Design Optimization and Performance Evaluation of Manual Screw Press Crude Honey Extractor

Abstract

In Ethiopia, an estimated 5.89 million beehives out of which farmers keep about 5.66 million beekeepers use traditional hives. Honeycombs from these hives and colonies are normally harvested and extracted using traditional methods. This method leads to contamination of honey and incomplete extraction with impurities in the extract. Moreover time-consuming and tiresome, which implies that more valuable time is spent on extracting honey. Honey producers living in different rural areas have no idea of the quality of honey they produce. A screw press honeycomb extractor is a good alternative to the existing methods of honeycomb extraction for both traditional and modern hives. However, this method left some honey on the base of the pressing chamber limiting honey extraction efficiency. This may be due to honey smearing or hanging on the components making up the pressing chamber. This paper aims to design optimization and performance evaluation of manual screw press crude honey extractor to improve extraction efficiency. Therefore, this study is to address the problem of screw press honeycomb extraction focusing on the design of the pressing chamber, and the base of the pressing chamber for optimum shape and size. Freshly harvested 27 kg crude honey was obtained from honey producers residing in the East Wollega zone Gudeyabila district and divided into two portions. The first portion was given to a local honey processor who used the traditional method of honey extraction which involves the Debela shash and sieve method to extract the honey. The second portion of the freshly harvested honeycomb is used for the performance evaluation of the designed screw press. The average extraction capacity for the screw press honey extractor method was 38.24Kghr−¿¿ . This is significantly higher (p<0.05) than the extraction capacity calculated for the sieve and debela shash method which was 10.72 Kghr−¿¿ and 0.54 Kghr−¿¿ of honey respectively. The extraction efficiency which indicates equipment performance was 81.10 % for the designed Screw press honey extractor, 78.66 % for the sieve method, and 76.44 % for Debela shash method. The honey extracted using the designed screw press is more desirable compared with the honey extracted using the traditional method.