DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVED MINI RICE PADDY PARBOILER

Abstract

A 5kg per batch capacity mini rice paddy parboiler was developed to improve the efficiency of the parboiling operation and also to increase both the milling quality and yield of parboiled paddy. The parboiler consists of the soaking/steaming chamber, steam generation chamber and the furnace. The performance of the parboiler was evaluated using 3 rice varieties (FARO 44, FARO 52 and FARO 60). Assessment of efficiency of the equipment was based on Steaming Time (ST), Head Rice Yield (HRY) and percentage Broken Rice (BR). The results obtained were compared to those obtained using the traditional parboiling pots. The developed improved parboiler produced HRY of 73.7%, 71.9% and 73.1% HRY at 35 minutes steaming time for FARO 44, FARO 52 and FARO 60 rice varieties respectively. HRY produced with the conventional method were 62.3%, 67.1% and 65.8% for FARO 44, FARO 52, and FARO 60 respectively at 35minutes steaming time. Percentage broken grains was observed to be between 0.3% and 2.1% for the developed parboiler while it was over 10% with the traditional method. The equipment produced good quality rice at steaming time between 30 and 35 minutes. Paddy soaking and steaming were efficiently done in the same chamber, thus removing variation in the batch quality of the product. It can be concluded that the developed parboiling equipment is more efficient for small scale paddy parboiling at the rural level in Nigeria.