ABSTRACT
The study was carried out in order to carry out assessment and performance evaluation of the whole bunch stripper machine for oil palm processing. This study is of paramount importance as it aims to provide necessary information on the use of bunch stripping technology in oil palm processing by evaluating efficiency, safety and environmental impact. This study seeks to play a key role in shaping the future of the palm oil industry by providing practical recommendations tailored to both economic viability and environmental sustainability.
Evaluation on an existing palm fruit stripping machine was carried out using freshly harvested palm fruit bunches at different fermentation times of 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours as test samples and weighing each sample. Each sample is fed into the machine in turn. The stripped fruitlets, unstripped fruitlets and empty bunches were collected and weighed after each experiment. The test parameters (efficiency, output capacity, input capacity, clean fruit recovery and operating capacity) of the machine performance were determined from the data obtained during the test. The machine consists of feeding unit, stripping unit, drive mechanism and discharge outlets.
The fruit stripping efficiency is high at 98.78% at 120 hour fermentation time and the lowest is 72.80% at 24 hour fermentation time. It had a clean fruit recovery rate of 98.61% after 120 hours and the lowest average value of 72.63% after 24 hours of fermentation. The highest average value of output capacity is 285.05 kg/h after 120 hours and the lowest average value is 201.09 kg/h after 24 hours of fermentation. The results show that the stripper is capable of processing up to 1 ton of oil palm fruit bunches/day thereby making it affordable for small and medium oil palm fruit processing industries in Nigeria.
