DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIMIZATION TEST OF A MULTIPURPOSE CUM MULTIVARIATE FRUIT JUICE EXTRACTOR FOR SMALL SCALE INDUSTRY

Most of the perishable fruits harvested during seasonal circles in Nigeria are left to rotten away due to inadequate processing or preservation techniques. This project was designed to develop a small scale juice extraction machine for processing different raw African fruits that included orange, pineapple, water melon, pawpaw, banana, mango, apple, guava, cashew, cucumber and tomato into juices for immediate consumption and preservation for present / future use. A dual powered machine that can be operated in urban / rural area and farm centre with 2 Hp electric motor or internal combustion petrol engine was developed. It incorporated a hopper which received peeled fruit and passed it to a joint conveyor cum extrusion barrel, then to the extrusion chamber that continuously squeezed out juice. Extracted juice flowed to a collector and waste expelled out to residue cake tray. Standard references were used in the design analysis to arrive at appropriate sizes and material that resist corrosion by weak organic acid contained in fresh fruit. The fabricated machine was used to process juices from mango, orange, pineapple, pawpaw, guava, lemon, cashew, water melon, apple and vegetables like cucumber and tomato. The machine was evaluated for performance efficiency and the result showed that it gave juice yields ranging from 51.66% for mango to 90.75 for banana; extraction efficiency from 64.89% for mango to 97.04 for apple and extraction loss from 1.73% for pineapple to 3.12% for tomato. Overall average juice yield, extraction efficiency and extraction loss of machine were 75.64%, 83.55% and 2.51% respectively. It was estimated to cost N112, 000.00 and evaluated to have a capacity to produce about 200litres of juice when operated for 8 hours/day.