Documentation and analysis of avocado oil extraction technologies in Leguruki, Tanzania

A team of MIT students and researchers as well as a local team in Leguruki, Tanzania has been working on extracting oil from excess supplies of avocados since 2014 with the goal of adapting oil extraction methods to small-scale farmers. Through this process of extracting oil, the team has explored several iterations of avocado dryers, presses, and centrifuges. Analyzing this machinery has given a broader picture of the commonalities and requirements of the designs. A set of evaluation criteria can be extracted from this analysis. Having these guidelines in place for future designs for oil extraction will streamline and aid the process, facilitating the small-scale production of avocado oil, and eventually augmenting the incomes of small-scale farmers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Lesley

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Amy Smith.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105662

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/105662