A highly efficient cassava mill

Now there’s a bigger and higher-capacity cassava mill – the ultimate answer to the needs of large-scale cassava processors. Requiring only one person to operate, the machine can mill one to two tons of cassava-dried chips per day.

Cassava flour or powder is a good substitute for wheat flour, which is imported in big volume into the Philippines. At least 20 percent of our wheat import can be substituted by cassava flour according to a study made in Leyte State University.

Dried cassava chips usually processed into various by-products such as cookies, paborita, cheese crackers, muffins, cakes, and other bakery products. It can also be used to make naturally fermented soy sauce. These and other novel foods from cassava flour are potential export products in the market.

With the help of cassava-milling machines, the booming of the cassava processing industry is at hand. Reports by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), indicate that the use of this machine is profitable. The machine was developed by engineer Alexis T. Belonio, Gerry L. Lete, Severo A. Sotocinal Jr., and Stephen C. Araña of the Central Philippines University (CPU), Jaro, Iloilo City.

Researchers said that cost and return analysis of using the cassava mill for both local and export production showed a total operating cost of P30,763 per year and a total investment cost of P43,000. Under local production, the net income is P85,000 per year. Investment can be recovered in just 183 days. Likewise, cost and return analysis for export production showed high net income per year of P385,800.

The investment can be recovered in just 41 days. These benefits can be gained when cassava are bought dried in chipped form and sold in the market in powdered form. Costs are based on 2002 prices and dollar exchange rates and assuming that operating period per year is 20 days per month for three months, cost of cassava chips is P7.80 per kilogram, and cost of powdered cassava is P10 per kilogram for the local market and P15 per kilogram for export.

The cassava mill operates just like a hammer mill, wherein size of the materials is reduced by impact. When cassava chips from the feeding hopper pass through the milling cylinder, a fast rotating hammer will hit the chips at a very high speed of about 31 meters per second, breaking the chips into several pieces until its size is sufficient enough to pass through the screen. Powdered chips pass through the screen and is discharged into a hopper bottom and conveyed to the cyclone separator for bagging. The blower creates the suction to move the powder from the hopper bottom to the cyclone separator.

Belonio added that the machine was developed in cooperation with Dennis Welding Shop, SUNLIT International, Inc. in Jaro, Iloilo City. It was fabricated using locally available materials and basic tools and equipment. A 7.5 horsepower gasoline engine drives the machine. This engine consumes 1.6 to 1.9 liters of gasoline per hour.

The machine will benefit individual farmers, farmer-cooperatives, and food or feed processing plants. It is applicable only for milling dried cassava chips and even cassava peels for feed purposes. It can also be used for milling other chipped root crops such as sweet potato, and "ubi." For more details, contact Engr. Belonio in CPU with telephone numbers, (033) 329-1971 to 1979 local 142. – Ofelia F. Domingo, S&T Media Service