Pulses Processing : Performance Evaluation of Mini Dhal Mill For Pigeonpea Grains

Pigeon pea is mainly consumed as dhal because it takes less time to cook and has acceptable appearance, texture, palatability, digestibility, and overall nutritional quality. The recovery of dhal varies from 60% to 75%, depending upon the type of pulses and techniques adopted by the millers such as methods of pre-treatment and milling machinery used. Pulse mill (dhal mill) is an important machine for processing pulses like pea, gram, and lentil after they are harvested. Pulse mill dehusk and split grains and make them suitable for consumption. Semi automatic mini pulse mill is other type of pulse mill for dehusking and splitting pulses. There has always been a need for low-cost small-scale mill which could be owned and operated by less-skilled people in rural and semi-urban areas. Therefore, a concentric cylinder abrasive roller mill has been developed for dehusking and splitting of pulses; it has a constant clearance between outer and inner roller to give even abrasion. Considering these an attempt was made to describe the mill and its performance evaluation by systematic study of machine parameters, leading to increase the dhal recovery and reduce losses.