Performance Evaluation of Watermelon Juice Extracting Machine

Abstract

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a succulent, refreshing fruit that is enjoyed by many Malaysians. They are available all year-round in local markets, and come in both seeded and seedless varieties. The high-water content of watermelon makes it an excellent choice for quenching thirst and preventing dehydration. Collecting watermelon juice usually requires the use of a knife to cut the fruit and a blender to puree it. While this method is effective, it can be quite tedious and need many workers if large quantities of watermelon juice need to be collected. In order to cater this problem, Malaysia Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI) has developed a cost-effective watermelon juice extracting machine. The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of a watermelon juice extraction machine with different sizes of watermelon fruit. The performance evaluation indicators data such as percentage juice yield, extraction efficiency and extraction loss were collected. The results showed that this watermelon juice extraction machine has an average juice yield, extraction efficiency and extraction loss of 78.11%, 76.85% and 1.80% respectively with the capacity of 4.43 min ˉ¹. Therefore, this machine could be used to extract watermelon juice effectively and would help entrepreneur to save production cost and reduce workers. This watermelon juice extraction machine is easy to use, efficient and cost-effective which make it suitable for small-scale businesses. However, further studies need to be done in order to determine the optimum operating conditions for this machine.