Res. Agr. Eng., 2011, 57(2):72-77 | DOI: 10.17221/15/2010-RAE

Behaviour of different moisture contents of Jatropha curcas L. seeds under compression loading

A. Kabutey, D. Herák, A. Sedláček

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

A study was conducted to investigate the behaviour of different moisture contents of Jatropha curcas L. seeds under compression loading. To obtain jatropha seeds of different moisture contents ranging from 1% (w.b.) to 37% (w.b.), the seeds were soaked in water and kept in a refrigerator at 5°C for different number of days. Compression devices, namely ZDM 50-2313/56/18, pressing vessel with diameter of 76 mm and a pressing plunger of 90 mm height, were used. The amount of seeds in the pressing vessel was measured as 40 mm with compression force of 98,100 N. The results from the experiment showed that increasing the moisture content of the jatropha seeds influenced the force-deformation characteristic curve, deformation energy, maximum deformation and energy per unit volume. While moisture contents 1% (w.b.) and 10% (w.b.) displayed normal force-deformation characteristic, moisture contents 32% (w.b.) and 37% (w.b.) showed wave-effect characteristic. The R² coefficient of determination value of 0.87 obtained from the effect of moisture content on deformation energy and unit volume energy shows that jatropha seeds of moisture content 16% (w.b.) would require minimum energy but high efficiency during compression.

Keywords: jatropha seeds; moisture content; compressive force; deformation; wave-effect characteristic

Published: June 30, 2011  Show citation