Design, Construction and Performance Evaluation of a Melon Seeds Sheller

Abstract

In this study, three different types of solar cookers namely; box-type, panel-type and parabolic solar cooker were designed and constructed using locally available materials. The main objective of the study was to investigate the thermal performance of the constructed solar cookers. The standard procedure for testing solar cookers was adopted to test the thermal performance of the constructed solar cookers. Several tests were conducted on the constructed cookers under Zalingei (Sudan) prevailing weather conditions during March 2011. In addition, a questionnaire was designed to evaluate the dissemination possibility of the constructed solar cookers in the study area which consisted of 50 respondents (males and females). Results of thermal performance showed that, the parabolic solar cooker attained a maximum temperature of 86.5ºC on average basis and was the best followed by the box-type solar cooker 52.36 ºC and finally the panel-type 43.5 ºC. Also the results of the solar cookers , efficiency for the parabolic cooker, box-type and panel-type were found to be 31.53%, 77.4% and 67.4%, respectively. Finally the results of questionnaire indicated that 74% believe that solar cookers were economically feasible and could protect the environment.