Development of African Locust Bean (Parkia Biglobosa) Depulping Machine

The traditional method of using hands to depulp African Locust Bean (ALB) inside a flowing river led to the conception and development of a simple operated 3 kg capacity ALB depulping machine at the Farm Power and Machinery Workshop of Agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria. The depulping machine has the hopper, the depulping unit which has the shaft carrying paddles to beat off the seed from the pulp, the frame, the water reservoir to aid the process and 2.2 kW power unit. ALB of moisture contents 60%, 71% and 78% were depulp at machine speed of 173 rpm. The time taken for each operation to be completed was taken. It was discovered that the machine performance in terms of efficiency and throughput increases as the moisture content of the ALB increases while the specific mechanical energy decreases as the moisture content increases. At moisture content of 78%, the efficiency of the depulping machine was 83%, the throughput was about 236 kg/h and the specific mechanical energy was 122.32 KG/KJ. The cost of the machine was Seventy Eight Thousand Naira (NGN 78,000:00). It is recommended for small and medium ALB farmers.