CONSTRUCTION OF A MANUAL GRATER USED IN GRATING COCONUT

CONSTRUCTION OF A MANUAL GRATER USED IN GRATING COCONUT

ABSTRACT

A prototype manual grater of coconut extractor was designed and fabricated. The materials used include mild steel and stainless steel. The shape is such that can be fastened onto a table. The total length is 300cm (12inches) in S-shape. Ninety percent (90%) of the coconut meat was grated into different sizes. The manual grater is designed to help improve the traditional method of extracting coconut oil by cold method. The machine can be handled by unskilled labour and less energy is required to operate it. 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

Oil is extracted from a number of fruits, nut and seed for use in cooking and soap making or as an ingredient in other foods such as boiled or fried food. Oil is a valuable product with universal demand and the possible income from oil extraction is therefore often enough to justify the relatively high cost of setting up and running small-scale oil milling business.

Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from kernel or meat of matured coconut harvested from the palm (Cocos nucifera). It has various applications in food, medicine and industry (UNIFEM, 1987).

Coconut (Cocos nucifera) grown in about 93 countries in the area of 11.8million has produces 10.9million tones of copra equivalent. Coconuts provide food, drinks, medicine, health, shelter and aesthetics. Since every part of coconut is used for mankind, it is grown as tree of life, or rather “tree of nature” one of the natural product of coconut is that coconut oil has been used from time immemorial as foods, Food ingredient and functional foods, besides used in pharmaceuticals, nutriceuticals, cosmetics and industrial uses including bio fuel, It is known as miracle oil.

Historically, coconut and their extracted oil have served man as important foods for thousands of years. The use of coconut oil was advertised in the united state, in the popular cook book at the end of 19^th century. Both the health promoting attribute of coconut oil and those functional properties useful to the homemaker were recognized 100 years ago. These attributes, in addition to some new attributes should be great interest of producing as well as consuming countries (Ellis, 1997).

Coconut oil has been a life saver for many people. The health and nutritional benefit derived from coconut oil is unique and compelling (Enig, 1998) had stated that medium chain triglycerides, a fraction of coconut oil has been identified as an important, medically efficacious food. Indeed, diet for critically ill children, premature infants and hospitalized partners used medium chain triglycerides as principle source of fat. Coconut oil when used in usual diets containing all classes of fat proves to be anticholesterogenic.

Coconut oil can be extracted through dry or wet processing. The dry processing require the meat to be extracted from the meat and it is been dried using fire, sunlight or kilns to create copra. The copra is dried under sunlight for a maximum of seven days and a minimum of five days. While wet processing uses raw coconut rather than dried copra i.e. a fresh matured coconut.

Different method can be used in extracting oil from coconut and the method must be efficient for the extraction in order to yield the desired result.                   

1.1       HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family) and is one of the nature’s gifts to mankind (William, 1997).

It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing up to 30m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long, and pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth and the term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut (World Wildlife Fund, 2010).

Coconut has been part of peoples’ diet and livelihoods in the tropical countries of Asia, the Pacific, South and Central America and Africa for thousands of years. In these areas, native meals are cooked with either coconut milk or coconut oil. The coconut palm is grown throughout the tropics for decoration, as well as for its many culinary and non-culinary uses; virtually every part of the coconut palm can be utilized by humans in some manner. However, the extent of cultivation in the tropics is threatening a number of habitats such as mangroves; an example of such damage to an ecoregion is in the Petenes mangroves of the Yucatan (Foale, 2003).

Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some dwarf varieties are self-pollinating. The meat of the coconut is the edible endosperm, located on the inner surface of the shell. Inside the endosperm layer, coconuts contain an edible clear liquid that is sweet, salty, or both (Fife, 2005).

Although coconut meat contains less fat than many oilseeds and nuts such as almonds, it is noted for its high amount of medium-chain saturated fat and about 90% of the fat found in coconut meat is saturated, a proportion exceeding that of foods such as lard, butter, and tallow. There has been some debate as to whether or not the saturated fat in coconuts is less unhealthy than other forms of saturated fat (see coconut oil). Like most nut meats, coconut meat contains less sugar and more protein than popular fruits such as bananas, apples and oranges. It is relatively high in minerals such as iron, phosphorus and zinc.

Coconut oil is extracted from the kernel or meat of matured coconut harvested from the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera). Throughout the tropical world it has provided the primary source of fat in the diets of millions of people for generations. It has various applications in food, medicine, and industry. Coconut oil is very heat stable so it makes an excellent cooking and frying oil. It has a smoke point of about 360°F (180°C). Because of its stability it is slow to oxidize and thus resistant to rancidity, lasting up to two years due to high saturated fat content. In the wet process, coconut milk is made first and then the oil is extracted from the milk (Fife, 2005).

Coconut kernel is shredded and mixed with water. Then it is pressed and the oil is extracted. The resulting oil/water mixture is left to sit and it separates into two layers, watery on the bottom, creamy on top. The thicker cream is decanted off the top and the original method of separation involved heating or fermenting the milk to separate the oil. This traditional method made a very unstable oil with a short shelf life meant for quick daily use. Due to its miscible nature coconut oil cannot be separated naturally from the cream (Ohler, 1984).

All high volume modern methods incorporate heating, fermentation, and or centrifugal force to separate the oil from the water. Some minor heating is generally done afterwards (often in a low temperature vacuum chamber) to drive off excess moisture and produce a more purified product and to extend shelf life. Proper harvesting of the coconut (the age of a coconut can be 2 to 20 months when picked; the time of harvesting makes a significant difference in the efficiency of the oil making process) and the use of a centrifuge process make the best final extracted product (Woodruff,1970).

 

1.2       AIM OF THE STUDY

·         The main objective of this project is to design and fabricate a coconut oil extractor that will be suitable for small scale oil production.

1.3.2        OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• To construct a manual grater for coconut oil production.
• To evaluate the performance of the grater.

CHAPTER TWO

2.0       LITERATURE REVIEW

Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico, West Malaysia, and Papua & New Guinea are the 7 countries which produce major quantities of coconut in the world. Coconut is available in two forms viz., wet and dry materials commonly known as wet coconut and dry coconut or copra. The oil can be extracted from both these raw materials. However, in India and Srilanka, it is a general practice to use only copra for oil extraction and the oil is used for food and cosmetic purposes. In Phillippines, the oil is extracted from wet coconut also and is known as virgin coconut oil. In some countries solvent extraction of the dry coconut followed by refining, bleaching and deodorization is carried out to get the refined bleached and deodorized coconut oil. The technology for the production of coconut oil through expellers is well developed and many medium scale industries in India produce oil by this method. However, some small scale industries produce the oil by processing fresh coconut also using local expeller press. Problems of sediments and rancidity persist in these oils (Cornelius, 1973).

In the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, particularly Rarotonga Island, slices of fresh, mature coconut kernel are served with fruits every after meal. In India, the use of coconut for food and its applications in the Ayurvedic medicine, were documented in Sanskrit 4000 years ago (Kabara, 2000).

Records show that in the United States, coconut oil was one of the major sources of dietary fats, aside from dairy and animal fats, prior to the advent of the American edible oil (soybean and corn) industry in the mid 1940s (Dayrit, 2005). Dayrit has reviewed the long history of usage and the diverse studies done to characterize and define the composition of the various components of the coconut tree, its fruit and the related products derived from it, established the coconut’s uniqueness and superiority among agricultural crops and every part of the coconut tree and its fruit can be either consumed by humans or animals or converted into other valuable products. If properly utilised, the coconut has the highest economic value among the palm family. This is why the coconut is normally referred to as the Tree of Life, Man’s Most Useful Tree, King of the Tropical Flora, Tree of Abundance.

2.1       Coconut Oil

Oil obtained from the fresh, mature kernel (meat) of the coconut by mechanical or natural means, with or without the use of heat, without undergoing chemical refining, bleaching or dedourising, and which does not lead to the alteration of the nature of the oil. Virgin coconut oil is suitable for human consumption without the need for further processing (Fife, 2005).

Virgin coconut oil consists mainly of medium-chain triglycerides, which are resistant to peroxidation. The saturated fatty acids in virgin coconut oil are distinct from animal fats, the latter consisting mainly of long-chain saturated fatty acids (Furman).

The Philippine National Standard for Virgin Coconut Oil officially defines Virgin Coconut Oil as: the purest form of coconut oil, essentially water clear or colourless. It contains natural Vitamin E and has not undergone any hydrolytic and atmospheric oxidation as demonstrated by its very low, free fatty acid (FFA) content (even without refining) and low peroxide value. It has a fresh coconut aroma that can be mild to intense depending on the oil extraction process used. Virgin coconut oil differs greatly from traditionally produced, copra derived coconut oil, which must undergo chemical refining, bleaching and deodourisation processes to make it suitable for human consumption. RBD (Refined, Bleached and Deodourised) coconut oil made from copra, is yellow in colour, odourless, tasteless and does not contain natural Vitamin E, since this is removed when the oil is subjected to high temperature and various chemical processes.

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