Development of Pomegranate Seeds Extraction Machine

R.P. Saini1, S.K. Singal2, S.H. Upadhaya3 Vijay Saini4, Imtiyaz Ali5
1,2,4,5
Department of Hydro and Renewable Energy, IIT Roorkee
3
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, IIT Roorkee

Abstract

Pomegranate cultivation plays a crucial role to sustain the profitability and a remunerative source of income, which is
widely cultivated in rural areas of mid hills in the states of Himachal and Uttarakhand. At present, local people extract
seeds and peels from pomegranate using conventional method. It consists of cutting the fruits with knife into pieces
and then seeds are separated with a very crude and inefficient mechanism. The traditional method of extracting seeds
is very tedious and time consuming. Therefore, keeping this in view a novel efficient seeds extraction machine was
developed. The machine was design at small scale for processing the locally grown pomegranate fruits for seeds
extraction.

Under the present paper, details of the machine, experiments carried out to determine the performance of the
machine are presented. The performance was analyzed based on time taken for extraction of the seeds of different
sizes of pomegranate. It has been found that the performance of the developed machine was improved substantially
in comparison of traditional used mechanism. Further, it has also been found that the process causes minimal
damage and waste which will enhance the profit to the rural communities. which could provide new avenues of
livelihoods to the rural communities.

Keyword: Seed extraction, Crops, Farmers, Pomegranate, Rural communities

Introduction

Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is grown since ancient times in Iran and later shifted to northern part of India.
Wild Pomegranate is commonly found in parts of Sirmour, Shimla, Solan, Kullu, Chamba and Mandi districts [1]
The pomegranate crop (wild as well as cultivated) ripens in the month of September. Seeds from wild variety of
Pomegranate are used for making ‘Anardana’ which is used in culinary. There is ready market for ‘Anardana’,
which is a good source of income for local community. Also, dried peels are sold for making vegetable dyes. Fresh
pomegranate seeds can also be used for making vinegar. Wild variety is organic in nature and may be converted into
excellent quality of vinegar. In India pomegranate is extensively and commercially grown in Himachal Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh of different
varieties [2]. Pomegranate cultivation for processing various value-added products is quite popular in mid hills in the
state of Himachal and Uttarakhand [3]. Table 1 gives the Commercial pomegranate varieties grown in different
states of India.
Table. 1: Commercial pomegranate varieties grown in different states of India [2]
S. No. State Varieties
1 Andhra Pradesh Bhagwa, Ruby
2 Gujarat Dholka, Ganesh
 3 Himachal Pradesh
4 Jammu & Kashmir
5 Karnataka
6 Madhya Pradesh
7 Maharashtra
8 Rajasthan
9 Tamil Nadu
Bhagwa, Ganesh
Bhagwa, Ganesh, Kamdhari
Ruby, Bhagwa, Jyoti
Bhagwa, Ganesh
Bhagwa, Ganesh, Arakta, Mridula, G-137
Jalore Seedless, Jodhpur Red
Bhagwa, Ganesh

Problems related to conventional method of pomegranate seeds extraction

Presently, Local people collect fruits, extract seeds and dry seeds as well as peels in shade using conventional
method consists of cutting the fruit by knife into pieces and then separation of seeds by domestic motorized machine
at small scale or manually by tapping on it. A major problem in domestic machine is that some grains are trapped in
the machine and quality of extracted seeds is very poor. Moreover, the machine also took longer time to extract seed
and process of separation of arils is very tedious and time consuming. Hence efficiency of conventional machine is
very less. Conventional method of separating pomegranates seeds is shown in Figure 1.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 1: Conventional way of extraction of Pomegranate seeds (a) Manual (b) local machine
Development of Pomegranate seed extraction machine.

In order to improve local processing and to decrease the time of deseeding, a new technology was developed by
RuTAG, IIT Roorkee for pomegranate seed extraction process. This technology will enhance income for local rural
occupational groups (farmers, landless poor and traders) and for providing new avenues of livelihoods to the rural
communities. The development of machine was undertaken in two stages. Steps of modification in each stage is
shown in Figure 2. The schematic diagram of final design and developed pomegranate seeds extraction machine is
shown in Figure 3 and 4 respectively.
The basic process of extracting the seed begins by placing the pomegranate on round cutter which comprises of 4
blades. After that, lever is pulled due to which fruit is pressed against blades and divided into 4 pieces. The fruit
gently fall on rotating impeller at the bottom of the internal cylinder. As the impeller rotates, centrifugal force of
rotation pushes it towards the side walls of the cylindrical device and arils fall out for collection from secondary
cylinder container at the bottom. The specifications of the finally developed machine is listed in Table 2.

First stage Modification

Consist operating handle, two bowls for Hammer mechanism

Manual operated
placing poemgarate fruits for extraction of seeds

Second stage Modification

Power Centrifual force mechanism for consist of motor, impeller, cylinder

operated arils separiton shape for placing fruits
Fig. 2: Stages of modification Pomegranate seeds extraction machine

Fig 3: Schematic diagram of final design

Handle for pulling cutter

4 blades round cutter

Collection tray

Fig 4: Photograph of developed Pomegrante seeds extraction machine

Table 2: Technical Specifications of Pomegranate seeds Extraction machine
S. No. Accessories Dimension (mm)
1. Shape Cylinder-2 nos.
(Base frame & Inner cylinder for fruits placing)
2 Size 2 feet
3 Motor ½ HP AC

Performance testing.

In order to observe the performance of the machine, tests on the pomegranate seed extraction machine by the using
randomly selected pomegranate fruit were conducted. For this analysis, pomegranate fruits were picked up
randomly. These fruits are of different weight ranges and placed on cutter and hand lever is pulled to cut
pomegranate into 4 pieces which fall inside the cylinder at a time for extraction while operating at higher speed. The
machine was operated electrically for removing arils. The process was repeated taking different weight of fruit at a
time for deseeding. Diameter of fruits used in this experiment were measured using a Vernier calliper and the
average diameter of 62 samples calculated as 40 mm as shown in Table 3. Graph is plotted between range of fruit
size and number of fruits as shown in Fig. 5. Performance observation of the seed extraction machine are shown in
Table. 4. A graph have been plotted between weight of fruits and time take by machine for extraction of seeds as
shown in Fig. 6. Images of measurement of pomegranate fruits, general procedure of extraction of seeds and
extracted seed are shown in Fig. 7,8&9 respectively.
Table 3: Measuring Diameter of wild Pomegranate fruit
Sr. No. Range of fruit size Diameter (mm) No of Fruits
1 26-28 2
2 28-30 0
 3 30-32 5
4 32-34 7
5 34-36 6
6 36-38 10
7 38-40 9
8 40-42 9
9 42-44 5
10 44-46 9
11 46-48 4
12 48-50 0
13 52-54 3

No of fruits Vs. Diameter of fruits size (mm)

12
Diameter of fruit (mm)

10
8
6
4
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
No of Fruits

Fig. 5: Number of fruits versus range of fruits sizes taken for extraction
Table 4: Performance of Pomegranate seed extracting machine
Sr. Weight of Time taken by machine No of fruits Average size Weight of seeds Weight of Peels
No. fruits (gms) for extraction (Sec.) (Nos.) (mm) (gms) (gms)
1 250 10 4 485 130 115
2 500 24 9 490 270 225
3 700 24 12 500 380 310
4 1000 25 15 500 530 450
5 2000 25 22 525 1060 910
 GRAPH: WEIGHT OF FRUITS (GMS) TAKEN
VS TIME TAKEN BY MACHINE IN
Time taken in extraction seeds (Sec.) EXTRACTION ARILS (SEC.)
30

20

10

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Weight of Fruits in (grams)

Fig. 6: Weight of fruits v/s time taken in extraction of seeds

Fig. 7: Measurement of Pomegranate fruit sizes.

Fig. 8: General procedure of extraction of Pomegranate seeds.

Fig. 9: Extracted seed through developed machine.

CONCLUSION

Under the present study, experiments and results on new design of processing seeds extraction machine were
analyzed. For assessing the performance of pomegrante seeds extraction machine, Pomegranate fruit of different
sizes were taken for deseeding. It has been found that this developed machine is capable of deseeding 2kg of
pomegranate fruits in 25 secs with minimal damage and wastage. Time taken by developed machine to extract seeds
is 4 times faster than conventional machine. This machine was design at small scale for processing the locally
grown pomegranate fruit for seeds extraction which could provide new avenues of livelihoods to the rural
communities.

References

[1] Bhatt. M.M. et.al, “Studies on the effect of drying methods and packaging on quality and shelf life of dried wild pomegranate
arils”, Asian J. Dairy & Food Res., 33 (1): 18 - 25, 2014
[2] Jyotsna Sharma et.al” Pomegranate: Cultivation, Marketing and Utilization”. Technical Bulletin No. NRCP/2014. ICAR-
National Research Centre on Pomegranate, 2014
[3] Dhinesh KV, Ramasamy D, “Pomegranate Processing and Value Addition: Review”, Journal of Food Processing & Technology
Vol-7. (2016),
Doi:10.4172/2157- 7110.1000565