DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to Almighty God for his protection, kindness, strength over my life throughout the period and also to my — for his financial support and moral care towards me.Also to my mentor — for her academic advice she often gives to me. May Almighty God shield them from the peril of this world and bless their entire endeavour Amen.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The successful completion of this project work could not have been a reality without the encouragement of my — and other people. My immensely appreciation goes to my humble and able supervisor Mr. — for his kindness in supervising this project. My warmest gratitude goes to my parents for their moral, spiritual and financial support throughout my study in this institution.
My appreciation goes to some of my lecturers among whom are Mr. —, and Dr. —. I also recognize the support of some of the staff of — among whom are: The General Manager, Deputy General manager, the internal Auditor Mr. — and the —. Finally, my appreciation goes to my elder sister —, my lovely friends mercy —, —, — and many others who were quite helpful.

ABSTRACT

This work is on a design of an automated mobile corn starch processing model for modest applications from the electrical blending system model. This model proposes an electro-mechanical system, the electronic subsystem was modelled using Proteus with its code written in Arduino IDE and the mechanical subsystem was modelled using Solid Work. The system as design operates on alternating current power supply. The mechanical design encompasses: hydraulic device control, parts assembling and mobile driving structure. Electrical design encompasses: electrically actuated arms as one of its transfer mechanisms, sensor devices regulated by the microcontroller action, and electric motor for the grinding system. The model design was demonstrated through simulation and the virtual results show the system capability of carrying out corn starch extraction within minimal time. Subsequent research efforts would be geared towards implementing the design on the hardware using the design specifications.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• STARCHES
• OCCURRENCE OF STARCH
• TAPIOCA
• CEREAL STARCHES
• RAW MATERIALS OF STARCH
• PRODUCTION OF STARCH
• BYPRODUCTS FROM MAIZE
• USES OF CORN STARCH
• MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF STARCH
• REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
• POWER SUPPLY UNIT

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• MATERIALS USED
  • Hardware used
  • Software Used
• METHODS
• SYSTEM DESIGN AND SIMULATION IMPLEMENTATION
• PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
• MECHANICAL SYSTEM MODEL

CHAPTER FOUR

• RESULT AND DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                                                          INTRODUCTION

1.1                                                                                          BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Corn has played a vital role in ensuring meal sufficiency for human population, this ranges from breakfast, lunch and dinner, although the process is tedious and takes about approximately 60hours (3days) to 120hours (5days) which includes fermentation, washing (separation), starch settlement and dehydration (drying) which are manually carried out (Salami et al., 2019). Food produced from corn is called Ogi, Akamu (pap) which can be made from maize (pigeon pea), they are processed locally by soaking it in water for three days for the fermentation process to take place, thereafter conveying it for grinding, it is soaked in water to separate the starch from the chaff, it will be allowed to settle for some hours before dehydrating and drying it for consumption. All these processes are carried out separately and is similar to that of the casava (Olutayo et al., 2015). Extraction machines developed were designed for industrial use without consideration to the rural dwellers who do not have access to industrial machines, though these may be due to the lack of electricity in rural areas. More so, the massive nature of standalone system for fermentation processes as well as grinding is also one of the major challenges. A small automated system of this nature is required. Also, the process of transferring the filtered product from one place to another for dehydration process may subject the starch to contamination, as such, the small-scale corn extraction system incorporated in this design is an improvement. The aim of this work is to design an automated mobile corn starch extraction model for domestic and commercial applications. The specific objectives are to: design an electronic control system, design a mechanical starch extraction and production system, smart-self-operated system, and write an algorithm capable of coordinating the overall system operation. This proposed system would encourage the production of corn meals locally with ease; and would make way for large scale production using this solar powered system.

Awoyale et al (2019) investigated the outcome of storage on the chemical, microbiological and sensory properties of cassava, the cassava starch-based custard powder was blended as mixture of yellow-fleshed cassava root starch and whole egg powder. The result from their study showed that there are variations in the pasting properties notwithstanding the levels of whole egg powder inclusion, and all the custard powder could form paste below the boiling point of water at the peak time of five minutes (Awoyale et al., 2016). When high quantity of the whole egg powder is used, high protein, iron, and zinc content is produced, but with low amylose and trans-b-carotene contents. This research considers an automated corn starch extraction system, in that cassava has a similar starch content like that of corn, they undergo the same fermentation process which helps to reduce the chemical concentration, as it aids digestion process. This design focuses on corn starch extraction, without consideration of further microbiological analysis. The similarity in cassava and corn starch extraction was evident in (Olutayo et al., 2015) cassava starch extraction machine design, the machine consists of the hopper, the mixing unit, the extraction chamber which houses the screw conveyor (auger) and sieve, the discharge outlets and the power unit. It was concluded that the machine can be used for small and medium production of cassava starch.

However, this paper considers adopting its design technicality for implementation, the machine is designed with its shaft connected vertically, where the corn will be blended alongside with the chaff, followed by other design processes.

In order to attain a maximal level of starch production, a hybrid of corn starch was introduced, and this design will help to meet the starch demand using the proposed extraction and processing model. In view of this therefore, this research considers the design model for corn starch extraction and production for domestic and commercial purpose by providing an enhanced model as an improvement on the conventional blending system available in the market.

1.2                                                        PROBLEM STATEMENT

The corn starch granule is abundant in the endosperm of corn kernel, and is developed by successive layering of amorphous and crystalline starch molecules, but surrounded with protein matrixes and protein bodies (Ostrander, 2015). All ingredients except starch must be removed for the production of corn starch. The seed coat would be removed during corn starch processing and named bran but is rich in polysaccharides, such as cellulose and hemicellulose. During this de-branning processing, the tip cap, namely the connection point between kernel and cob, was also largely removed. Similarly, the germ/embryo, containing almost all the oil of the corn kernel, is also separated from the kernel (Xu et al, 2019). Therefore, during the process of starch production, many by- products rich in organic ingredients and nutrients are also produced, such as corn bran, corn germ, corn steep liquor, corn gluten, etc.

The traditional procedure for extracting starch from corn for meals such as ogi, Akamu (pap) etc from maize pigeon pea) is labour intensive and time demanding hence the need for a smart-self-operated machine for commercial processing of this important food. The need to overcome these limitations seen in the traditional method of extracting starch from corn for meals is what prompted this work.

1.3                                          AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this work is to build an automated mobile corn starch processing model. The objectives of this work are:

1. To make the extraction of starch from the corn smart-self-operated
2. To increase the production of corn starch for commercial processing

• To replace the manual method of processing starch

1.4                                                       SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The scope of this work covers the building of a mobile corn starch processing model which composes of electro-mechanical system. The electronical part of the system was done using  Arduino IDE whilst the mechanical subsystem was modelled using Solid Work. The mechanical design encompasses: hydraulic device control, parts assembling and mobile driving structure. Electrical design encompasses: electrically actuated arms as one of its transfer mechanisms, sensor devices regulated by the microcontroller action, and electric motor for the grinding system. The whole system operates on alternating current power supply.

1.5                                               SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

This work shall serve as a means of enlightening students on how arduino can be programmed to control a mechanical device.

It shall also serve as a means of knowing learning how to increase the production of corn starch from the local use to commercial purpose.

1.6                                             PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work,   chapter two presents the literature review of the study,  chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Format = Microsoft word

Chapters = 1-5 chapters

Price: N3,000.

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