The non-centrifugal sugar (NCS) industry is one of the oldest small-scale cottage industry in India, whose technological features are not changed for several decades due to which the production and consumption of NCS has reduced significantly. One way to attend this problem is to select the best and sustainable methods among the existing technologies at various stages in the production process. In the production of NCS, juice extraction is the primary and essential process. The present work gives an insight to a logical procedure for selecting a suitable and sustainable juice extraction method for improving the NCS production using multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) technique. The selection process is based on 11 evaluation criteria covering various sustainable factors viz. technological, economic and environmental factors. Fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) integrated with elimination et choix traduisant la realité method is the MCE technique considered for selecting the most appropriate crushing method among five alternatives. The results indicated that the power-operated single horizontal crusher is the most suitable and sustainable crushing method for improving the production rate of NCS. The same technique can be used for the other process unit of the NCS production to improve the productivity and sustainability of NCS.
The quality and shelf-life of NCS (non-centrifugal sugar) mainly depend on the moisture content present in it. NCS formed by the current practice of open sun drying contains moisture substantially greater than the acceptable level of 3%. This paper presents the work undertaken to design a tunnel dryer to achieve the required moisture content of granular NCS for various load conditions. An experimental investigation was conducted on a laboratory-scale dryer to achieve the required moisture content for various loads. This experimental data was compared with the output of two drying models and a validated one that could be used to design an industrial-scale dryer. For various load conditions on each tray and dryer exit temperature, nine different cases were determined. The number of trucks, drying time, and energy requirements were computed using the validated theoretical model. A tunnel dryer with a length, height and width of 18, 1.2 and 1 m respectively and 18 trucks with 24 trays on each truck is shown to be dry 1 tone of NCS based on the minimum energy requirement of 176.49 MJ, and a drying time of 68 min.
The quality and shelf-life of NCS (Non-centrifugal sugar) mainly depend on the moisture content present in it. NCS formed by the current practice of open sun drying contains moisture substantially greater than the acceptable level of 3%. This paper presents the work taken up to design a tunnel dryer to attain require moisture content in granular NCS for various load conditions. Initially, an experimental investigation had been carried out on a laboratory scale dryer to achieve required moisture content (< 3%) for various load conditions. This experimental data was used for validating two drying models and found that one of the models is best suitable for designing an industrial-scale dryer. For various load conditions on each tray and dryer exit temperature, nine different cases were arrived at. The number of trucks, trays, drying time and energy requirements were computed using the suitable theoretical model. Tunnel dryer with a length of 18 m, a height of 1.2 m, a width of 1 m, number of trucks of 18 and 24 number of trays on each truck was found to be the suitable dryer to dry 1 tone of NCS based on the minimum energy requirement of 176.49 MJ, and a minimum drying time of 68 minutes.
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