| This study evaluates the performance of a modified flour mixer for use as a wet bean de-hulling device. The effect of soaking time, running time and operating speed was investigated. The machine was driven at 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 rpm, for operating times 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5mins in dehulling beans soaked in water at ambient temperature of 29 ± 2oC for 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 minutes. The results showed that soaking time, operating speed and machine running time have significant effect (at 5% significance level) on all the performance indices of the machine. The highest de-hulling efficiency of 92.68% with percentage seed breakage of 31.35% was observed for black eye pea; corresponding values for brown beans were 91.65% and 25.20% respectively. These values... |
