Effective energy management in a commercial multi-product dairy plant through a graphical user interface
Author(s):
Nitin Kumar, Pramod K Prabhakar, GS Meena, Anand Kishore and Kumaresh Halder
Abstract:
Energy management has become a vital activity in large capacity multi product dairy plants in India where a substantial amount of energy is used daily for processing of milk and milk products. Therefore, a need was felt to develop an energy management software (EMS) using Graphical User Interface (GUI) for energy saving. A multi product co-operative dairy plant was selected for this problem. During preliminary observations it was found that the average handling capacity of the plant was 1,50,000 liters per day and it produced several products like table butter, peda, paneer, dahi, ice-cream, lassi and mattha along with fluid milk. The per day consumption of water, steam, refrigeration and electricity in the plant were measured per 100 litres of milk. The water to milk ratio in the plant was more than the standard amount (1.5-2.5 L) hence, action should be taken to minimize the water consumption, which could also reduce the electricity bill. The monitoring and control of each and every activity on everyday basis makes the system complex, which requires huge effort and expenditure. Therefore, high energy consuming activities were termed as “Critical control pointsâ€. Using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, GUI an “Energy Management Softwareâ€, was developed to create an ‘energy consumption data base’ for each process or equipment for record keeping and their analysis. The developed GUI served the purpose of periodic monitoring of energy consumed in the plant and categorized each equipment and processes into different classes as per ABC analysis. This analysis enables the plant personnel of the concerned dairy plant to take appropriate actions for effective energy management. After implementing the GUI, per day consumption of water, steam, refrigeration and electricity in the plant were found to be 238.2 liters, 12.95 kg, 11.94 kJ and 5.98 kWh respectively per 100 L of milk.
How to cite this article:
Nitin Kumar, Pramod K Prabhakar, GS Meena, Anand Kishore, Kumaresh Halder. Effective energy management in a commercial multi-product dairy plant through a graphical user interface. Pharma Innovation 2017;6(11):193-198.