Thermal performance and cost analysis of a traditional four-pan jaggery unit in northern India

Jaggery is a traditional, natural sweetener generally produced by boiling sugarcane juice in an open pan until it solidifies. This production process is typically carried out in conventional jaggery plants, which often suffer from a lack of technological advancements. The traditional methods used in jaggery production led to several drawbacks, particularly high bagasse consumption and poor thermal performance. The present study focuses on variations in thermal performance in winter and summer seasons based on experimental investigation. Thermal performance analysis is accomplished with the help of thermodynamic relations. In contrast, cost analysis has been performed based on fixed cost, running cost and maintenance cost for estimating the payback period. The present investigation demonstrates that the thermal performance during the summer season is enhanced compared to the winter season due to elevated ambient temperature, increased brix value, and reduced moisture content in bagasse. The thermal efficiency of the four-pan jaggery plant is 17.62% in the summer season and 25.72% in the winter. The fluctuation in brix values between winter and summer seasons is apparent in the experimental study, which impacts the duration required to complete a single batch of jaggery production. The chimney draft is more pronounced in the winter season compared to the summer season, resulting in changes in bagasse consumption and furnace temperature. Furthermore, the present analysis also includes the study of the density and velocity of flue gas emanating from the chimney. In addition, the cost analysis shows that the estimated payback period for the traditional four-pan jaggery plant is 1.5 years.