Semi-Automatic Decorticator For Banana Pseudostem Waste

Abstract

The objective of this project was the design and fabrication of fiber extracting machine (decorticator) to extract high quality banana fibers from banana pseudostems. Advantage of use of this machine over traditional fiber extraction techniques is that the fiber extraction process becomes less time consuming and labor intensive. Extracted fiber output is increased and they are of higher quality. For every cycle of banana fruit production, four times greater biomass waste is produced as compared to banana fruit yield. About half of this waste accounts for pseudostems which can be used to extract fibers and the solid waste can be utilized as bio-fertilizer for next banana plantations. The machine proposed consists of rotating cutting drum with several blades mounted on it which will provide the crushing, beating and pulling operation on the pseudostem when it is fed to the machine through the feed rollers. The fibers and waste residual material are collected separately. After validation of design through Ansys analysis, the machine was fabricated. The testing of machine resulted in good fiber extraction efficiency