Post Harvest Unit Operations

SEPARATION
SEPARATION – Cleaning, Grdaing, Sorting: Solid – Solid, Solid – Liquid,
The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have
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The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image
may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you
may have to delete the image and then insert it again.

The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the
image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file
again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again. Threshing of Wheat
Potato Grading

Threshing of Paddy
 videoplayback.mp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qv0z81iVGs
 Vibratory Air-Screen Cleaner
Seed Grader
Lighter particles

Feed hopper Aspirator

Baffle plate Cyclone

Horizontal
oscillating &
Ascending
Upper screen vertical motion separator
Dust bag

Sand
sifter Cleaned
particles
Coarse
impurities
(stones, straw)
Examples of use: Grading of wheat, paddy, barley, Examples of use: Removing
maize, millets, soyabean, oilseeds, pulses. stick, leaves, fine dust, sand
 Vibro-Rotary Screen Cleaner Vibro-Rotary Screen Cleaner
(Single Screen) (Double Screen)
Feed
hopper

Undesirable
Aspirator materials

Rotary
screen

Undersize
materials
(dust, straw) Over size/
foreign
materials

Sound
Vibratory Discharge grains
screen
 SEPARATION BASED ON GRAIN CHARACTERISTICS

Properties Examples of use

Size and Shape Mustard, rape, soybean, peas, groundnuts, beans, rye, barley, oats

Specific gravity or weight Wheat, rice, onion, grass seeds

Surface roughness Rice grains, legumes, mustards, rape, soybeans,

Aerodynamic properties maize,wheat, rye, oats, soybean

(Aspirator/pneumatic separator)

Ferro-magnetic properties Wheat, rice, corn, pulses, spices from magnetic substances

Electrical properties Coffee, nuts, oil crops, sunflower seeds, barley and canola seeds, corn,
(Colour) pea (defective/immature seeds)
 Feed
F = Feed rate (kg/hr) (F, xf)
Feed xF = Fraction of desirable materials in the feed

Oversize/ O = Oversize material (kg/hr)

desirable materials xo= Fraction of oversize materials in oversize flow Inclined Scree
surface n

Undersize/
U = Undersize material (kg/hr)
undesirable materials
xu = Fraction of oversize materials in undersize flow

Taking a overall mass balance over the screen

Oversize Spring
F=O+U (O, xo) Undersize
(U, xu)
Taking a mass balance of desirable materials over the screen
F * xF = O * xO +U * xU

Eo = Effectiveness of the screen separating oversize materials

Eu = Effectiveness of the screen separating under size materials

Screen effectiveness (E)

Screen effectiveness E = Eo * Eu
- All undersize materials should pass through the screen.
- All oversize materials should retain over the screen.
- If this happens, screen is known as ideal screen.
For an ideal screen = Eo = 1 and Eu = 1, screen effectiveness E = 1
 F=O+U or U=F-O F=O+U or O=F-U

F * xF = O * xO + U * xU
F * xF = O * xO + (F - O) * xU
= O * xO + F * xU - O * xU
F * xF - F * xU = O * xO - O * xU
F * (xF – xU) = O * (xO – xU)
O/F = (xF – xU) / (xO – xU)
F * xF = O * xO + U * xU
F * xF = (F - U) * xO + U * xU
= F * xO – U * xO + U * xU
F * xF - F * xO = U * xU - U * xO
F * (xF – xO) = U * (xU – xO)
U/F = (xF – xO) / (xU – xO)

E = (O/F) * (U/F) (xO/xF) (1-xU/1-xF)

= [(xF – xU) / (xO – xU)]
* [(xF – xO) / (xU – xO)]
* [(xO/xF) (1-xU/1-xF)]
= (xF – xU) * (xF – xO) * (xO) * (1-xU)
(xO – xU) * (xU – xO) * (xF) * (1-xF)
If mass fraction of nuts in feed, overflow, and underflow are 0.16, 0.65, and 0.003 in a single
screen vibrofluidised bed cleaner, respectively, calculate screening effectiveness.

Ans:
 Air-Screen Cleaner

Lighter particles

Feed hopper Aspirator

Baffle plate Cyclone

Horizontal
oscillating &
Ascending
Upper screen vertical motion separator
Dust bag

Sand
sifter Cleaned
particles
Coarse
impurities
(stones, straw)
Where, E = Fraction of clean seed at clean seed outlet
F = Fraction of clean seed in feed
G = Fraction of clean seed at foreign matter outlets
Example: Milled rice was cleaned into cleaned rice and husk using an air screen grain cleaner
with 2 screens. 450 kg of the milled rice was taken for cleaning. The fractions of cleaned and
the husk after cleaning are presented in the following Table. Calculate the cleaning efficiency of
the cleaner.
Sample fraction Milled rice (kg) Cleaned rice Blower outlet Oversize Undersize
outlet (kg) (kg) outlet (kg) outlet (kg)
Cleaned rice (kg) 423.25 365.35 17.25 19.22 9.66
Husk (kg) 26.75 84.65 432.75 430.78 440.34

(i) Fraction of cleaned rice at cleaned rice outlet

(ii) Fraction of cleaned rice in milled rice

(iii) Fraction of cleaned rice in foreign matter outlet

Cleaning efficiency
Example: During the evaluation of an air screen grain cleaner with two screens the followings were
observed.

i.  The impurities present in feed were 6.5%.

ii.  The impurities present in clean grain were 0.5%.
iii.  The outflow of blower contained 1% clean seed.
iv.  The overflow of the 1st screen contained 1% clean seed.
v.  The underflow contained 0.5% clean seed.

Compute the cleaning efficiency of the cleaner. Ans: 91.18%