LAUSR

Abstract Jaggery is manufactured from sugarcane juice by its continuous heating in traditional plants. These plants are fabricated by local artisans without any design considerations that causes high bagasse consumption and low thermal efficiency. In present research work, a modified two pan jaggery manufacturing plant is fabricated to overcome these drawbacks. The improved plant has a modified gutter pan with internal fitting of copper tubes to enhance the rate of heat supply from hot flue gasses to the bulk sugarcane juice during its preheating. A traditional plant has also been fabricated and tested for comparison purpose. The performances of these plants have been compared on the basis of various performance parameters. The rates of heat utilization, water evaporation, jaggery production, and thermal efficiency of modified plant are found higher, while the rates of bagasse consumption, heat generation, heat loss, temperature of exhaust gasses, and draft generated are observed lower than that of traditional plant. In modified plant, high thermal efficiency (65.52%) and low bagasse consumption (1.50 kg/kg of jaggery manufactured) makes it a self-fuel-sustainable unit. The actual results obtained for plants have also been compared with theoretical values which are in well agreement. The experimental errors have also been evaluated.