What is the mechanical press method of shea butter extraction?
The mechanical press method of shea butter extraction has been reported by FAO and CFC (2002) but one of the earliest researches works on the use of the mechanical press was Marchand (1988). His research revealed that equipped with a jack that exerts 30 tonnes of force, a shea butter press could crush more than 3 kg of shea kernels within 20 min.
How to optimise shea butter production by mechanical extraction?
Shea butter (SB) production by mechanical extraction (ME) was optimised by box-behnken (BB) experimental design of response surface methodology (RSM). The process parameters studied (with their ranges) were sample weight (100 ¨C 200 g), temperature (60 ¨C 120C) and duration of applied pressure (10 ¨C 30 min) to optimise the yield of SB.
How many shea nut trees are there in Ghana?
In Ghana, there are estimated 94 million shea nut trees which were projected to produce at least 60,000 metric tonnes of shea nuts per annum for the production of all shea butter processed locally (Ofosu, 2009). This yields about 150 tonnes of shea butter, 60% of which is used locally with 25% exported.
Is jatropha oil a biofuel for shea butter processing machine?
Mensah MR (2010). Jatropha oil production as biofuel for shea butter processing machine in Ghana: Quality, Characteristics and storability of derived shea butter. Journal of Sciences 2 (1): 45-54. Mohammed S, Heijndermans E, Butter S, Group P (2013). Behind the Butter : An energy analysis of shea butter processing.