Author(s) :

S. K. Shittu, B. Ibrahim, D. D. Nalado, I. Lawan, A. N. Jibril.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

In Nigeria, fish smoking and drying are among the traditional methods of processing and preserving fish for human consumption. Traditional smoking and drying methods available are not efficient. One of the remarkable efforts to solve the aforementioned problems is the fish smoking kiln developed by the Nigerian Stored Product Research Institute (NSPRI), Kano. The present study is aimed at modification of the NSPRI smoking kiln for better performance. The modified smoking kiln consists of four major units. These include fish smoking chamber, heat chamber, oil collection and heat circulation units. Performance evaluation of the modified smoking kiln was carried out using a completely randomized design (CRD) in a 3×3×3 factorial experiment. The smoking kiln was evaluated using output capacity, smoking rate, moisture removing percentage and fuel consumption rate as performance indicators and tray position, fuel source, and fan speed as independent variables. The results of the study revealed that independent variables and their interactions have a significant influence on the performance indicators. The best results combination of moisture removing percentage, smoking rate and output capacity of 64.06 %, 58.59 kg/h and 93.94 kg/h respectively were obtained at a fan speed of 800 rpm using charcoal as the heat source. The modified smoking kiln was found to have 159 % and 35 % increase in output capacity and moisture removing percentage respectively when compared with the existing smoking kiln.

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