UTILIZATION OF MILLING MACHINE FOR SEPARATING GRASS SEEDS FROM ALFALFA SEEDS

EL-Sayed, G. H; Mohamed, Shreen, F. A.; Shabaan, Y. A.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2016.97583

UTILIZATION OF MILLING MACHINE FOR SEPARATING GRASS SEEDS FROM ALFALFA SEEDS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Head Researcher, Agric. Eng. Res. Institute, Agric. Res. Center, Dokki, Egypt.

² Senior Researcher, Agric. Eng. Res. Institute, Agric. Res. Center, Dokki, Egypt.

³ Researcher, Agric. Eng. Res. Institute, Agric. Res. Center, Dokki, Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2016.97583

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to increase the efficiency of rice milling machine, by using it as a multipurpose machine (milling – separation). The rice milling machine was used for separating grass seeds (Chicory and Clover Dodder) from alfalfa seeds under four treatment feed rates of 250,300,350and 400 kg/h, three seed moisture contents of 8, 10 and 12 %, four speeds of cleaning air of 4.0, 6.0, 8.0 and 10.0 m/s and four sieve oscillates speed of 200, 230, 260 and 290 rpm. Those treatments were evaluated by determination of seeds losses and damage, purity percentage, energy and production cost. The results show that, the lowest value of seed losses of 2.0, 3.0 and 8.0 % were obtained at air speeds of 4, 6 and 8 m/s and feed rate of 250 kg/h and the lowest value of seeds damage was noticed at air speeds of 4m /s, moisture contents of 8 and 10 % and feed rate of 250 kg/h. Too, the maximum value of seeds purity of 98, 98.2, 98.3 and 98.5 % was obtained used feed rate of 250 kg/h, sieve oscillations of 200, 230, 260 and 290 rpm and air speeds of 6 m/s and moisture content of 10 % . The maximum value of machine efficiency was obtained under used sieves oscillation of 200 rpm with feed rate of 250 kg/h and cleaning air speed of 4 and 8 m/s While the minimum energy consumed of 4.5 kW/ton was obtained by using cleaning air speed of 4m/s and sieve oscillation of 200 rpm. The lowest cost of 265.4 LE/ton was recorded under parameter of air speed of 4and 6m/s, sieve oscillation of 200rpm and feed rate of 250 kg/h.

References

1. Amin, E. E. A. 2003: Effect of some physical and mechanical properties on grading efficiency, the 11th Annual Conference of Misr Society of Agr. Eng. 451-470.

2. Baryeh E.A and Mangope BK. 2002: Some physical properties of pigeon pea. J. Food Eng., 56: 59-65.

3. Mehdi G. V., H.Mobli, A. Jafari and S. Rafiee. 2007: Some engineering properties of paddy. Int. J. Agri. Biol., Vol. 9, No. 5, 1560–8530.

4. Srivastava, A. K., Goering, C. E., Rohrbach, R. P., & Buckmaster, D. R. 2006c: Chapter 6: Precision agriculture. In Engineering Principles of Agricultural Machines (pp. 123-138). St. Joseph,Mich.: ASABE. http://dx.doi.org/10.13031/2013.414685.

5. Shreen, F. A. M. and khaffaf, A. A. Kh. 2015: Physical and mechanical properties of some weed seeds which associated with Egyptian alfalfa seeds (Clover dodder and Chicory) Egypt.J. Agric. Res., 93 (5) (B).

6. Werby R. A. 2010: Performance cleaning unit for clover seeds affecting some physical and mechanical properties. Misr J. Ag. Eng., 27(1): 266- 283. (5, 7, 9 and 11mm)