Design and construction of a solar powered winnowing machine for sorghum.

Abstract

Sorghum is a very important food crop around the world because of its nutritional values, it also serves as a dietary staple food for humans, and is rich in vitamin B-complex. About 217000 Metric tons of sorghum are produced in Uganda annually. A solar powered winnowing machine for sorghum was designed, constructed with locally available materials and tested for sorghum winnowing. The machine consists of the frame, hopper, solar panel, solar charge controller, centrifugal blower, motor and battery. It was powered by 36W direct current motor, 2800rpm blower speed, 100W solar panel,75Ah battery,30Ah solar charge controller that were suitable to operate the machine. The newly developed solar powered sorghum winnower is techno economically suitable for winnowing of sorghum at feed rate of 110.2 kg/h and gives a thorough put capacity of 85.8kglhr. The machine comes with a production cost of 1.35 million UGX. The sorghum winnower recommended to be used by the rural farmers who grow sorghum.