Abstract
A continuous process power driven gari fryer was designed, fabricated and tested at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi. (FIIRO), Lagos, to fry large quantity of cassava mash using locally available materials. The fryer which consists of major two sections; one to gelatinize cassava mash while the drying of the mash take place in the other section. The essential components of the fryer include feeder, frying troughs, rotating paddle arrangement, central shaft, coupling, top cover, gas burners, discharge sprout, main frame, insulation wall, sprocket and internal combustion engine. In operation, the rotating paddles convey the cassava mash during the gelatinization and drying process from the feeding point to the discharge sprout to obtain finished gari product. At constant speed of 8 rpm, the result showed that the time of frying ranged between 14 minutes to 17 minutes with an output of 83.2 kg/hr while the percentage yield of gari obtained ranged from 52.8% - 74.7%. Thus it is established that the capacity of the fryer is 500 kg per day as against the manual method of frying where 5 kg of gari is obtained within 30 minutes (80 kg/day) for 8 hours frying operation in local cassava processing industry in Nigeria. Hence, this makes the fryer to be suitable for gari production for small to medium scale enterprise.