Optimization of continuous pre-milling Treater for premilling treatment of Pigeonpea

Abstract

Pre-milling treatments of pigeon pea are labour and time-intensive batch operation, which is a big problem due to batch processing nature and results in excessive material handling, leading to increased processing duration with low final product recovery and chances of contamination in the handling process. For easy milling and to improve milling efficiency, pre-treatment of pigeon pea is required. So far, only long and batch type pre-milling treatments have been developed, and no such continuous type pre-milling treater is available for this purpose. Hence this study was undertaken to the developed system of 10 kg/h capacity of continuous pre milling treater for pigeon pea was optimized for continuous treatments of pigeon pea to determine the best treatment condition for maximizing dehulling yield and dhal yield while minimizing the dehulling loss. The best condition was obtained for pigeon pea with 10% moisture content treated with the microwave power level of 90% for about 1.5 min to achieve a dehulling yield of 49.15%, dhal yield of 74.55%, dehulling loss of 7.67%. Thus, it is recommended that the continuous pre-milling treatment is more suitable for pigeon pea processing and presents an improvised short and continuous method for pre-milling treatments for commercial adoption.