Technological upgradations in jaggery making plants

Abstract

Jaggery, an unrefined sweetener is prepared by continuous heating of fresh sugarcane juice in different types and capacities of old indigenous and modified plants. The old indigenous plants manufactured by the rural people without any technological advancements have very high fuel consumption (about 3 kg/kg to 4 kg/kg of jaggery produced) and low heat utilization efficiency (15% to 29%). Number of modifications have been suggested by the researchers for the optimization and improvement in the performance parameters of jaggery making processes and plants. The implementation of fins at the external bottom of pans, preheater and economiser in the chimney, efficiency booster in the furnace, freeze pre-concentration system, forced draft through the plant and controlled fuel feeding in the furnace are reported to improve the thermal efficiency in the range of 25% to 50% and reduce the bagasse consumption in the range of 1.75 kg/kg to 2.75 kg/kg of jaggery prepared. The recently published article adopting novel techniques of internal preheating of sugarcane juice in the gutter pan and automatic supply of bagasse in the furnace of a two pan jaggery making plant is claimed to improve the heat utilization efficiency up to 65% and reduce the fuel consumption up to 1.50 kg/kg of jaggery produced with an affordable investment. The present paper summarizes the various technological up-gradations adopted and tested by the researchers for the enhancement of various output parameters of jaggery making units.