Elucidation of unit operations and energy consumption pattern in small scale cashew nut processing mills

Abstract

The different unit operations involved in small scale cashew nut processing mill in the context of Konkan region of Maharashtra, India (70°17′ to 74°31′E Longitude 15°37′ to 20°20′N Latitude) was elucidated by conducting the randomized sample survey of registered 122 small scale cashew processing mills in the region. The survey covered the unit operations performed, level and pattern of energy consumption and technologies in use for cashew nut processing. The energy consumption and production of mills was analyzed to compute the disparities in energy consumption to produce the same quantity of similar product in term of installed capacity (P), Production (Pr), percent production capacity utilization (PPCU), energy (En) and energy intensity (EI). The study revealed that, the small scale cashew nut mills in Konkan region of Maharashtra (India) widely followed steam roasting process due to better control over the process which retain the valuable CNSL in the shell as well as generate the huge quantity of shell for further utilization as a fuel. The average working days of the mills were about 227 days in the year depending on the rainy season and availability of raw cashew nut seeds. The average installed production capacity of the surveyed mills was about 9800 kg of raw cashew nut seeds per annum. The actual raw material processed by these mills was in the tune of 5833 kg per annum, which revealed the average percent plant capacity utilization of 55% only. The women workers were prominent in the small scale cashew nut processing mills. The regression analysis of relationship between energy and production revealed the best fit of the form of power law i.e. En = A · (Pr) B where “ A” is the constant and the coefficient “ B” is commonly known as the Energy Elasticity. It was observed that, the energy intensity in the cashew nut processing mills producing the similar product varied from 2.15 MJ/kg to 3.80 MJ/kg. The regression analysis of relationship between energy intensity and production revealed the best fit of the form of power law i.e. En = A · (Pr) − B . The negative exponent ‘ B’ shows a decline in the value of energy intensity with increase in production. It was observed that the frequency of the number of firms in each PPCU range is a bell-shaped curve, which clearly shows about 91 (75%) of the total samples were in PPCU range less than 65% with average energy intensity of 2.9 MJ/kg. This gives considerable scope for saving of energy with better utilization of installed production capacity in the tune of 25.84%.