Development and Testing of a Roller Type Shelling Device (RTSD) <i>Moringa</i> <i>oleifera </i>Seed Shelling Machine

The huge nutritional value and industrial potentials inherent in Moringa oleifera have not been fully tapped and used because of the labour intensive method of shelling and grinding the seeds into fine powder. A Roller Type Shelling Device (RTSD) Moringa oleifera seed sheller was designed, constructed and tested in this study. The hopper, shelling drum, shelling paddle, screen, cleaning fan, frame, seed outlet, chaff delivery chute, and electric motor made up this functional machine. The performance indices evaluated for the developed sheller were based on shelling efficiency, cleaning efficiency, throughput capacity, mechanical damage index and shelling performance index at moisture content levels of 7.64, 9.45, 17.53, 21.73 and 25.52% (w.b). The sheller had maximum shelling efficiency, cleaning efficiency, throughput capacity, mechanical damage index and shelling performance index of 88.14%, 89.41%, 12.48 kg/h, 12.75% and 87.66% respectively at moisture content levels of 7.64% (w.b). With the output of the sheller, full industrial processing of Moringa oleifera seed is feasible with minimal limitation.