Olotu, F.B., Okoro, N.O., Jimoh, R.O., Obiakor, S.C., Alade, R.A. and Ademiluyi Y.S.
Processing and Storage Engineering Department, National Center for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM), Idofian, PMB 1525, Ilorin, Kwara State.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13156386
ABSTRACT
Dehulling is the removal of the outer coat (Testa) from a nut/seed after the kernel has been conditioned. It is vital in the final processing of nut/seed for human consumption. Traditionally, the removal of the conditioned outer coat of the legume seed such as cowpea, locust bean and soybean is a tedious activity and it is manually achieved by rubbing the seeds between the palms, stamping of feet on them, pounding in mortar or use of grinding stone on stony slab and it is commonly carried out by women and children. This process needs to be mechanized to reduce its time consumption and energy intensive as well as to remove it’s unhealthy and unhygienic practices. The Multi-Seed Dehuller that is used for dehulling of wet legume seeds like locust beans, cowpea and soybean was fabricated at the National Center for Agricultural Mechanization, (NCAM), Ilorin with the aim of studying it’s performance under different operational conditions for it’s effective use by the processors for different leguminous seeds. The legume seeds were conditioned based on their required treatments for dehulling: