Assessment of local technology for gari roasting

Abstract

Many attempts have been made to solve the problems associated with Gari Production, with some results being achieved. Despite these, roasting remains one operation which needs to be critically researched into. In this report the problems associated with the different unit operations have been briefly outlined. The report then goes on to discuss the traditional method of roasting gari and the various attempts made at mechanizing the roasting technology with an objective to determine how best to improve the technology in order to enhance efficiency. One such attempt is the construction of Improved Stoves at the Cassava Processing Demonstration Unit, PoKuase under the A£rican Regional Centre for Technology/Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (ARCT/CSIR) project. One of the achievements of the improved stove is that it takes the smoke away and as such eliminates inhaling of the smoke by the women. Due to the superiority in the design of the improved stoves over the traditional three leg mud stove, less fuelwood is used and hence energy is conserved. The report also looks at an electrically operated mechanical roaster, which consists of a U-shaped stainless steel roasting pan and a horizontal driving shaft with four (4) pairs of arms welded to it. Assessment of this roaster indicates among other things that:-(i)the problem of having to sit beside the fire continuously and stir the gari is eliminated. ii.) because the stirring rate was high the number of stirrers on the horizontal shaft was reduced from four (4) to three (3). This did not yield any better results when the roaster was tested again. iii.) the samples of roasted gari came out dry, but not cooked. Another attempt looked at, was the adaptation of a FATECO planetary roaster for roasting gari. Results from the adaptation test showed that, the gari obtained was fully gelatinized and the roaster had an average roasting capacity of 35kg/hr. Assessment of the 9ari roasting technology showed that the mechanical roaster could be modified to successfully roast gari. It was also possible to design an efficient gari roaster based on the design of the planetary roaster