Malian peanut sheller
Encyclopedia
It requires less than US$50 in materials to make, and is made of concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
poured into two simple fibreglass molds, some metal parts, one wrench and any piece of rock or wood that might serve as a hammer. It accepts a wide range of nut sizes without adjustment. If necessary, adjustment is quickly and easily done. It is estimated that one Universal Nut Sheller will serve the needs of a village of 2,000 people. The life expectancy of the machine is around 25 years.
The Full Belly Project
Full Belly Project
The Full Belly Project Ltd is a non-profit organization based out of Wilmington, North Carolina, which designs labor-saving devices to improve the lives of people in developing communities. Their main devices are the Universal Nut Sheller and the Rocker Water Pump.The first device, the UNS, they...
is working to establish local, sustainable businesses that manufacture and distribute appropriate technologies
Appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
such as the Universal Nut Sheller.
Operation
Traditional shelling in developing countries is done by hand or by some form of mortar and pestle and thus requires a lot of labor.With the UNS, the user loads the desired crop in the space at the top. The user turns the handle, which rotates the rotor continuously. This creates centrifugal force
Centrifugal force
Centrifugal force can generally be any force directed outward relative to some origin. More particularly, in classical mechanics, the centrifugal force is an outward force which arises when describing the motion of objects in a rotating reference frame...
, which pushes the nuts towards the gap at the exterior wall of the machine. There, the nuts are pulled down by gravity. As they descend, the width of the gap gradually narrows. The shell of each nut is broken at the point where the gap is sufficiently narrow and the rotor motion causes sufficient friction to crack open the shell. The tapered gap allows a range of nut sizes to be shelled. The kernels and shell fragments fall into a basket and are later separated by winnowing. The device works best for Jatropha curcas
Jatropha curcas
Jatropha curcas is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, that is native to the American tropics, most likely Mexico and Central America. It is cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, becoming naturalized in some areas...
, shea, dried coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, and peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
s (ground nuts).
The Full Belly Project
Full Belly Project
The Full Belly Project Ltd is a non-profit organization based out of Wilmington, North Carolina, which designs labor-saving devices to improve the lives of people in developing communities. Their main devices are the Universal Nut Sheller and the Rocker Water Pump.The first device, the UNS, they...
has developed a Pedal Powered Agricultural Processor which is easier to use than the hand crank type, and further decreases labor in developing countries. The Pedal Powered Agricultural Processor places the Universal Nut Sheller onto a pedaling chassis. In addition to the shelling method described, the pedaling apparatus is connected to a fan. The fan automatically winnows the harvest (separates the shells from the nuts). The pedal powered versions are capable of shelling the same variety of crops as the hand crank powered versions. The processor also provides access for the winnowing section to be used independently from the sheller. This allows winnowing of crops that are not shelled, such as rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
etc.
Applications
The Universal Nut Sheller was originally designed to shell peanuts as a way to add value to crops for women and children. Since its inception, the Universal Nut Sheller has been found to be extremely effective at shelling other lucrative crops such as Jatropha curcasJatropha curcas
Jatropha curcas is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, that is native to the American tropics, most likely Mexico and Central America. It is cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, becoming naturalized in some areas...
, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
and shea.
Ghana
The Universal Nut Sheller was introduced in Ghana by Dr. Rick Brandenburg (professor of entomology) and Dr. David Jordan (specialist in crop science). These two professors from North Carolina State UniversityNorth Carolina State University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
had been working with a community of peanuts growers for 13 years when they heard about the Universal Nut Sheller. The yields had increased significantly during that period, and this one particular community of growers could not hand shell all of it. Local technicians were trained to build the Universal Nut Shellers.
The Universal Nut Sheller has been less than successful in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. The NCState website admits the mechanism breaks 5% of the peanuts (locally called groundnuts), but first hand accounts relate almost universal breakage. Users can mitigate this breakage by pouring the nuts through initially at very broad settings and only later at finer settings, this practice does not eliminate the breakage and destroys the efficiency aspect. Groundnut shelling tends to be a social activity everyone engages in during their down time and there is rarely a need for a peanut sheller.
The Universal Nut Sheller proved incapable of shelling shea nuts in a manner useful for shea butter extraction for the shea nuts of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. However, there are reports that it works for shea nuts from trees in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
.
The cost also proved a significant barrier. It simply cost far more to produce (even excepting the cost of the mold, transport of materials to the village, travel to the nearest town to find someone capable of welding the metal parts, etc.) than individual growers were able to pay. However, growers unions who made the investment have been successful.
See also
- Full Belly ProjectFull Belly ProjectThe Full Belly Project Ltd is a non-profit organization based out of Wilmington, North Carolina, which designs labor-saving devices to improve the lives of people in developing communities. Their main devices are the Universal Nut Sheller and the Rocker Water Pump.The first device, the UNS, they...
- Appropriate technologyAppropriate technologyAppropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
- Jock BrandisJock BrandisJock Brandis is an author, film actor, film technician, inventor, and alleged air pirate.-Biography:Jock Brandis was born in the Netherlands but moved to Canada as a child. In his early twenties, he joined CUSO, the Canadian version of the Peace Corps, and was placed in "Trenchtown" otherwise known...
- Sanoussi Diakité
External links
- Video of Universal Nut Sheller in Uganda
- Full Belly Project - non-profit organization which designs and distributes appropriate technology, including the Universal Nut Sheller
- Peanuts-a documentary film about Brandis' creation of the first Universal Nut Sheller then known as the Malian Peanut Sheller
- Universal Nut Sheller used to dehusk Jatropha Nuts (2008) Video about Mali Biocarburant's use of the UNS to promote Jatropha curcas cultivation to generate income for poor farmers in Mali (West Africa).