Development of low cost sugarcane peeler for small vending’s

Abstract

Sugarcane is the most common commercial crop grown worldwide, which is grown in tropical and subtropical countries of the world. Sugarcane is the world’s second largest crop in production with about 188.25 million metric tonnes of cane during 2018-19 and provides 60 to 70% of the world sugar. Sugarcane is a common raw material for sugar and jaggery. As the production is high, the development of sub products from sugarcane is also high where juice has its equal importance. Additionally, cane juice is mostly used as a “refreshner” during summer to replace the artificial beverages. The sugarcane juice can be obtained by squeezing through extractors. Apart from that, as per health point of view many of consumers show more interest on sugarcane juice than other cool drinks. In major countries of South Asia, sugarcane juice extraction is the main occupation for small scale road side venders. The extracted juice quality can be improved by separating the sugarcane peel prior to juice extraction. The ancient method of sugarcane peeling is done manually with help of knife. But this method is more tedious, ineffective and prone to injuries. Moreover, the extracted juice contains a lot of suspended solids and impurities, which affects the quality, taste and colour due to presence of wax and other plant impurities. To reach the above limitations, a low cost sugarcane peeler for small scale venders was developed. The maximum value of machine production efficiency obtained as 74.9% with the peeling capacity of 3 canes per minute.