Design and Development of an Integrated Solar and Biomass Energy System for Cashew Nut Processing
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Date
2010
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MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
Cashew industries in India employ various unit operations for cashew nut processing. Wide disparities were observed in these industries with respect to energy consumption for different unit operations employed there upon.
The elucidation of small-scale cashew nut processing industry in Konkan region of Maharashtra indicated that 75% industries had percent plant capacity utilization less than 65%. This revealed scope for saving of energy to the tune of 26 per cent.
The energy estimation in unit operations of selected nine small scale cashew nut processing industries revealed three energy-intensive unit operations namely- drying of raw cashew nut seed, steaming of dried cashew nut seed and drying of cashew kernel.
The appropriate renewable energy technologies identified for reducing energy consumption in small scale cashew nut processing industries are-
1. Natural convection solar tunnel dryer for raw cashew nut seed drying.
2. Inverted natural down draft gasifier system for steam generation.
3. Forced convection solar cabinet dryer for cashew kernel drying.
Subsequently, these technologies were designed, developed, installed for 60 kg per batch capacity small-scale industries and evaluated for their techno-economic feasibility at the Department of Electrical and Other Energy Sources, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. B.S.Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli Dist. Ratnagiri-415712 (MS) India.
The no load testing and thermal profile inside the solar tunnel dryer indicated proper design of the dryer. The average drying rate of raw cashew nut seed inside solar tunnel dryer was found to be 2.63 g h-1100g-1 of bdm as compared to 1.31 g h-1100g-1of bdm in open sun drying. The economics of solar tunnel dryer indicated its feasibility, with a pay back period of 1.6 months for drying of raw cashew nut seeds.
The proximate and thermogravimetric analysis of cashew nut shell indicated its suitability as a feedstock for gasification. The average thermal efficiency of the inverted natural down draft gasifier was found 22.44% and revealed its suitability for steam generation, with a pay back period of 8.8 months over the existing method of steam generation.
The no load testing of forced convection solar cabinet dryer indicated proper design of the dryer. The average drying rate of cashew kernel inside forced convection solar cabinet dryer was found to be 1.0 and 1.05 g h-1100g-1 of bdm as compared to 0.45 and 0.51 g h-1100g-1 of bdm in open sun drying during winter and summer season, respectively. The economics of forced convection solar cabinet dryer indicated its feasibility, with a pay back period of 1 year and 10 months, for drying of cashew kernels.
The nutrient components and organoleptic evaluation of cashew kernels revealed the suitability of the forced convection solar cabinet dryer for drying of cashew kernels.
The integrated renewable energy systems so developed, which included natural convection solar tunnel dryer; inverted natural down draft gasifier and forced convection solar cabinet dryer; saved energy to the tune of 35.23% in cashew nut processing. Further, the integrated system adopted increased the capacity of cashew nut processing by 2.05 times as compared with the existing practiced system in the Konkan region.
Description
Design and Development of an Integrated Solar and Biomass Energy System for Cashew Nut Processing
Keywords
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Citation
Mohod and Jain, 2010