping is done by means of centrifugal blades attached to an electric motor to make the juice extraction effective after which the pressing is carried out. The fabricated equipment resulted in a pressing efficiency of 49.32% and 40.33% for peeled and unpeeled fruits, respectively.