Development of Mechanized Peanut Sheller

Abstract

The peanut sheller developed at the Agricultural Engineering section of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, Western Philippines University, Aborlan, Palawan was designed to mechanize peanut shelling, reduce time, labor and cost spent in shelling and produce quality whole kernel peanut.

The Prototype recently developed met the standards set for mechanized peanut sheller. It has a shelling capacity of 65.20 kg/hr with a shelling efficiency of 99.58%; the whole kernel recovery is 99.21%; a shelling recovery of 69.48 %. The shelling recovery and head nuts recovery are affected by the dryness of the nuts. Over dried nuts have brittle kernels, which resulted to more split kernels during shelling.

The cost of fabrication of the machine is P10,092.00 (materials and labor only.). The farmer has the option to use either electric motor or engine. The cost of fabrication is considered minimal and affordable. The machine has to shell 101.62 kg/month at four hours operation and a shelling fee of P3.50/kg to break even. The return on investment is 69.25 centavos for every peso invested and the payback period is 171 days.