Assessment of energy usage in both small and medium scale dry maize milling plants :

Abstract

This research aims at the investigation of energy usage in dry small and. medium scale maize milling plants in areas of Jinja and Busia municipalities. The performance of the hammer mills was evaluated on different milling parameters including drum speeds mill clearance, moisture content of the wains and their influence on production time as a factor of energy utilized. The obtained results reveal that there is a great gap between the operating conditions and design parameters of the existing mills to the standard dimensions among all factors that influence energy usage and production time. Many mills were found milling grains at moisture content above 13% from the standard below 12% which increase energy consumption by 36%, more mills have extra-ordinary mill clearances above 10mm in comparison with 4mm standard mill clearance for a hammer mill and the drum speeds were found to be relatively high though not sufficient with mills operating at speeds below 3500rpm which the utmost speed for a dry maize mill to covey flour. This report has been able to show how dry maize mill fabricators and the business men can make a better comparison of their anticipated production and choose the right milling parameters and size for an economical mill. Through this paper the millers will find the loopholes that have always made them hate the UMEME people yet it's their mills that were leading to all the major losses realized in the industry due to poor sizing of the mills and failure to understand the benefit of connecting a group of millers on a single metre under large industrial consumers.