A multi-station adaptive walnut shell pre-breaking system, including a feeding device and a shell pre-breaking device. The feeding device includes a feeding box, a single-helix twister and a double-helix twister are disposed in the feeding box, the single-helix twister and the double-helix twister rotate in opposite directions, and an adjustable spring partition is disposed below the single-helix twister and the double-helix twister; the shell pre-breaking device includes a shell pre-breaking box, a plurality of squeezing stations are provided in the shell pre-breaking box, each of the squeezing stations is provided with a shell pre-breaking assembly, the shell pre-breaking assembly includes a falling U-shaped plate and a squeezing U-shaped plate.

An intelligent separation device has gas explosion, stirring, drying and negative pressure adsorption devices. The gas explosion device receives conveyed peanut materials with red coats to be removed, and the materials are subjected to gas explosion, so that the peanut kernels and the peanut red coats are preliminarily separated. The stirring device shifts the preliminarily separated peanut kernels and peanut red coats into the drying device. The drying device compresses and heating external air, transfers heat through hot air, and heats and dries the preliminarily separated peanut kernels and peanut red coats, so that the peanut red coats and the peanut kernels are fully separated. The negative pressure adsorption device collects the fully separated peanut kernels and red coats with different densities and masses in a negative pressure adsorption mode.

Improved nut-cracking apparatus enables a user to set the gap and/or taper of opposing cracking plates in real time during machine operating to achieve superior, repeatable results cracking various nuts, including different varieties of pecan. To independently adjust both gap and taper, the lower portion of the rear cracking plate is hinged to adjust taper, and the hinged rear plate is further coupled to a slide plate, enabling the overall gap to be adjusted with a mechanism that causes the slide plate to move toward and away from the gap without changing the angle of the rear plate. The stroke of the reciprocating front plate may also be adjustable. The apparatus may further include visual indicators that convey the settings of the overall gap or gap taper so that multiple machines may be brought on line or adjusted without excessive trial and error.

Improved nut-cracking apparatus enables a user to set the gap and/or taper of opposing cracking plates in real time during machine operating to achieve superior, repeatable results cracking various nuts, including different varieties of pecan. To independently adjust both gap and taper, the lower portion of the rear cracking plate is hinged to adjust taper, and the hinged rear plate is further coupled to a slide plate, enabling the overall gap to be adjusted with a mechanism that causes the slide plate to move toward and away from the gap without changing the angle of the rear plate. The stroke of the reciprocating front plate may also be adjustable. The apparatus may further include visual indicators that convey the settings of the overall gap or gap taper so that multiple machines may be brought on line or adjusted without excessive trial and error.

Disclosed is a continuous feeding mechanism including a transfer mechanism, wherein the transfer mechanism includes a rotatable indent roller circumferentially provided with a plurality of blanking grooves; a post pin is arranged in each blanking groove; the post pin is connected with a spring; the spring is arranged towards the interior of the indent roller; and the post pin can move along the blanking grooves; a feeding box, wherein the bottom of the feeding box is hollow, and the bottom is arranged above the indent roller or the bottom is fixedly connected with the indent roller; the continuous feeding mechanism is arranged above one side of the transfer mechanism; and an electromagnetic heating mechanism which includes a supporting frame, wherein the transfer mechanism is arranged in the supporting frame, and an electromagnetic coil is circumferentially arranged outside the supporting frame.

The invention relates to a cracking-shelling mechanism for nuts with a hard or soft shell, with a plurality of first and second blocks the facing sides of which have a plurality of complementary first and second notches in a staggered arrangement, wherein each first notch is associated with at least a second notch and forms a cracking hole with each one, wherein the notches have first and second vertexes for each hole, forming a specific angle with respect to the longitudinal axis, and in the standby position of the first block, said first and second vertexes of each first notch are arranged so as to coincide with second and first vertexes, respectively, of a second notch.

The invention relates to a cracking-shelling mechanism for nuts with a hard or soft shell, with a plurality of first and second blocks the facing sides of which have a plurality of complementary first and second notches in a staggered arrangement, wherein each first notch is associated with at least a second notch and forms a cracking hole with each one, wherein the notches have first and second vertexes for each hole, forming a specific angle with respect to the longitudinal axis, and in the standby position of the first block, said first and second vertexes of each first notch are arranged so as to coincide with second and first vertexes, respectively, of a second notch.

The invention relates to a pecan nut kernel extraction method including the steps of sizing pecan nuts from which kernels are to be extracted to have a maximum diameter size variation of 8 mm; controlling the moisture content of the shells of the pecan nuts to within a shell moisture control range of 3% to 30%; heating the kernels to a temperature of between 20° C. and 100° C.; pre-cracking the shells; immersing the nuts in liquid nitrogen, or the like, for between 5 and 15 seconds; and cracking the shells within no more than 15 seconds from completing the cryogenic fluid immersion step to substantially separate the shells from the kernels. The method also includes performing the steps in the absence of a pre-cracking step or in the absence of the cryogenic fluid immersion step.

The invention relates to a pecan nut kernel extraction method including the steps of sizing pecan nuts from which kernels are to be extracted to have a maximum diameter size variation of 8 mm; controlling the moisture content of the shells of the pecan nuts to within a shell moisture control range of 3% to 30%; heating the kernels to a temperature of between 20° C. and 100° C.; pre-cracking the shells; immersing the nuts in liquid nitrogen, or the like, for between 5 and 15 seconds; and cracking the shells within no more than 15 seconds from completing the cryogenic fluid immersion step to substantially separate the shells from the kernels. The method also includes performing the steps in the absence of a pre-cracking step or in the absence of the cryogenic fluid immersion step.

The present invention provides compositions and methods related to aerogel materials, including polyimide-based aerogels. In particular, aerogel materials optimized to have certain physical and chemical properties such as flexural and compressive strength are provided. In some embodiments, the aerogel materials can be at least partially carbonized.