Design, Fabrication and Preliminary Testing of a Small-Scale Cassava Starch Extraction Machine

A cassava starch extraction machine was designed and fabricated to perform a quadruplet action of grating, washing, sieving and separation. The study was necessitated based on concerns that most locally manufactured cassava processing machines are without provision for the extraction of starch. Food processors mainly depend on the manual pressing of cassava to obtain starch and this has significantly increased the cost of the product in the local market. Materials for construction were locally sourced and the machine was powered by a 2 hp electric motor through a v-belt-pulley transmission system and operating at a speed of 547 rpm. Fresh cassava tubers were harvested from Ikot Akpaden, a rural community in Mkpat Enin, Akwa Ibom, South-South of Nigeria, and used for the experiment. Results from the experiment showed that the quantity of wet starch extracted increased from 0.64 to 1.48 kg as the volume of water mixed with 2 kg of the product increased from 1 to 5 Liters. The rate of water usage and throughput capacity increased from 0.0005 to 0.0025 m3/kg and 35.29 to 46.75 kg/h respectively as volume of water increased. The optimum machine efficiency was 74%. The machine was fabricated at a cost of N 150,200 (equivalent of $100). Minimal time consumption, ease of operation and low production cost were some of the features that made the machine economically viable when compared to other conventional methods of extracting starch from cassava.