Pengaruh Kadar Air (Moisture) di Nut terhadap Efisiensi Pemecahan Nut (Studi Kasus di PT XYZ)

Abstract

The palm kernel is obtained from the nut processing at the nut & kernel recovery station by cracking the nut into the ripple mill. The nut cracking efficiency should be high to get good process quality. The purpose of this research is to know: 1) the level of decrease of moisture content through the process in sterilizer, digester & presser and nut silo; dan 2) the correllation between moisture content and nut cracking efficiency. This research is done by analyzing the moisture content through heating system by using microwave oven, that is by arranging the time and level of heating used. The result showed that the high moisture content of nut can cause the nut is elastic so the nut cracking becomes less perfect. The average of nut cracking efficiency was 95.368%. This means that efficiency is below the standard set by the company. Moisture content in nut has a significant relationship to the nut cracking efficiency, ie – 0,936. This means that if the moisture content in the nut is lower then the nut cracking efficiency will be higher.