Design and development of low cost sesame dehuller and its process standardization

The study was intended to develop a low cost sesame dehuller and optimize the dehulling process. The machine for dehulling of sesame seed was designed, developed and evaluated with different independent parameters viz. soaking time, dehuller speed and dehulling time for optimization of its performance during study. The processes variables had significant effect on response parameters whereas combined effect found non-significance. The results showed that the dehulling efficiency increases with increase in dehuller speed, soaking time and dehulling time. The optimum dehulling efficiency of 79.29% was obtained at soaking time of 120 min, 150 rpm dehuller speed and dehulling time of 6 min in this developed sesame dehuller. Mean dehulling efficiency was found to be minimum (41.84%) at 100 rpm speed with 40 min soaking time and 4 min dehulling time. The cost economic analysis discloses that developed dehuller is economically feasible and it could be beneficial for sesame based food industries. This developed dehuller is portable; therefore it requires less labor and remains suitable on farm sesame dehulling. The findings of the research may also remain useful for development of sesame processing equipment.