ENERGY ANALYSIS OF CASHEW NUT PROCESSING AGRO INDUSTRIES: A CASE STUDY

K. Sudhakar, S. Dhanushkodi, V. H. Wilson

Abstract: The study was conducted to investigate the energy consumption pattern in small scale cashew nut processing industries located in Panruti taluk, Cuddalore district, Tamilnadu, India (Latitude 15º 11′ and 12º 35′; Longitude 78º 38′ and 80º 0′). Three different small cashew processing industries based on the fuel used for drying of cashew kernel are considered for this study. The study compares the energy utilization, specific energy consumption and energy intensity of processing raw cashew nut. The energy input for drying of raw cashewnut, steaming, cooling and tempering, cutting and separation, drying of cashew kernel, kernel cooling, peeling of kernel and grading and packing were quantified using standard equation available in the literature. The total energy consumption for processing 1000 kg of raw cashew nuts were 5866.2 MJ, 5911.69 MJ, 6897.36 MJ for electrical drying, steam drying and biomass drying industries respectively. It was observed that 95% of energy is used for cashew kernel drying, raw cashew nut drying and steaming of raw nut. Energy intensity of cashew processing varied from 1.5 MJ/kg to 3 MJ/kg.

Keywords: cashew processing unit; energy cost; energy intensity; hybrid drying; specific energy consumption

Date published: 2017-09-01