Design, Fabrication, and Performance Evaluation of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Flour Mill for Small-scale Applications

Utilizing sweet potato to consumable flour was projected as the best solution to the problem of storage, transportation and increasing the shelf life of the crop. This study was conducted to evaluate the most recommended moisture content level of a sweet potato during milling. The three different treatments used were 8%, 10% and 12% moisture content level which were manually chipped at 2 mm thick. Two layers of stainless-steel wire mesh were used, #100 for fines and #200 for the very fine output of the machine. The machine’s performance was evaluated through measuring its milling capacity, efficiency and starch recovery. Results indicated that the highest milling capacity, milling efficiency and starch recovery were both achieved at 8% moisture content level with 17.45 kg/hr, 96.07% and 65.9% respectively. Therefore, the lower the moisture content, the higher the milling capacity, efficiency and starch recovery. The level of significance was also determined using ANOVA with completely randomized design (CRD). Statistical analysis identified that there were high and significant differences among the treatments.