Washing of the tubers
After inspection of cassava for quality, it will be thoroughly washed to remove all dirt before being passed into hewing and peeling machine where it will be cut into smaller pieces and peeled.
Grinding
The peeled and clean cassava tuber will be passed into the grinder where it will be ground into smaller pieces (1-2inches). The pieces will be poured into pounding machine for extraction of starch from cellulose. The machine can have 3 to 4 sets of extractors of varying mesh sizes. Small quantity of sulphuric acid will be added to the starch to prevent fermentation through microbial activities. The cellulose (pulp) removed from the starch will be dried in the sun and used as animal feed. It can also be added to cassava chips to produce cassava pellets.
Starch production
The starch water separated from the pulp will be passed through centrifugal separators or hydro cyclone to remove all pulp and get quality cassava starch. The time of processing must be as short as possible in order to get high quality starch. This will prevent reduction of starch through chemical and biochemical reactions from the microorganisms.
Drying and packing
The starch will be passed into stream pipe of hot air (about 200°C) and high pressure from the furnace. The starch is blown up the chimney with the force of hot air and will then fall into the cyclone. Starch received in the cyclone is hot, fine and dry, but must be cooled down immediately in a cold cyclone before being poured into the sieve to get very fine powder which is packed and bagged. The process must take short time to prevent condensation of starch granules and decomposition of the starch.
Photo credit: Thaitapiocalstarch.com
Read: Cassava cultivation in Nigeria
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