The Pharma Innovation Journal 2021; SP-10(3): 248-253

ISSN (E): 2277- 7695

ISSN (P): 2349-8242
NAAS Rating: 5.23 Development of low cost sugarcane peeler for small
TPI 2021; SP-10 (3): 248-253
© 2021 TPI vending’s
www.thepharmajournal.com
Received: 13-01-2021
Accepted: 17-02-2021 Sreedevi Pandraju, Madhava M, Amith Padhi, Gangadhar G, Indira M,
Lavanya T, Pavan Kalyan K, Sandhya M, Subramanyam Sarma A and
Sreedevi Pandraju
Reginal Agricultural Research Lakshmi Durga M
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra
Pradesh, India DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/tpi.2021.v10.i3Sd.6179
Madhava M
Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Abstract
Engineering, Bapatla, Andhra Sugarcane is the most common commercial crop grown worldwide, which is grown in tropical and
Pradesh, India subtropical countries of the world. Sugarcane is the world’s second largest crop in production with about
188.25 million metric tonnes of cane during 2018-19 and provides 60 to 70% of the world sugar.
Amit Padhi Sugarcane is a common raw material for sugar and jaggery. As the production is high, the development
Reginal Agricultural Research of sub products from sugarcane is also high where juice has its equal importance. Additionally, cane juice
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra is mostly used as a “refreshner” during summer to replace the artificial beverages. The sugarcane juice
Pradesh, India can be obtained by squeezing through extractors. Apart from that, as per health point of view many of
consumers show more interest on sugarcane juice than other cool drinks. In major countries of South
Gangadhar G
Asia, sugarcane juice extraction is the main occupation for small scale road side venders. The extracted
Reginal Agricultural Research
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra
juice quality can be improved by separating the sugarcane peel prior to juice extraction. The ancient
Pradesh, India method of sugarcane peeling is done manually with help of knife. But this method is more tedious,
ineffective and prone to injuries. Moreover, the extracted juice contains a lot of suspended solids and
Indira M impurities, which affects the quality, taste and colour due to presence of wax and other plant impurities.
Reginal Agricultural Research To reach the above limitations, a low cost sugarcane peeler for small scale venders was developed. The
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra maximum value of machine production efficiency obtained as 74.9% with the peeling capacity of 3 canes
Pradesh, India per minute.

Lavanya T Keywords: Sugarcane, sugarcane juice, sugarcane peeler and peeling efficiency
Reginal Agricultural Research
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra
Pradesh, India
1. Introduction
Sugarcane (Succharum offcinarum L.) is the most common commercial crop grown
Pavan Kalyan K worldwide, which is grown in tropical and subtropical countries of the world. Sugarcane is the
Reginal Agricultural Research world’s second largest crop in production about 188.25 million metric tonnes of cane during
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra 2018-19 and provides 60 to 70% of the world sugar (Statista, 2019). India occupies 2nd place
Pradesh, India after Brazil in area of cultivation with 18.49% and with production of 348.45 Mha of
sugarcane (FAOSTAT, 2016). Its by-products are also used as a fodder to feed livestock in
Sandhya M
Reginal Agricultural Research
many countries. In India, sugarcane being grown as a Kharif crop. It grows well in hot and
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra humid climate with an average temperature of 21 ºC to 27 ºC in deep rich loamy soil.
Pradesh, India Sugarcane juice is sweet in taste and is full of natural sweetness, which have a low glycemic
index (GI) hence it works very well for diabetic patients. It also prevents heart diseases as it
Subramanyam Sarma A helps decrease the levels of unhealthy or cholesterol and triglycerides. Sugarcane is a common
Reginal Agricultural Research raw material for sugar and jaggery. Typically, out of the total sugarcane produced in India,
Station, Anakapalle, Andhra about 74% is processed into white sugar, 15% into jaggery and khandasari which is an
Pradesh, India
unrefined sugar with strong molasses content and the remaining 11% is utilized for extracting
Lakshmi Durga M juice as well as seed material (Rao and Sreedevi, 2016) [6]. Sugarcane juice is used as an
ICAR- CIAE, Bhopal, Madhya alternative for synthetic beverages which will give the refreshness during summer. Apart from
Pradesh, India that, as per health point of view many of consumers show more interest on sugarcane juice
than other cool drinks. In major South Asian countries, the highway roads, streets are crowded
with sugarcane juice vending shops in informal markets under unhygienic conditions by
arranging small scale crushers and getting more economical benefit from them. The process of
extraction of sugarcane juice from small scale units involves manual peeling with help of
Corresponding Author: conventional knife which gives the uneven peeling, which is more tedious and drudgery
Mattaparthi Lakshmi Durga process and the efficiency of peeling is not satisfactory which remains unpeeled portions, this
ICAR- CIAE, Bhopal, Madhya may reduce the quality of juice.
Pradesh, India
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As sugarcane juice contains lot of nutritional qualities apart taken and these were procured from Bosch Brush Ltd. And
from that the extracted juice also contains a lot of suspended these wire brushes have groove on them for fine peeling of
solids and impurities, which affects the quality, taste and sugarcane. Four stud rods are fixed between the frames to
colour due to presence of wax and other plant impurities. In adjust the clearance between two brushes which is suitable for
the present market different models for peeling machines are peeling various sizes of sugarcane. v-belt type transmission
available, which includes fully automatic and semi-automatic was adopted because it is less critical to misalignment than
peelers, which are more expensive and cannot afford by small other types of drives and there is no need to maintain exact
scale venders. Hence this paper lights on the development of speed ratio and does not require lubrication (Kepner et al.,
low cost peeling machine for sugarcanes especially for small 1987).
venders. In this machine three pulleys (Motor, 1st shaft and for 2nd
Gadekar et al., (2017) [2] designed and developed sugarcane shaft) are selected for facilitating the speed variation between
peeling machine and their aimed to provide a commercial the pulleys. A steel dome was mounted over the top of the
platform for production of sugarcane peeling machine. The brushes for preventing the sugarcane dust falling on to the
main working principle involved in this study is when operator during operation. This dome is portable for cleaning
sugarcane is passed through the rotating hollow shaft, comes in side of the machine.
in contact with brushes. Hence with the developed machine
59.6 percentage of peeling-efficiency obtained. In other hand, 2.2 Performance evaluation of sugarcane peeler
to defeat the drudgery of manual peeling, Kadam et al. (2018) a) Speed
[3]
have designed the peeling machine for sugarcane crop and The speed of the drive shaft was measured by a digital
they adopted the orbital motion shaped peeling action. tachometer. The measured speed was obtained in revaluations
Yamani and Basiouny (2016) evaluated the prototype version per minute and converted into meter per second.
of small-scale peeling machine of sugarcanes. To evaluate the πDN
quality of peeling machine they have compared the different Speed (m/s) = …. Eq (1)
60
machine and crop parameters. The authors obtained with
results of zig-zag pattern type brush giving better Where,
performance. Finally, they concluded that maximum peeling D = Diameter of the drive shaft, m and
efficiency is 88.85% achieved at peeling drum speeds of 9.18 N = number of revolutions, rpm
and 3.53m s-1 and peeling drum clearance of 2 cm and number
of feeding canes per minute of 3 canes. Bagher et al. (2008) [1] b) Power consumption of developed machine
developed a mechanical peeling of pumpkins by using an It was calculated according to the following formula (Yamani
abrasive brush. and Basiouny (2016)),
Automatic-sugarcane peeling machine was designed by
Xinfeng (2014) and they have adopted the slider-crank Power consumption = √3 (I.V. cosθ. η)/1000, kW …. Eq (2)
mechanism, which is reliable with drudgery reduction and Where,
with high efficiency. Manjunatha et al. (2012) [5] explained I = Current intensity, Amperes;
about development and performance evaluation of a power V = Potential difference, Volts;
operated garlic peeler with a cylinder-concave mechanism cos θ = Electrical power factor, decimal (being equal to 0.71),
with peeling efficiency, yield of peeled garlic and unpeeled and
garlic, damage and peel separation were 86.6, 86.2, 4.7, η = Mechanical efficiency of motor assumed to be 80%
9.15and 96%, respectively with a machine throughput
capacity of 27 kg/h. c) Peeling efficiency
The peeling efficiency of mechanical machine was calculated
2. Materials and Methods by the following formula (Yamani and Basiouny (2016)),
In the present work, the variety of 93A145 sugarcane
(Sacharam Officianarum) was selected. The length, diameter, ∆d
Peeling Efficiency (%) = i
x 100 …. Eq (3)
weight of sugarcane were crucial for designing of peeler for
sugarcane in terms of clearance between the two brushes, Where,
stiffness of the brush for clearing the peel over the cane. The ∆d = Difference between sugarcane diameters before and after
physiological characteristics of the cane like length, mean peeling (thickness of sugarcane peeled by machine), mm and
diameter are measured with help of cloth tape and Vernier i = Ideal thickness to be peeled by machine, mm
calliper up to an accuracy of 0.02 mm.
d) Machine production efficiency
2.1 Development of low cost peeling machine It was calculated according the following formula
A low cost sugarcane peeler was designed and developed for
peeling the sugarcane. The mechanical peeler is mainly for Machine production efficiency = (Actual machine capacity,
(peeling the sugarcane) small scale cane crushing units. It kg/h/Theoretical machine capacity, kg/h) x 100 ….Eq (4)
consists of frame, two rotating brushes and power
transmitting unit. The frame is used to support all the integral e) Cane stalk weight loss
components of the mechanical peeler. The frame columns are It was calculated as difference between weight of cane before
put at an angle to increase the ground contact area in terms to and after the peeling with developed machine.
stabilizing the whole machine while machine in working
2.3 Quality parameters of peeled cane juice
condition. A motor is main source for development of
rotational power. In this present investigation, two stainless a) Total soluble solids
Total soluble solids of extracted juice measured by a
steel zig-zag wire brushes (Yamani and Basiouny, 2016) was
Refractometer. It is a simple machine used for measuring
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concentrations of sugarcane juice. It requires only a few drops fixed cost and operating cost which is as follows
of solution. Degree Brix (ºBrix) is the sugar content of an
acqueous solution. One degree brix is 1gram of sucrose in 100 Fixed cost/year
grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution i (i + 1)N
i. Fixed cost of unit = ×C …. Eq (5)
as percentage by mass. If the solution contains dissolved (i + 1)N -1
solids other than pure sucrose, then the ºBrix only
approximate the dissolved solid content (Sirichai and Jittani, Where,
2010) [7]. In this determination, few drops of sugarcane juice i = Interest rate (10% per annum)
were placed on the sensor of Refractometer. Due to of light N = Life span of unit
refraction through sugarcane juice, it gives direct C = Cost of unit
measurement of total soluble solids present in the juice. ii. Housing, insurance & taxes = 3% of initial cost
b) pH Fixes cost/year = (i) + (ii)
A pH meter is a scientific instrument that measures the
hydrogen – ion activity in water based solutions, indicating its Variable cost/year
acidity or alkalinity expressed as pH. In this study, the pH i. Repair and maintenance = 5% of initial cost of unit
level of extracted juice of canes obtained from mechanical ii. Electricity charges = 6 /- per KWh
peeling, manual peeling and control. iii. Labour charges per person at the rate of 200/day

c) Photo colorimeter Total variable cost = (i) + (ii) + (iii)

The colour of extracted juice (canes obtained from
mechanical peeling, manual peeling and control) was Cost of operation of machine/h = total variable cost/h + total
measured by using colorimeter (Make: Eliico) in terms of fixed cost/h
absorbents present in the extracted juice obtained from 4- total variable cost/year
roller SS crusher. A colorimeter is a device used in Unit cost of operation = Rs/kg …. Eq (6)
total production/year
colorimetry. In scientific fields the word generally refers to
the device that measures the absorbents of particular wave 3. Results and Discussions
lengths of light by a specific solution. The performance evaluation of the developed low cost
sugarcane peeler was conducted as per standard procedures.
2.4 Cost economics The length of sugarcane varied from 220 to 255 cm and the
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments and to diameter of cane varied from 20 to 34 mm. The specifications
ascertain the most remunerative treatment, the cost incurred of developed low cost sugarcane peeler was measured and
for the peeling under each treatment were computed and presented in following table 1 and developed machine was
added. The cost analysis is divided under two heads known as shown in figure 1.

Fig 1: Pictorial representation of developed peeling machine for sugarcane

Table 1: Specifications of mechanical sugarcane peeler loss, machine power consumption, and machine unit cost
Parameter Details
were calculated. The speed of the machine was measured by
Overall height, cm 121.5 aforementioned Eq (1) and it was obtained as 3.72 m/s. power
Overall length, cm 61 consumption of the developed machine (based on Eq (2)) was
Overall width, cm 48 obtained as 1.47 kWh.
Weight, Kg 52
Peeling mechanism Brush type Peeling efficiency
Power source, HP 1HP, high speed motor The peeling efficiency of mechanical peeler is calculated at
(electric motor) (2850 rpm) different clearances of 2 cm, 3 cm and 4 cm between the two
Number of brushes 2 rotating brushes. The results obtained by peeler at different
Peeler price Rs. 15, 300 clearances are presented in table 2. The maximum average
value of peeling efficiency is 77% at 2cm clearance and
The performance evaluation of peeler was carried out and the minimum average value of peeling efficiency is 36% at 4 cm
operating parameters such as peeling efficiency, machine clearance. This shows that increasing the clearance between
production efficiency, crushing efficiency, cane stalk weight the brushes decreasing the peeling efficiency and vice versa.
Hence, the optimum clearance between the brushes is 2 cm.
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Table 2: Peeling efficiency at different clearances between brushes

Peeling efficiency at different clearances between brushes
2 cm 3 cm 4 cm
Initial (mm) Final (mm) PE, % Initial (mm) Final (mm) PE, % Initial (mm) Final (mm) PE,%
Average 29.71 28.93 77 27.32 26.82 53 28.21 27.86 36

From the table 2 the optimum clearance between the brushes vice versa. The maximum peeling efficiency of 77% was
for effective peeling of the mechanical peeler was 2 cm. So obtained at 3rd pass, this is because of exposure time of the
the effect of peeling efficiency on different passes (shown in cane in between the rotating brushes is more between the
Fig. 1) of cane at the clearance of 2 cm between brushes are brushes. The minimum value of peeling efficiency was
tabulated in table 3. The results indicated that the effect of obtained at 1st pass and the value of peeling efficiency was
number of passes per cane on peeling efficiency with the 35%. So by above discussion the maximum peeling efficiency
clearance of 2 cm between brushes. The value of peeling is obtained at 3 passes of cane at a clearance of 2 cm.
efficiency was increased with number of passes per cane and

Table 3: Peeling efficiency of mechanical peeler with different number of passes

Final diameter (mm)
S. No. Sample Initial diameter (mm)
1st Pass PE, % 2nd Pass PE, % 3rd Pass PE, %
Average 27.81 27.45 36 27.28 53 27.04 77

Fig 2: Peeling of cane after 1, 2 and 3 passes

Comparison of peeling efficiency results of the peeling efficiency are calculated by using Eq
The peeling efficiency of manual peeling and mechanical (3). The comparable data were tabulated in table 4. Figure 2
peeler are compared with the parameters of thickness represents the comparison between manually and
removed during peeling and time taken for peeling and the mechanically peeled canes.

Table 4: Comparison of peeling efficiency of developed peeler and manual peeling method
Initial diameter of Final diameter of Thickness of removed Time for peeling/ Peeling efficiency,
Treatment
cane, mm cane, mm bark, mm cane (sec) %
Manual peeling 25.97 25.5 0.42 60 42%
Developed peeler 27.81 27.04 0.77 20 77%

results shows that the peeling efficiency of the mechanical

peeler is more, values 77% in 20 seconds and the peeling
efficiency of the manual peeling is comparatively less, values
only 42% in 60 seconds so the above results shows that
peeling efficiency was maximum by using mechanical peeler
compared to manual peeling.

Machine production efficiency

The output capacity of the mechanical peeler and manual
peeling are compared in the table 5. These were calculated by
using Eq (4). The output capacity was calculated with
reference of the theoretical capacity and actual capacity of the
mechanical. Machine production efficiency of both
mechanical sugarcane peeler and manual peeling shows that
production efficiency was maximum in mechanical peeler,
values 75.4% and the production efficiency of manual peeling
Fig 3: A. Manual peeled canes B. Mechanical peeled canes is comparatively low, values 60% only. The output capacity
also maximum in mechanical peeler with the production of
From the table 4 the comparison of peeling efficiency of both 109.6 kg/h compared to manual peeling with only 28.8 kg/h.
manual peeling and mechanical peeling are evaluated and the The results were coincides with Tagare et al., 2013 [8].

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Table 5: Output capacity of mechanical and manual peeling

No. of No. of Actual output Theoretical output Machine production
Treatment
canes/min canes /h capacity, Kg/h (x) capacity, Kg/h (y) efficiency, % (x/y)
Mechanical 3 180 109.6 144 75.4
Manual 1 60 28.8 48 60

Table 6: Cane stalk weight loss

S. No. Sample Clearance, cm Initial weight, (g) Final weight, (g) Weight loss, (%)
1 R1 4 1.475 1.435 2.7
2 R2 3 0.765 0.702 6.9
3 R3 2 0.930 0.855 7.5

Cane stalk weight loss compared to 2 cm clearance.

The canes stalk weight loss of the mechanical peeler was
evaluated with three different clearances between the brushes. Quality analysis of sugarcane juice
The table 6 indicates that the cane stalk weight loss at The quality parameters of fresh sugarcane juice obtained from
different clearances between the brushes of mechanical canes of manual peeling, mechanical peeler and without
peeler. The maximum weight loss signifies lower peel peeling were estimated. The Physico-chemical parameters
retention on sugarcane stalks (Xinfeng, 2015) [9]. The such as pH, TSS and colour of sugarcane juice are presented
maximum weight loss 7.5% was recorded at 2 cm clearance, in table 7. Low value of l (40.) was recorded for juice
and the minimum value of weight loss was recorded at 4 cm obtained without peeling indicating darker color. The
clearance as 2.7%. This source at 4 cm clearance the comparison of extracted juices from three operations are
maximum peel retention was recorded which is low efficient compared in Figure 3.

Table 7: Quality analysis of sugarcane juice

Parameters
Treatment Absorbance
TSS, ºBx pH
L a b
Mechanical peeling 19.95 5.28 62.7 1. 7 26.3
Manual peeling 19.25 5.35 48.0 2.0 44.6
Without peeling 19.3 5.33 40.3 7. 7 25.7

Fig 4: Comparison of sugar cane juice 1) Mechanical peeling 2) Manual peeling 3) Without peeling

Cost economics labour saving, 66.66% of labour cost and 74% of time
The table 8 shows the percentage of labour cost and time compared to manual peeling. With help of developed peeler,
saving in developed low cost peeler compared to manual the production of peeled sugarcanes was about 8.76 q/day.
peeling. The results showed that the peeler saves 200% of

Table 8: Percentage of time and labour saving of peeler over manual peeling
S. No. Peeling operation
% Saving
Manual Mechanical
Labour Requirement (per day/8 h) 3 1 200
Quantity of cane peeled (kg) 230 876
Labour cost @Rs.200/- per day 600 200 66.6
Time per peeling of 100 kg of cane 0.66 hr 0.25 hr 74

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the mechanical parameters were considered based on standards. Finally, the
peeler, the cost incurred for the peeling under each treatment cost of operation of the low cost peeling machine was Rs.
were computed and added. The cost analysis is divided under 292.16/day and unit operation cost of machine was Rs.
two heads known as fixed cost and operating cost. The cost 0.27/kg (i.e. approx..30 paisa per kg of cane).

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4. Conclusions
Low cost peeling machine for sugarcane was developed for
small scale vendors. The performance of the machine was
evaluated for peeling efficiency, machine production
efficiency, cane stalk weight loss, power consumption and
speed and the results were compared with manual peeling.
After peeling operation, juice was extracted from peeled
canes and quality of the juice was compared with manually
peeled canes. Quality parameters of the extracted juice
determined in terms of total soluble solids, pH, colour and
absorbance. Results of the study concluded that, the higher
peeling efficiency was obtained from mechanical peeler
(77%) compared to manual peeling (42%) and also clearance
between the brushes and number of passes of cane for proper
peeling was optimized at 2 cm and 3 passes respectively. The
output capacity of mechanical peeler was achieved as 109.6
kg/h with machine production efficiency of 75.4%.
Percentage of labour and time saving of mechanical sugarcane
peeler over the manual peeling was 66.6% and 164%
respectively.

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Design and fabrication of sugarcane peeling machine.
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