Small Scale Cashew Nut Processing Unit Plant
Introduction to Cashew Nut Processing Machine Unit
Raw Cashew Nut Processing as an industry has made rapid strides at the beginning of the 21st century with mechanization in Cashew processing.
Unit operations like steam roasting of RCN, Tray drying, steam Humidification in bulk have transformed the Industry from cottage level to mechanized Industry enabling processors to set up large capacity units.
Mechanized shelling has avoided hazardous & harmful effects of CNSL on workers. In addition, peeling mechanization has enabled cumbersome, laborious manual peeling to higher productivity & speed.
The optical color sorter has replaced hard-to-find highly skilled labor requirements for grading with high speed and accurate grading & sorting of kernels by optical color sorters. This has enabled us to pack sorted cashews for export straightaway, meeting stringent export quality standards.
Mechanization of shelling, Peeling, Grading, and packing of Cashew has enabled process cashew with the minimal workforce, say from 6.5 to 0.75 workers per bag of 80 kg input RCN.
Reduced reliance on highly skilled/trained labor has enabled African countries to promote cashew processing in a big way to add value to RCN harvested.
The mechanization has reached a level to meet the shortage of and or reliance on skilled workforce & achieve higher productivity. Moreover, it has helped the new African processors immensely to catch up with the years they have lost in processing skills knowledge by straight adoption mechanization and modern technology.
The mechanization of the Cashew Industry helped create job opportunities in a big way, add value to raw cashew nuts harvested, and earn forex for their country to boost their GDP.
Cashew kernel is obtained through processing as follows:
1. Raw Cashew Nut Pre-cleaning and De-stoning & sizing
Equipment needed
1.Hydro or dry RCN pre-cleaner
2.RCN sizing System for calibration.
Both wet & dry De-stoning system & RCN Sizing system capacity is customized and designed to suit the shelling capacity needed per hour.
Dust soil stones and immature nuts in the Raw Cashew Nut (RCN) interfere with mechanized shelling machines, causing damage and downtime. Hence RCN needs to be precleaned in a wet or dry de-stoning system to ensure uninterrupted shelling in machines.
RCN sizing (Calibration) is either done before or post steam cooking of RCN – to the processor's choice. RCN sizing is necessary as the shelling machines are designed sensitive RCN size for consistent optimum shelling yield Quality.
2. Steam Cooking.
.png)
Equipment needed
- Steam Boiler – for RCN steam cooking
- Cooker vessel
- Cooling silos
The capacity of the Steam boiler and cooker vessel is chosen to meet the shelling capacity required per shift.
Boiler steam also provides steam to the heating coil in the tray dryer – Borma and steam humidification of skin on the kernel.
Raw Cashewnut Precleaned, de-stoned, calibrated, & stored in the warehouse are steamed in the Boiler (Without steam pressurizing the cooking vessel) for about 10to 12 minutes. The steam cooking is carried out for a period depending upon the condition of the Cashewnut and prevailing atmospheric conditions. The steam cooking expands the shell covering the nut & softens the nutshell due to steam ingestion, moisturizing the nut replacing surface CNSL. After Steam cooking, the nuts are air-cured (cooled) overnight by spreading the nuts on the floor in the shade.
The steam cooking removes oil in the nutshell surface which interferes while shelling, expands the shell covering the cashew kernel embedded inside, and renders the shell hard and fit enough for shelling.
The steam preserves the original color of the cashew kernel embedded inside the nut—the cut shells of the steam cooking process yield quality Cashew Nutshell Liquid (CNSL).
Steam cooking is a batch process by infusing steam into the cooker vessel and draining the surface oil expelled by steam.
3. Shelling.
.png)
Equipment needed
- Mechanised shelling machine
- Mechanized vibratory sieve & pneumatic Shell separator
- Mechanized scooping system
- Color sorter to separate kernels mixed in shells on separation
The steam-cooked and air-cooled raw Cashew nuts are shelled in a motorized shelling machine by designated shelling line according to size for bulk production in an integrated shelling line equipped to separate shell & kernel after shelling. Also, uncut and un-scooped RCN with embedded kernels is separated with roller separators for further processing.
Mechanization enables the shelling of nuts up to scooping with 300,600 and 1200 kg per hour per shelling line, considerably reducing the workforce compared to manual shelling.
Comments
Post a Comment