Universal Journal of Applied Science 2(7): 233-236, 2014 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujas.2014.020703 The Performance of a Jatropha Fruit Shelling Machine and the Future Improvement Bo Yuan Lim 1 , Rosnah Shamsudin 1,* , B.T. Hang Tuah Baharudin 2 , Robiah Yunus 3 1 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia 2 Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia 3 Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Copyright © 2014 Horizon Research Publishing All rights reserved. Abstract The Jatropha fruit shelling machine has been used to remove shells from fruits for the production of Jatropha seeds in biodiesel industry. It is commonly practised since the removal of shells can ensure higher crude oil yield during oil extraction process in biodiesel production. In the study, the performance of a Jatropha fruit shelling machine was evaluated. The machine basically consists of a cracking unit with compression rollers and a vibratory sifter used as the separation unit. The study revealed that the vibratory sifter has failed to completely separate the shells from seeds. Meanwhile, the separation efficiency of the machine was found to be 91.25 %. In fact, the cracking unit of the machine tended to produce shells and seeds in broken form. All the Jatropha fruits’ particles produced have irregular size and shape, causing the separation through vibratory sifter to be difficult. Therefore, the study has suggested adding a blower to further improve the separation system in the future. Keywords Jatropha, Shelling Machine, Seed Production 1. Introduction Jatropha fruits contain oil-rich seeds which can be used as the feedstock for biodiesel production [1]. Further, Jatropha is non-edible and has been brought to public’s attention due to its lower tendency to contribute to the reduction of food production, as compared to edible biodiesel feedstocks [1-4]. Basically, each Jatropha fruit consists of 60-65% of seed and 35-40% of shell by mass while each seed consists of 40-42% of husk (coating) and 58-60% of kernel (nucleus) by mass [5]. Moreover, the plant cultivation stage was reported could produce 4 tonnes of seeds per hectare annually while the crude oil yield could be 1590 kg per hectare [6,7]. Figure 1. The Composition of Jatropha Fruit