QUANTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF IRON FILLING FROM GRINDED FOOD ITEMS
BY:
ENGR SALAWU SOLIU GANIYAT
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC OFFA, NIGERIA
NOVEMBER, 2018
A TETFUND SPONSORED RESEARCH
ABSTRACT
Most of the food items grinded using locally fabricated grinding machine with cast grinding disc introduces iron fillings into it. When this iron fillings in the food is ingested, it cannot be digested, hence, it get stored and accumulates into human organs. This causes adverse health effects and disrupts the functioning of vital organs and
glands such as the heart, brain, liver and even the kidney. Thus, is study aims at quantification and characterization of iron fillings that were extracted from grinded food item. Three food item used for the research include: Millet, Beans and corn. The food items were grinded in three different forms; wet, paste and dry form for up to three minutes using locally fabricated grinding machine with cast grinding discs. Separate grinding discs were used for grinding the food item in the different forms, while the same quatity of food item, 5kg, was used during grinding in each form. The grinding contact was also maintained during the grinding process, while the grinding time was varied. The millet was soaked for 24 hrs before grinding in order to obtain wet form. Also beans were peeled and soaked before grinding to obtain the paste form while the corn was grinded dry. Iron fillings were carefully extracted from the grinded food item using magnetic bed along with sedimentation and decantation. The extracted materials were then quantified to ascertain the food form that produces the highest amount of iron fillings. The extracted samples were characterized using optical emission spectrometer (OES) to determine the chemical compositions of the samples, while X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used for elemental composition/ phase identification and grain size of the iron fillings. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was also used to observe the morphology of the extracted iron fillings and determine their elemental compositions, respectively. The results show that the wet form has the highest amount of iron fillings of about 1.397g followed by the paste form with 1.075g. The dry form has the least value corresponding to 0.945g. The chemical composition of the grinding disc showed that it was made from cast iron with presence of C and Si as the main alloying element of Fe. This observation was confirmed by the XRD and EDS results which revealed the presence of large amount of Iron (Fe) and little amount of Carbon (C) and Silicon (Si) as represented by the elemental peaks of the samples. SEM showed that the grains of iron fillings in the wet form were loosely packed followed by those from paste form, while the dry for has a closely packed grain structure. The grain sizes of the iron fillings in all the form were calculated using data from the XRD standard file. The average values obtained for the wet form is 12.095 nm, paste form 8.056 nm and dry form 3.124nm. These results revealed the presence of elemental iron (Fe) in grinded millet, with varying grain sizes. This metallic iron are not suitable for consumption and when ingested cannot be digested. Thus, the iron fillings from the grinded food will accumulate and cause adverse health effects.
