Development of Cacao Pod Crushing Machine

Abstract

Fermented dry cocoa beans are the primary raw material for chocolate production. Cocoa beans are the seeds of the fruits of the cocoa tree. In the Philippines, the manual method of splitting and bean removal from pods is widely used in small-scale farms. And the existence of mechanical cacao pod splitting machines were not available in small or even in some bigger farms. Thus, this study aimed to develop a cacao pod crushing machine to mechanize these processes and improve the cacao production in the country. The machine was composed of a hopper and a sieve that separates the beans from the pods. The machine's performance was evaluated using analysis of variance and t-test. The results showed significant differences in beans separation with 34% output capacity difference using mechanical compared to the manual method. Furthermore, the results showed that the crushing machine has a sieving efficiency of not lesser than 70%.