A prototype for pomegranate arils separation

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Agricultural Products Process Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate pomegranate arils (containing the juice and seeds/kernels or the edible portion of fruit) separation prototype by hammering on the peel of half a pomegranate fruit, for the arils fall by gravity. The pomegranate was cut in two halves and the experiment was carried out with half of the fruit, the separation experiments were divided in two groups, the first group was cutting the pomegranate perpendicular to its axis “CV”, and the second group was cutting the pomegranate fruit parallel to its axis “CP”. The two groups experiments were carried out with three hammer frequencies "Hf" (21, 45 and 77 Hz) and three fruit exposure time to strikes "θ" (15, 25 and 35 sec.). Results showed that the highest values of productivity were 15.84 and 14.40 kg/h for “CV” and “CP” cutting respectively at “θ” 15 s and “Hf” 77 Hz. The highest values of separation efficiency “Ƞs” were 97.59 % and 93.73 % for "CV" and "CP" cutting respectively at operating time 35s and hammer frequency 77 Hz. The lowest values of damaged pomegranate arils percentage “da” were 2.41 % and 3.85 % for “CV” and “CP” cutting respectively at “θ” 35 s and “Hf” 77 Hz. The minimum values of Specific energy consumption “SEC” were 0.012 and 0.013 kW.h/kg for “CV” and “CP” cutting respectively at “θ” 15 s and “Hf” 21 Hz.

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