PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF NCAM MANUALLY OPERATED DEWATERING PRESS

Abstract

The NCAM Manually operated dewatering press was evaluated. It has a rectangular shaped cage of an overall dimension of 138cm x 7tem x 84cm. A performance test was carried out on the manually operated dewatering press using grated fermented and unfermented cassava mash. Test results showed that the highest mean dewatering efficiency of 38.15% was obtained on the fermented cassava mash, when the mean Moisture content of the mash was at 66.47% wet basis while the lowest mean dewatering efficiency of 37.68% was obtained on the unfermented cassava mash when the mean Moisture content of the mash was at 70.11% wet basis with the mean dewatering time of 7hrs:45mins and 8hrs:30mins for fermented and unfermented cassava mash respectively. The average particle size of the mash was 0.76mm. The dewatering rate of the press for both fermented and unfermented cassava mash was found to be 3.6x10 The mean output capacity of the press for the fermented and unfermented cassava mash were found to be 37 and 42.09%, respectively while the mean input(throughput) capacity of the press on the fermented and unfermented were found to be 50.23% and 56.36%, respectively. Particle size analysis of the cassava mash used for the dewatering operation was found to be 3.06 for fineness modulus and 1:4:0 for uniformity index. The particle size analysis of the dewatered cassava mash was 2.55 for fineness modulus and 1:7:0 for uniformity index, while the average particle size was 0.61mm. It is recommended that an improvement should be made on the dewatering press to enhance its dewatering rate and increase its efficiency. Consideration may also be given to automating the dewatering press to completely eliminate human fatigue and drudgery during operation.