PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A CASSAVA PELLETING MACHINE POWERED BY A DIESEL ENGINE

This study presents the performance evaluation of a pelleting machine designed and fabricated for the production of cassava pellets. Cassava pelleting is a process by which cassava mash and other animal feed ingredients such as groundnut cake, are compacted in a barrel and propelled out through a die opening by mechanical process. The machine consists majorly of hopper, extrusion chamber (barrel), diesel engine, die, cutter and a stand. The machine is powered by a diesel engine to cater for rural settlement where there is insufficient power supply. The machine showed higher throughput capacity of 19.28 kg/hr with a maximum pelletizing efficiency of 89.33%. Factors that determine the quantity and the quality of the extrude rates are the feeding rate and the amount of moisture content. Output results increases with the absence of disturbance and regular feeding. Adopting the pelletizing machine by small and medium scale farmers would help them in producing their own feed with local contents thereby alleviating the problems associated with the sourcing of imported feeds.